The 20 best haunted house movies, ranked

A fiercely effective Australian art piece, takes place after teenager Alice Palmer drowns while swimming, with her ghost seemingly haunting her family home. To delve into the plot any further is to spoil a movie full of original twists and turns, represented through a mockumentary ostensibly about coming to terms with loss and grief. It also has a jump scare that will destroy you. Just watch it as soon as you can, OK?

Fun fact: Betelgeuse only appears in for about 17 minutes. However, that doesn’t stop this Tim Burton movie from being a classic. It creatively tells the story of a recently deceased couple trying to scare away the people who’ve moved into the house they’re haunting. Then Michael Keaton steps in as the fast-talking ‘bio-exorcist’ and steals the show. It was a breakthrough for both the actor and the director, who’d tag-team again the following year on Batman.

For fans of such ghostly classics as The Haunting and The Shining—not to mention the glorious, bloody excess of old Hammer Studios fare— is a must-see. Guillermo Del Toro’s love letter to this subgenre somewhat sinks at the hand of its predictable twists, but what’s much more memorable is the lavish visual style, not to mention show-stealing performances from Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain. This is extravagance in the very best sense of the word.

A marriage of haunted house spooks with Steven Spielberg’s sentimentality and big-budget craftsmanship, was a rare bona fide horror blockbuster in its day. Forty years on, it’s persisted thanks to the relatable nuclear family at its heart—not to mention scares suited to each character, and by extension engineered so that at least one of them can freak out any demographic in the audience. As for us, it’s that puppet clown thing that messes us up.

The second appearance on this list by gimmick master William Castle, is seemingly as barebones B-horror as you can get. It stars Vincent Price and Carol Ohmart as a couple who invite guests to a seemingly haunted house, with the promise of $10,000 each once they stay (and survive) the night. However, in theaters, Castle accompanied certain scares by flying a skeleton over the audience. This is still a brilliantly campy time without the added bells and whistles, though.

On the surface, this 2020 British horror is about a South Sudanese couple fleeing to the U.K. and quickly discovering they’re cursed. However, beneath the hood, is also a powerful allegory for the trauma of war forcing you to leave your country and relocate to a new, indifferent, sometimes racist culture. First-time director Remi Weekes instantly established himself as one to watch with this debut, as did lead actors Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku.

It’s not uncommon for a horror movie to be likened to a fever dream, but nothing in the genre quite deserves the comparison like . This 1977 J-horror about a group of girls spending the summer in a Tokyo home is a psychedelic nightmare. Bright colors, manic editing, batshit set pieces, and a disorienting soundtrack by prog-rockers Godiego define this hellish fantasy, which, apparently, is intentionally mental to evoke the way a child would retell a traumatic experience.

A loyal adaptation of the Shirley Jackson ghost story The Haunting Of Hill House, is every bit as suspenseful and claustrophobic as its source material. This jewel in the crown of directing king Robert Wise (also responsible for The Andromeda Strain and The Sound Of Music—yes, really) effectively combines scares and an unreliable protagonist to make for a truly compelling chiller. Julie Harris’ lead performance is excellently erratic, as well.

We’re bending the rules here, since is more a haunted hotel movie than a haunted house movie. However, this Stanley Kubrick masterpiece is so genius that it deserves to be in the upper echelons of basically every movie list ever written. Not only is it genuinely creepy—this tale of the Torrence family spending a winter stuck in a summertime resort is also rich in what-does-it-mean symbolism that’ll keep you guessing long after the credits roll.

wasn’t a pioneering haunted house movie, nor is it the most famous. However, director Jack Clayton’s low-budget thriller is perfect. It’s a horrifyingly atmospheric thriller that’s torturous in its quietness, making every twitching curtain and figure walking across the frame a silent terror that will imprint on your retinas. The performances are all believable and fragile, the costumes magnificent and the color contrast striking. To this day, it is one of the most visually flawless (not to mention flat-out terrifying) black-and-white movies you will ever see. Every frame truly is a painting in this master stroke that’s waiting, begging to be recognized.