With “The Haunted Mansion” reboot coming to theaters Friday it’s a great time to recommend some great haunted house movies you could watch before or after. Or if you’re not planning to see “The Haunted Mansion,” you could watch these movies instead. In either case, here are five great haunted house movies I highly recommend if you want some good chills, thrills, and scares.
Tag Archives: Haunting
The Unknowable (2022)
Whatever you feel about horror or cosmic horror, you can never realty accuse director Zach Donohue of being unambitious. “The Unknowable” is a richly constructed horror film that takes influence from sub-genres like lo-fi horror and true crime documentaries for one of the more unnerving horror films I’ve seen in a while. Its H.P. Lovecraft meets Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, with a touch of David Cronenberg for good measure.
Sorry About the Demon (2023)
There’s a realty good film desperate to break free tom “Sorry About the Demon.” While it’s not what I’d call a bad movie, it’s a movie that director Emily Hagins kind of loses grip over in its final half. It’s overlong for such a paper thin premise, and most times it feels like the movie can never decide if it’s horror rom-com or rom-com with a touch of horror. It’s a shame because the ingredients are there, but “Sorry About the Demon” never adds up to much of a genre film.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) [4K UHD/Blu-Ray/Digital]
“The Conjuring” cinematic universe/series has been a horror ride of varying degrees. It’s had its great highs and its depressing lows (Ahem—“Annabelle”), and in spite of delivering two genuine horror classics, the mainline movie series can’t quite escape the dreaded curse of the third film. While “The Devil Made Me Do It” is not at all a bad movie per se, it’s not high in scares or tension as the first two films. The first two movies relied on mounting tension and absolute terror, while “The Devil Made Me Do It” feels a lot more like if they took the series and tried to turn it in to a crime procedural.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
“The Conjuring” is a series I hope studios keep re-visiting (with some caveats—ahem—“Annabelle”), since there’s so much they can do with the case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren. At this point the movie has taken many of their actual cases and expanded them in to wonderful horror films and “The Devil Made Me Do It” is no exception. True it’s not as good as the first two films, but the third part in the core movie series really does help to emphasize the heroism of Ed and Lorraine.
Brahms: The Boy II (2020)
“The Boy II” is one of the most inexplicable horror movies released in 2020 so far. The surprise success of the abysmal “The Boy” from 2016 (made cheap, producing big bucks) prompted the studio to make a follow up and franchise. And for some reason the writers and producers decide to completely retcon and reboot the entire mythos and story that was established from the original movie. Rather than stick to their successful formula, the original writer and director come back to reconfigure “The Boy” in to a limp, dull, and incredibly tedious “Annabelle” facsimile. It embraces all of the haunted doll clichés that’s become so common in this sub-genre wholesale, and completely ignores the 2016 horror drama.
Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019)
After 2007’s failed reboot “Nancy Drew” starring Emma Roberts, I was surprised anyone bothered to take the property in to theaters again. Roberts was very good in the role of Nancy Drew, but her take on the character was more self-aware and an homage, rather than a new, more modern approach for a new generation of girls. Thankfully Katt Shea approaches “Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase” with the definite desire to restart the series, and Sophia Lillis is now playing the iconic teenage sleuth, and manages to help deliver (co-Produced by Ellen DeGeneres) a satisfying mystery and a very good reboot.