Top 13 Scariest Haunted House Movies of All Time

 top 13 haunted house movies

The Scariest horror movies of all time ranked by Hauntworld.com.  We know horror and we know what makes people SCREAM and this is our list of the scariest, most frightening movies of all time!  Prepare yourself for real fear as we rank the top 13 haunted house movies of all time. Hauntworld.com will release a new list for October 2014 which features new movies since this list was published.

Are you ready to be scared? Do you want to SCREAM?  Do you like horror movies that make you never wish to ever again enter an old house, farm house, a haunted hotel, or be left in some abandoned old town?  There are many scary horror movies or slasher movies that have made people squirm and left many with utter nightmares for weeks. However, if we weed those out, and simply focus on movies featured in some old haunted house or real haunted house we come up with the Hauntworld.comlist of the best and scariest haunted house movies of ALL TIME! 

Here at Hauntworld.com, the WORLD’S biggest website to find all things haunted and haunted houses, we offer you a list of movies that will make you SCREAM.  Sure, we could feature all the same old movies like Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc.  However, those movies are not really centered around a single haunted house.  Rather, they’re about a freak monster that simply won’t die.  The thing that makes a good haunted house movie stick is the fact that people might actually believe these things could REALLY happen to them.  I doubt people believe that Freddy is coming for you in your dreams, but many people do believe that they can be possessed by the devil or that ghosts really exist and could prey and haunt them or their home.
 
When we are talking about the scariest haunted house movies of all time, we’re talking about movies where some supernatural force has taken over or dwells between the walls or inside an old building or where demented people torture, kill and dismember their victims piece by piece.  When people think of REAL haunted houses, they think of old prisons, hotels, mansions, closed down asylums or even just an old house on an abandoned old farm, etc.  While we at HAUNTWORLD truly believe visiting one of America's best haunted house attractions will make you scream more than any movie could (due to their live interactive nature), haunted house attractions are typically only open in September and October.  So how do you cure that haunted house fix year round?  We'll solve that problem as you sit back and review the Hauntworld.com top 13 best and scariest haunted house movies of all time!
 

PREPARE TO SCREAM!
 

To find America's Best Haunted Houses CLICK HERE



The Exorcist1)  The Exorcist

Yes, we know…This movie has topped nearly every best horror list ever created.  You might be asking yourself if this movie is really based inside a real haunted house.  Almost the entire movie is based inside a house.  It’sbased on a true story about a St. Louis, Missouri boy who became possessed by the Devil and was later exorcised.  They claim the building where the exorcism took place was cold and frightening for years after, and later that section of the hospital was torn down.  The reality is no movie has ever scared people back to Church like The Exorcist.  The Exorcist has the most profound effect on people than any other horror movie we know of.  From making people believe in the Devil to wondering if they are next, The Exorcist was one of the only horror movies EVER to be nominated for best picture among many other awards for acting, direction and more. In our opinion, the Exorcist is still the all time scariest horror movie ever made because after you watch it alone in the dark, you worry about the devil knocking on YOUR door!

 

 




Insidious2)  Insidious

A more recent haunted house based film finds a family looking for answers why their son will never wake from a deep sleep and what they ultimately discover is a supernatural haunted story like no other.  This low budget horror movie was just what the doctor ordered, relying on film making rather than high budget special effects.  This is why Insidious movie is so different than all the more recent fair. Insidious is a throw back to 1970's film making where you have to create the scare with the story, actors, and camera movement rather than special effects.  Insidious makes you believe in the boogeyman and the supernatural.  More than anything, Insidious is inspired by Poltergeist, but with more modern flair it comes in just slightly more scary.

 

 

 

 




Trick R Treat3)  Trick R Treat

We will NEVER understand WHY Warner Brothers never released this movie theatrically.  Trick R Treat has to be the best and scariest haunted house movie that was never released for a wide theatrical run at your local movie theater.  Trick R Treat takes you through a series of stories that are all in one way or another woven together for one big scary ending.  After you watch Trick R Treat, you may NEVER take your kids trick or treating again!  The visuals of this movie are pure Halloween in every sense of the word, with just enough gore, blood and killers to send you home to hide under the sheets.

 

 

 

 



Poltergeist4)  Poltergeist

Poltergeist is a film in some ways inspired by The Exorcist, but rather than being haunted by the Devil himself,this house is haunted by restless spirits.  Even if Poltergiest doesn't stand up today as much as Exorcists in the scare category, we must remember that Poltergeist has been the inspiratation for countless other successful movies such as Insidious, Paranormal Activity and many more.  I remember being a kid and afraid to look under the bed or go into the closet and afriad of the static on a TV set.  Poltergeist was and is still to this day one of the best haunted house movies ever made.  However, this is one movie that could use a re-make, a facelift giving it more of a Paranomal Activity style take while incorporating into it all themodern day special FX.

