Badmovies.org Forum

Poltergeist aside, where the girl is kidnapped by ghosts, just about every haunted house movie I've seen the family living in the house decides to stick around for no good reason.

Hell, if a book moved two inches across the table by itself, I'd be out the door faster than you can say "The Legend of Hell House". (Which the original 1970's Roddy McDowell version wasn't half 'bad'.)

You can afford to move out of a house you just bought? I can't afford to move out of this one, and I've owned it for years. (:

Well, I'd do my best to work out some kind of arrangement.

But plates flying around in the air, doors slamming over and over by themselves, lights turning on and off, mysterious manisfestations, demonic voices, et. al would be too much for me.

Like that one Eddie Murphy concert video: just one ghostly "Get out!" and I'd be like, "See ya, I'm outta here...".

That's why every family should always own a tent. (:

A good haunted house movie plays off the fact that people don't believe in haunted houses, so that's why they don't move out.  And by the time serious s**t starts happening, well, it's too late anyway.  I thought it was extremely cool in Poltergeist when the mom thought it was funny that when she put the little girl in one spot in the kitchen, she slid to another spot.  And mom smoked a little dope.  Pure genius when it comes to suspension of disbelief.  I could almost have seen myself in the early '80s doing something similar.  There was also that movie and a remake that took place in a mental institution, where the folks were locked in for the night.  I liked both of those.  Usually there's some reason they can't leave.  Haunted houses tend to have big steel gates that prevent anyone from fleeing.  I think it's kind of the exception to the rule when there's nothing stopping them from leaving.  Maybe it's a bet that they need to stay in the house for the night in order to win, or a college hazing prank, etc.  Whatever, there's usually a reason.

You shouldn't be asking why the family doesn't move out at the first sign of ghosts... you should be asking why the ghosts don't pull their magic tricks during the house tour (while the family is looking the place over with the retailer).

If I was shopping for a house, and entered one that had flying plates and bleeding walls, I'd skip it and move on to the next place.

I would say that THE HEARSE (1980) lacks any reason for Van Devere's character to stay in the house other than stubborness. Even with the strange stuff already happening, she has someone break into the house while she is there and is even attacked in the house; and she still stays. Since it is her late aunt's house, other than trying to wrangle the inheritance, it's not like she doesn't have anywhere else to go.

How about the original "House" starring William Katt?
That film scared the s**t out of me when I was a kid!
Especially the scene where the monster bursts out of the attic closet.

And in that movie, there was no family to speak of...just Katt....all alone in that evil house.

"Ding dong...you're dead."

Ah, haunted houses are over-rated. Sure, if I bought a house that had bleeding walls, I'd need to find a solution. Menard is right, too expensive to move out of a house you just bought. Couldn't move out, who's gonna buy a house that has blood on the walls? So,  you just stay in that house and wait until you build some equity. Then you could take out a loan and buy another house and rent the bleeding walls one to a goth. That would probably work.

"Wow, this is a really nice house..."
"GET OUT!"
"...Too bad we can't stay."

I suppose a lot of them do offer some reason for staying. The Shining had one of the best devices - a winding, unmaintained mountain road in the dead of winter. In The Changeling, the ghost's early activities were so subtle, they could be easily dismissed, and its later actions managed to arouse George C. Scott's curiosity. The House on Haunted Hill, as a Castle film, doesn't even try to come up with a believable set of circumstances - just a door like a bank vault, and a big cash payout for a lot of desperate people.

Amityville is pretty complicated, since James Brolin is in the thing's power, the kids are friends with it, the priest is prevented from helping, and Margot Kidder is pretty clueless.

I loved the satirical way it was played in Poltergeist. The suggestion that a bunch of modern-day suburbanites would find a haunted house kind of fun at first, then quickly become jaded about it, is pretty funny. You can't help but laugh at these people. And lightening the mood early on gives the scary bits more punch when the ghosts decide to get serious.

I'd probably check into a Super 8 and then the next morning call the people who sold me the house.

As an aside, My dad's girlfriend's nextdoor neighbor's house is allegedly haunted. The lady living there said that the previous own killed himself in the garage. According to te neighbor, who lives alone, she says that she always hears strange noises in the house. Or sometimes she'll here a door close in the basement or somewhere else when she is alone in the house. She always says she feels a presence in the house. But what really gets me is that one time that there was a really bad storm that knocked out the power, the next morning when the power came back on, she said that the microwave digital readout was displaying some something in French. My dad and said girlfriend say it for there very own eyes when they went over to visit her that morning. And by the way, the microwave wasn't made in France.

I've asked her if she feels creeped out about the house being possible haunted, and she says she seems to be at peace with the "ghostly occurances".

Let's not turn this into another "real-life hauntings" thread. It's a pretty good movie discussion as it is.

Why shouldnt we have real life hauntings experiences listed? Makes everything more fun to read.

That might be more appropriate in the "scariest thing" thread or something.

I like odin7's idea about selling a haunted house to a goth. I wonder if faking a haunting, like in Scooby Doo, could actually increase the value of a property, if you played your cards right?

Not entirely on topic, but my very favorite part of Poltergiest impish giggling at the very end of the ending credits.

"I wonder if faking a haunting, like in Scooby Doo, could actually increase the value of a property, if you played your cards right?"

Some business owners want verification that their places are haunted...I suppose that it's to increase business from people who hope to see an entity.

I suppose that's possible.  A lot of stuff sold in America is also sold in France (notice the instruction manuals have various languages).  The microwave might have both English and French languages available, and the power outage caused it to default to French.

BTW, anybody else watch Christina's House?  That's a cool movie with haunted house overtones.  I thought it was well done.  I read a few reviews and was surprised that others seem to hate it.  In that one, it's only the daughter that thinks the house is weird, and her father won't listen to her.  So she's stuck, questioning her own sanity.

How about 'The Others'? I'm not sure what everyone thought of that movie but I really liked it. Of course, it doesn't hold up to repeated viewings as it's ruined once you see it. I really got caught up in the way they were 'trapped' in this house and all the spooky things going on. Although I figured it out part way through, it was still an excellent twist to the typical haunted house movie.

THE SHINNING
"Can't murder now...eating..."
"The little fat boy and hiss family are in trouble!"
" All work and no beer make homer something..something..."
"T.V. ! Confidant, friend..secret lover.."
"This is less encouraging."
"Heresssss David Letterman!"