In celebration of our official Ghosts and Hauntings day, here’s a list of some of our essential movies in the genre:

The Amityville Horror (1979)

Based on a true story, which always sounds hokey, the Amityville House is actually still standing, and currently inhabited by a family that has no problems with its gory past. The movie follows a pair of newlyweds who unwittingly move into the Long Island home, oblivious to the house’s bloody history of murder. Strange events, including inverted crosses, house blessings gone bad, swarms of flies, devilish voices ensue. It’s not the best horror movie out there, but it certainly is an iconic film–and definitely worth watching.

Poltergeist

Stephen Spielberg strikes again! Poltergeist is a truly frightening film (hello, scene in the little boy’s room with the creepy clown!),

documenting the haunting of a suburban tract home, primarily through the fixation of poltergeist energy around the young, blonde daughter Carol Anne. Pure brilliance.

The Haunting (1963)

Don’t get this confused with the crapfest that was the 1990s remake. This is probably THE greatest haunted house movie ever made. Loosely based on Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hell House (the definitive haunted house novel), the movie follows four guests who spend the night in a New England mansion, hoping to disprove the rumors of hauntings. Eleanor, our protagonist, struggles as the movie progresses, losing her grip on sanity with each successive ghostly encounter. This is a psychological horror film and one that every fan should have in their personal libraries.

The Haunted: One Family’s Nightmare

A TV movie from 1991, this is one of Thea’s favorites for sentimental value. Based on a book by journalist Robert Curran documenting the true haunting of the Smurl family in their West Pittston, PA home, The Haunted manages to deliver a good amount of horrific scares, especially for a TV movie. It’s a scary, touching look at a family that cannot escape the ghosts that haunt them. If you can, try to get your hands on a copy (netflix or online ordering); I’ve seen it on cable once a couple of years back as well!

The Shining

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Though this film is markedly different than the novel (which everyone should read!), it is fantastic, and better for its deviations from the source material (really, the maze is far scarier than the topiaries–or hedge animals. Need we say more?!). A Kubrick classic, and Jack Nicholson delivers one of his most memorable performances–The Shining still terrifies, years after hitting theaters.(Ana says: the twins at the end of the corridor? *shudders* Scariest shit ever)

Burnt Offerings

A husband, wife and their young boy decide to rent out a summer house–only to find that the home is haunted. From a possessed swimming pool, the spirit of an old woman, and other ghostly events haunt the family. This is a wonderfully made, expertly shot film.

The Changeling

John Russell, a widower, moves into a large mansion, and soon realizes that he is not alone–the ghost is of a young boy, murdered in the early 1900s. John dedicates himself to solving the mystery. This is an intelligent, highly atmospheric movie, dedicated to slow creeping scares as opposed to jump-around-a-corner shocks. George C. Scott does a phenomenal job as John Russell–making this one of Thea’s all time favorite haunted house films.

The Entity

Another movie allegedly based on a true story – that of Carla Moran, a woman constantly tormented by an unseen entity that attacks her sexually. After being raped twice by the invisible being, Carla seeks the help of a psychiatrist thinking she is developing a mental illness; but after one of these assaults is witnessed by one of her friends, Carla seeks the help of a team of parapsychologists leading up to a showdown with the entity who becomes sort of corporeal – an event witnessed by her own psychiatrist. There is a book with the same title, by Frank DeFelitta which provides a more detailed account and it is highly disturbing. The movie states that Carla carried on suffering the attacks.

Lady in White

Lady in White is an 80s movies where a small boy , on Halloween night is locked at his school and ends up witnessing the ghostly replay of a young girl’s murder that took place 10 years before. The murderer has never been found and the ghost of the young girl, the Lady in White of the title, is still seeking for her daughter. The one scene where with the empty rocking chair and the Lady In White standing outside the window is possibly the reason why Ana will not sleep with the curtains open.

Lady in White is a great movie not only for its scare factor (High!) and atmosphere but also because it is highly emotional – who wouldn’t pity a mother desperate to find her daughter?

The Sixth Sense

The movie that established M. Night Shyamalan as the master of the Twist endings and bumped him into stardom. Bruce Willis plays the child psychologist who helps the frightened nine year old Cole to find a purpose for his gift of …talking to ghosts.

“I see dead People”

Who saw the twist coming on this one? (*Ana raises hand*: I did! I did!)