 

 

 

 



14085)  1408

Who wants to check into a haunted hotel after seeing this movie?  What I love about this movie is that it just starts then never stops...This movie is relentless.  If you never believed in the supernatural, this movie makes you a believer.  There is no doubt this film has you on the edge of your seat from the minute the movie starts until the credits are over.  If you want to see the scariest movie of all time based in a haunted hotel, this is it no doubt THE ONE TO SEE.

 

 

 

 

 



The Shinning6)  The Shinning

Staying with the entire haunted hotel theme, The Shinning might actually be the scariest and best haunted house movie of all time.  I think the movie was never intended to be an all out horror movie, rather than a great movie like the Exorcists.  When movies leave viewers for years later repeating lines like 'HERE'S JOHNNY' and thinking about The Shinning not the show, you know the movie had an impact.  The Shinning is a mixture of supernatural and outright horror!  This movie should have never been re-made, re-created, turned into a TV miniseries and for those reasons right there it drops in my ranking.  This movie should have stood alone just like the Exorcist.

 

 

 

 



House on Haunted Hill7)  House on Haunted Hill

No, NOT the original Vincent Price version, but the re-make horror movie…That was really the inspiration for all the other remakes of old classic horror movies like Thirteen Ghosts, and other movies that would follow like The Grudge, Ring, and many others copying and mimicking ways ghosts and ghouls would make you scream. House on Haunted Hill is the ultimate haunted house movie based in an old asylum with a very haunted past.  House on Haunted Hill issuper scary. However, the ghosts, ghouls and monsters are very creative, and they’ll give you nightmares for sure!  The fact that the whole premise is to spend the night in a haunted house and if you survive you win a million dollars is enough right there to make our list.

 

 

 

 



Hostel8)  Hostel

This film is based in an old warehouse where people pay a fee for the rights to torture and kill real people.  This film was inspired by a story that broke about people paying a fee to shoot a real person at a price.  The movie is just flat out gross, over the top, and above all else SCARY.  I think people come away from this movie thinking to themselves, this could really happen or maybe has happened or worse, still happens.  Hostel is the ultimate haunted house movie with torture chambers, all sorts of devices people can use to make you scream.  If you do not have the stomach for a movie like this one, do not watch, because your stomach WILL be twisted like a pretzel from start to finish.

 

 

 

 



The Strangers9)  The Strangers

After I saw The Strangers movie, I thought about an old classic, The Night That Dreaded Sundown,because I think everyone can relate to someone just wanting to kill and torture people for no good reason other than for their own enjoyment.  The Strangers is jam packed with suspense and leaves you simply out of breath by the end.  Three strangers enter someone's home to kill them, but they play a demented game with them and make it an all night scream fest before the final deed is performed...Murder.

 

 

 

 

 


 

The Collector10)  The Collector

Not many people saw this film, as it was not a box office smash.  It was more of a cult classic made popular by DVD.  The Collector is flat out SCARY.  The Collector comes knocking on your door and his only agenda is to KILL YOU and afterwards get creative with your remains.  The Collector will torture you, and leave you begging for death.  This is another film where you sit at home in your house and someone turns your home into an utter nightmare.  Movies like this make you LOCK YOUR DOORS and run to the nearest gun store!

 

 

 

 

 



The Grudge11)  The Grudge

A house is haunted and these mean spirits follow you around from a hospital to basically any house you enter.  The movie was inspired by the success of The Ring. The style of these two films are very similar.  However, The Grudge is all about a haunted house.  The Grudge is a very scary movie about spirits who haunt a house and plan to kill anyone who even thinks about entering it.

 

 

 

 

 



Silent Hill12)  Silent Hill

This movie was based on the popular video game, but unlike other great horror based video games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill is about a town that becomes overrun with scary haunted creatures. Throughout the entire movie the stars of the film are inside one haunted house, warehouse, haunted church, haunted hotel, to every single thing between. The monsters, creatures, and nightmare figures are very realistic, scary and original.  There are enough screams in this film to last a lifetime.

 

 

 

 

 


Paranormal Activity13)  Paranormal Activity

This is another film inspired by Poltergeist but done in The Blair Witch Project fashion... ParanormalActivity takes people on a journey because they believe these things can really happen, which is why people gravitate towards them.  Personally, I think Paranormal Activity 2 was scarier than the original, but the original is what leads you to the sequels,so we'll stay with PA1.  Facts are facts, people are scared that their home or their soul might become haunted, which gives the perfect formula for both screams and box office success.

 

 

 



 

Well, there you have it, our list of the 13 best haunted house movies of all time.  Log onto our Facebook page and share YOUR list of the best and scariest haunted house films of all time.  Now, there are a few movies that we’d like to offer a nod to, but that didn’t make our list such as House of a 1000 Corpses, Black Christmas, The Others, The Haunting, and probably a few other horror movies based on haunted houses.

 

To find America's Best Haunted Houses CLICK HERE

 




 

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