A-Z of Horror: H is for Haunted Houses

A horror trope that refuses to die

I have been watching and reading horror for about 50 years now, and I have found that certain themes are cyclical. Vampires and zombies will be hot for a minute, only to be replaced by something else before coming into style again. One theme that does seem to remain consistent, though, is the haunted house. It is a trope that has been done to death, yet we are still all a little obsessed with the idea of haunted houses, but why is that?

What Is It About Haunted Houses That is so Frightening?

You home is your ultimate safe space, the place where you can go to relax and lock the rest of the world outside. When that safe haven is taken away by a malevolent spirt, the safety you seek is unwillingly ripped from you. When we think about monster movies, they are often creatures confined to an area that, such as the forest, that you can escape, but when those same things are in your house, here do you run to?

Another theme that is consistent in haunted houses is the past that refuses to stay buried, often because there is something that needs to be revealed. A common trope has spirits telling the current resident that they need help, which can cause the new homeowner to face their own troubled past. It goes from jump scares to psychological trauma, which is arguably more horrific that some sheet draped specter.

Finally, I think haunted houses also tap into our fear of the unfamiliar. We all have routines that we fall into, once again because they feel safe and comfortable. A ghost in your home upsets that routine and plunges you into the unfamiliar. Every sound becomes something horrible in your mind, even if it is something you have heard inside the home a million times before. The addition of the supernatural strips away all comfort.

My Haunted House Experience

In the past, I have told you guys most of my ghostly experiences, but I don’t think I have shared this one. I took my wife on a local ghost tour that I had been on in the past and that I had really loved. Penny has a history of feeling things and being sensitive to all manner of spooky things, and it felt like her detector was working full blast on this tour. The final spot in the tour was simply known as The Spooky House, and just before we got there, Penny stopped and basically told me everything going on inside, almost verbatim to what the guide was about to tell the group. Interesting enough, when we got home from that trip was when weird shit started in our home. It was shortly after the spooky stuff stopped in our house that I looked up the place on the ghost tour, only to find that it had burned down. This is the actual house…

Haunted House Books and Movies

You have a lot of cool stuff to choose from if you are a fan of haunted houses, but please allow me to share a couple of my favorites. For the book, I would recommend Kill Creek by Scott Thomas, while on the movie side of things, I have to go with Poltergeist, which is one of my comfort movies.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this installment of my A-Z of horror. Next week, we will move on to the next part, which is…