The haunted house movie is an interesting subgenre of horror. Here, the house itself is a character, ready to spook the main characters at any given moment, but it usually happens in the middle of the night. No matter how many times the characters convince themselves that everything is going to be fine, it eventually becomes clear that a choice must be made, and if they don't leave, the house always wins.
Whether streaming horror movies on Netflix or renting something from iTunes, it's always a good idea to spend an evening with a good horror movie. But before picking out a haunted house movie, it's helpful to know which ones are worth some time and which ones fall flat.
BEST: Haunt (2019)
Katie Stevens, known for her role on popular TV drama The Bold Type, stars in Haunt, which features a Halloween-themed haunted house attraction that is literally evil.
Harper (Stevens) goes along with her pals when they want to goof off in the house but almost immediately, it becomes clear that they have made a grave error by even entering. Soon, Harper fights for her life and discovers an inner strength she didn't know that she had. Haunt is an nice modern and original take on the familiar haunted house formula, and every moment is horrifying.
WORST: House On Haunted Hill (1999)
The 90's was a great decade for horror movies, with many movies of varying quality being released in each year. In 1999, the remake of 1959's House On Haunted Hill came out but unlike other movies of its time, it didn't offer much of interest.
The remake stars Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher, and Ali Larter, but even though it's got an awesome cast, it doesn't really seem to go anywhere. Supposedly for an experiment, the main characters are promised $1 million if they can make it through the night in what used to be a mental hospital but is now a truly haunted hill. It's a cool premise but one that's not much fun to watch.
BEST: Poltergeist (1982)
The original Poltergeist is one of the best haunted house movies ever made, and it's truly a classic in both horror and cinema in general. Since this movie was made so many decades before others in the genre, it really paved the way for haunted house films to come. Poltergeist spawned sequels and a remake, but only the original stood the test of time.
Here, the Freeling family is just happily going about their lives when they learn that their daughter Carol Anne can somehow talk to spirits. Because their house was literally built on top of a cemetery, the ghosts Carol Anne met aren't thrilled about the intruders and they make their disdain dangerously clear.
WORST: Isabelle (2018)
Adam Brody, famous for playing Seth Cohen on The O.C., gave the horror genre a try with Isabelle. Brody and Amanda Crew star as a couple who lose their baby and move into a new house. Before too long, she starts seeing things and she's convinced that the house is haunted.
The movie has some creepy moments and some seriously weird neighbors, but it never really gets off the ground. At the end of the day, it's nothing that people haven't seen before.
BEST: Sinister (2012)
From the director of Doctor Strange comes Sinister, which is incredibly creepy in all the right ways. Ethan Hawke portrays the washed up true-crime writer Ellison Oswalt, who willingly moves his family into a haunted house because that's where his latest subject -- a string of strange brutal murders dating back to the '60s -- took place. Little does he know that he's about to get more than he bargained for.
Because Ellison is actively courting the evil residing in the house, Sinister's plot move forward quickly compared to other haunted house films. Sinister definitely stands out as no one is sure what's going to happen next. The only guarantee is that no one will want to move houses or make home movies after watching this film.
WORST: The Haunting In Connecticut (2009)
In The Haunting In Connecticut, a couple moves into a new house because they want a healing place for their son who has cancer, but they have no idea that it's actually haunted.
This isn't a very well-done or interesting movie, as there are so many films where a family moves into a new place that has supernatural happenings. That premise alone isn't bad, but The Haunting In Connecticut doesn't stand out from the pack because it barely does anything new with its second-hand bag of tricks. The only thing of note here is that the movie is supposedly based on true events.
BEST: The Paranormal Activity Franchise
Beginning in 2007, the Paranormal Activity franchise is incredibly popular and though it has tapered off in recent years, its impact can't be denied. Not only did it kick-start a trend of found footage films, but it also modernized the haunted house film in more ways than one.
Each films' basic premise is that a couple or family moves into a seemingly normal house, only to realize that something strange is going on. To get to the bottom of things, they start filming the house at night using security cameras. This is not only an interesting way to tell this kind of story, but the Paranormal Activity films doesn't give many of their characters happy endings either, which makes them even scarier.
WORST: The Amityville Horror (2005)
Sometimes, a remake of an older horror movie offers a cool, fresh take on the events. Case in point, John Carpenter's The Thing. But a lot of times, the original was stylish and terrifying, and there's no reason to try again. This is the case for The Amityville Horror, a remake of the 1979 movie of the same name and the nth Amityville movie.
Starring Melissa George and a pre-Deadpool Ryan Reynolds, this remake isn't anything to write home about. It could be considered one of the worst films Ryan Reynolds has been in as it's not very scary and can come off as boring and tedious to most.
BEST: Stir Of Echoes (1999)
The underrated Stir Of Echoes has much better characters than a lot of horror movies. Tom (Kevin Bacon) is a classic family man who wants to provide for his wife and child, but when he realizes that something supernatural is going on in his home, he becomes obsessed with solving the problem. He finds out the disturbing truth about a young girl who was killed in their house years ago, and his family's life changes.
By the end, audiences learn that Tom's son Jake (Zachary David Cope) can hear ghosts in any house that he's near. The story is unique and never feels flat, providing a new dramatic take on an otherwise tired supernatural plot.
WORST: The Open House (2018)
Unique among the entries here, the Netflix horror movie The Open House doesn't have a plot or a very compelling ending. Frankly, to call it a "movie" would be charitable.
Logan (Dylan Minnette) and his mom move into a house in the middle of nowhere after tragedy strikes their family, and it's clear that they're not alone. But they don't do much about it and seem to just drift around, oblivious to the haunting going on. The ending is bleak and dark as is normal for this kind of story, but it doesn't explain why someone or something was going after them in the first place. As a result, it makes everything that happened before feel pointless and useless.