(Ana had to sleep with the lights on for 6 months after watching this movie. )
(Thea thought it was quite good too, but not nearly as scary as she would have liked *ninja*)

The Others

A psychological, atmospheric horror movie by Alejandro Amenábar, with Nicole Kidman playing widower Grace Stewart. She lives in a country estate along with her two children who suffer from photosensitivity. Little by little, odd events begin to occur and Grace starts to think that they are not alone – her daughter draws pictures of people that she sees around the house, a piano plays from inside a locked room when no one is there, doors open and close and they start to think that there are Others. But who are these Others?

Again, did anyone see the twist coming? (*Thea raises her hand*: I did! Blaaaaaah Nicole Kidman annoys me.)

So, these are some of our favorite (Hollywood made) ghost movies – what are yours?

Do you want to know why ghost stories, movies or books scare me and I avoid them as much as I can? Because to me, they are all within the realm of possibility, for I do believe ghosts are real.

Honestly.

And it’s not a belief that comes from an abstract thought – it is a belief that comes from nearly close encounters of the third kind. My best friend’s family…… see dead people.

Ever since I was little I would hear weird, out of this world tales from her– talking about people they saw, or heard, or even *gasps * talked to.

Want examples? These are real, firsthand scary stories she has told me:

One day, she was sleeping and she wakes up to a weird sound. Toc. Toc. Toc. It seemed like someone was knocking at the door. She opened her eyes and looked around the bedroom and she sees….an old lady. With a walking stick, crossing the bedroom very slowly…

toc.
toc.
Toc…

until she disappeared through the wall. And she just sat there watching. Because she is so used to it by now, she doesn’t even think much of it.

Apparently the first time her mother ever saw a ghost was on her honeymoon – her wedding night. She was asleep and she felt a presence in the room. She woke up and there it was: her dead grandmother staring at her and smiling. Like she was happy she got married. And then…puff. She disappeared.

Sometimes these encounters are more frightening, I think. This one day, my friend was in the bathroom and when she walks out of the shower, a woman, with her face all bloody and decayed runs to her screaming “heeeeeeeeeelp” and just walks THROUGH my friend. Her mother tells me that she has never seen or heard anything as scary as my friend’s screaming after that – they all slept in the same room that night and the next morning they had a Priest coming over to bless the house. Nothing like that ever happened again.

Now , you can say all of this was a product of their imagination or that they suffer from, oh, I don’t know, collective hysteria – all of that has crossed my mind. But how would you explain the most earth-shattering happening that I have heard of?

They were all asleep one night. Her mother in her bedroom at the end of the corridor, my friend in hers at the other end. Apparently her mother was asleep (again) and then she felt something was not right. She woke up and saw a man standing there and this was not the usual benign “presence” she is used to. His eyes were red, he was dressed all in black. She felt the need to run to my friend’s bedroom which she did. At that very same moment, my friend woke up and saw a man sitting next to her in her bed (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa) who fit the very.same.description of the man who had just visited her mother and who disappeared when the mother opened her door.

Believe it…..or not.

What about you? Do you know of any True Ghost stories? Care to share?

Title: House of Leaves

Author: Mark Danielewski

Genre: Horror

Stand alone or series: A stand alone…novel (it’s truly a “post-modern novel”).

Summary: (from amazon.com)
Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth — musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies — the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children.

Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story — of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.

Why did I read this book: I was intrigued by the blurb and the faux-reality Blair Witch sort of appeal to the opening pages. Then, when I heard from trusted sources that this was the scariest book they had ever read, I had to have it…

Review:

Ohmyfreakinggoodness. House of Leaves is probably one of the scariest, most jarring books I have ever read.

This is a surreal, post-modern novel. It is strange and powerful read that holds the reader hostage–literally–until that last page is turned. And, to be honest, even longer after that.

Johnny Truant is the narrator-compiler of this story, a messed up tattoo parlor employee, looking for a new apartment. Johnny’s buddy Lude tips him off that there’s a vacancy in his building, as an old, blind man named Zampanò in his building recently passed away. They check out Zampanò’s apartment, and discover a thick manuscript. Johnny decides to read it and discovers that it is a dissection of a strange documentary shot by award-winning photojournalist Will Navidson, called “The Navidson Record”. Truant, writing to readers, shifts his narrative to Zampanò’s manuscript, and we learn about Will Navidson and his strange, terrifying home. Interjecting the main body of the book, there are Zampanò’s notes, Truant’s footnotes (sometimes lengthy stories about his own life and the strange things that have been happening to him), and corrections/footnotes from Editors. Also, in one of the appendix exhibits to the book, there is a rather lengthy collection of letters from Johnny Truant’s mother from her stint in a mental institution, called The Whalestoe Letters.

