The 29 Best Haunted House Movies

Gothic manors, suburban split-levels and one very hungry country cottage: the ghosts here range from polite to furious, and the scares from slow-burn dread to cheap jolts.

1. 1
   The Shining

   Stanley Kubrick's 1980 Stephen King adaptation about a writer losing his mind in the snowbound Overlook Hotel.
   1000pts
2. 2
   The Haunting

   Robert Wise's 1963 adaptation of Shirley Jackson's novel, where Hill House terrifies through sound and suggestion.
   802pts
3. 3
   A Tale of Two Sisters

   Kim Jee-woon's 2003 Korean psychological ghost story about two sisters returning to their stepmother's rural home.
   592pts
4. 4
   The Innocents

   A 1961 British take on The Turn of the Screw, with Deborah Kerr as a governess who suspects the children are possessed.
   534pts
5. 5
   Insidious

   A 2010 James Wan chiller where moving house doesn't help, because it's the comatose son who is haunted.
   489pts
6. 6
   Beetlejuice

   Tim Burton's 1988 comedy flips the formula: the dead couple hire a bio-exorcist to scare off the living.
   489pts
7. 7
   The Night House

   Rebecca Hall plays a widow uncovering her husband's secrets in their lakeside home (2020).
   489pts
8. 8
   Paranormal Activity

   The 2007 micro-budget found-footage sensation recorded on a couple's bedroom camera.
   437pts
9. 9
   House on Haunted Hill

   William Castle's 1959 gimmick classic with Vincent Price offering guests cash to survive the night.
   437pts
10. 10
    Stir of Echoes

    Kevin Bacon starts seeing a murdered girl's ghost after a party hypnosis in this 1999 Chicago chiller.
    437pts
11. 11
    His House

    Remi Weekes' 2020 debut about South Sudanese refugees haunted in their English council house.
    437pts
12. 12
    Crimson Peak

    Guillermo del Toro's 2015 gothic romance set in a crumbling, blood-red English mansion.
    379pts
13. 13
    The Woman in Black

    Hammer's 2012 revival, with Daniel Radcliffe as a solicitor sent to the isolated Eel Marsh House.
    379pts
14. 14
    The Changeling

    George C. Scott plays a grieving composer who uncovers a murdered child's ghost in a Seattle mansion (1980).
    379pts
15. 15
    The Others

    Alejandro Amenábar's 2001 gothic thriller with Nicole Kidman guarding her light-sensitive children in a fogbound manor.
    379pts
16. 16
    The Amityville Horror

    The 1979 shocker based on the Lutz family's claims about their Long Island home.
    379pts
17. 17
    The Legend of Hell House

    Richard Matheson's 1973 story of investigators spending a week in the most haunted house in England.
    379pts
18. 18
    Sinister

    Ethan Hawke plays a true-crime writer who finds snuff reels in the attic of his new home (2012).
    379pts
19. 19
    The Uninvited

    A 1944 Paramount ghost story about siblings who buy a cliffside house on the Cornish coast.
    312pts
20. 20
    The Orphanage

    J. A. Bayona's 2007 Spanish film about a mother searching for her son in the former orphanage she grew up in.
    312pts
21. 21
    Burnt Offerings

    A 1976 chiller where a summer rental slowly feeds on the family staying in it.
    312pts
22. 22
    House (Hausu)

    Nobuhiko Obayashi's psychedelic 1977 Japanese cult film about schoolgirls devoured by an aunt's country home.
    312pts
23. 23
    The Conjuring 2

    The Warrens travel to London in 2016's sequel to investigate the Enfield poltergeist.
    312pts
24. 24
    Thir13en Ghosts

    A 2001 remake set in a glass house built as a machine to trap twelve vengeful spirits.
    312pts
25. 25
    The Conjuring

    James Wan's 2013 hit following Ed and Lorraine Warren into a Rhode Island farmhouse.
    235pts
26. 26
    Ju-On: The Grudge

    Takashi Shimizu's 2002 J-horror about a cursed Tokyo house that claims everyone who enters.
    235pts
27. 27
    The Devil's Backbone

    Guillermo del Toro's 2001 ghost story set in an orphanage during the Spanish Civil War.
    235pts
28. 28
    Poltergeist

    The 1982 Tobe Hooper and Steven Spielberg hit in which a suburban family's TV becomes a doorway for spirits.
    146pts
29. 29
    Hell House LLC

    A 2015 found-footage cult favourite about a haunted-attraction crew opening in a cursed hotel.
    146pts

Comments