The Navidson Record–where the true meat of the book lies–details the strange occurrences in the new Navidson family home in Virginia. One day after moving in, the family discovers that where a smooth wall used to be, there now is a door, leading to a small closet and exiting into their children’s room. Navidson, at a complete loss and with his photographer’s sharp eye decides to conduct measurements of the home–especially after his wife Karen puts up wall shelves bracketed tightly by both walls of the room, and the next day the shelf collapses as the walls seem to be further apart. Will soon discovers that his house’s interior measurements continue to grow, while the exterior measurements remain exactly the same. Finally, a door appears in the Navidson’s living room, extending into a long, dark hallway–which should reach out across the Navidson’s front lawn, but does not. The hallway grows, it curves and leads eventually to a long, spiralling staircase going down, down into the bowels of the house. Fascinated and terrified–but unable to pull away from this mystery–Will and his brother Tom decide to catalog, film and photograph an exploration the staircase, to see where exactly it goes, and what might lie at the bottom. Will hires professional excavators to make the trip with he and his brother. What they find, the excavation itself is the true Navidson record, interjected with Zampanò’s research and Truant’s parallel storyline, told in the footnotes.

The book is written in a completely unconventional style–in part satirizing acedemic literature with the extensive footnotes and lengthy appendices, and in other part a truly terrifying exploration of “ergodic fiction“. At one point, when Will and his brother are running through the labyrinthine dark corridors of the house and something is chasing them, the text is in staccato,

with

a

word

or two

per large, blank page. The result is terrifying–as they run from the monster, I found myself breathing quickly, frantically turning pages, “running” in my reading just as the characters were running. Or, for example, with the Whalestoe Letters–Johnny’s mother’s letters begin as sweet, apologetic, and heartfelt. But, with each letter, her tone grows increasingly paranoid and delusional–by the one of the last letters, she has informed Johnny that she will be writing in a code: take the first letter of each word to unearth the true message. Sitting at my desk, pen and scratch paper in hand, I gradually deciphered the mother’s coded message–and immediately ripped the scratch paper to shreds, lest someone find it and think I had some serious, serious problems. Then, there are the sections where text is crossed out, written backwards, footnotes seem to take over the entire page and formatting of the book–and as characters lose hope and their minds in the maze of the house, so too did I, reading the book. Just as the Navidson’s house is alive, House of Leaves is conscious and sprawling, worming its way into your brain.

Just as the text and content of the book is unconventional, the actual printface is a publisher’s nightmare. Every time the word “house” is written, it is in blue. Editor strikeout notes and minotaur are in red. The text crawls across the page, upside down, backwards, in limited spaces, shapes and in multiple fonts and typefaces. On certain pages, a small checkmark will appear in the corner. References and quotes are made in multiple languages. Mistakes are made (purposely) in spelling and grammar. While this can be confusing, it is undeniable effective and jarring. One is never allowed to firmly get their barrings in House of Leaves.

This is by no means an easy book to read, and many people might put it down in exhaustion or disgust. BUT, in my opinion, it is an infinitely rewarding tale of horror, in a creeping, seeping dread way. I recommend this book to everyone I know–literature snobs, Stephen King-a-holics, academics, pop fiction junkies…just make sure you know what you are getting into with House of Leaves. And keep a lighthearted book nearby.

Notable Quotes/Parts: The Whalestoe Letters, originally not included wth the book proper, have been added to the appendices of the recent editions (note: there are a bunch of editions out there, I recommend going with the full-color version and I believe this is what most booksellers carry). These letters, if I may be perfectly frank, scared the shit outta me. Deciphering that mother’s message letter by letter and then reading the resulting note was terrifying.

Additional Thoughts: The Navidson’s house is said to be inspired in part by haunted houses such as The Winchester Mystery House, in San Jose, CA. Sarah Wnchester felt that her house was haunted with the ghosts of people killed by her husband, William Art Winchester’s guns. Convinced by a medium who told her that there was a curse on her family (following the death of her husband and daughter), Sarah turned to building her house tirelelssly until her death. The house has 160 rooms and a number of eccentricities (stairways leading to ceilings, doors that open into walls, Sarah’s fascination with the number 13 and spiderweb designs).

I immediately think of (and highly recommend) The Haunting of Hell House and Stephen King’s Rose Red too, when pondering Danielewski’s House of Leaves.

Verdict: This is one creepy, disturbing novel, and I *highly* recommend it!

Rating: 9 Damn Near Perfection – really, it is perfect in its own, bizarre, disturbing way.