Haunted house

This article is about literal haunted houses. For simulated haunted houses, see Haunted attraction. For other uses, see Haunted house (disambiguation).

The Winchester Mystery House is reported to be haunted.

A haunted house in Kompong Som, Cambodia

A haunted house is a house or other building often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or were familiar with the property. Supernatural activity inside homes is said to be mainly associated with violent or tragic events in the building's past such as murder, accidental death, or suicide.

In 2005, Gallup polls conducted in three countries—the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom—showed that more people believe in haunted houses than any of the other paranormal items tested, with 37% of Americans, 28% of Canadians, and 40% of Britons believing.

Reportedly haunted houses

Further information: List of reportedly haunted locations

Legal aspects

In the case Stambovsky v. Ackley, the Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division ruled in 1991 that a seller must disclose that a house has a reputation for being haunted when there is a fiduciary relationship or in cases of fraud or misrepresentation, because such a reputation impairs the value of the house:

In the case at bar, defendant seller deliberately fostered the public belief that her home was possessed. Having undertaken to inform the public at large, to whom she has no legal relationship, about the supernatural occurrences on her property, she may be said to owe no less a duty to her contract vendee.

Possible causes

• Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, like headache and dizziness, are associated with perceived hauntings.^{[citation needed]}
• Faulty construction may cause structures to creak.^{[citation needed]}
• Day/night temperature changes may cause air expansion/contraction, which may also cause creakiness.^{[citation needed]}
• Drafty windows may cause perceived cold spots.^{[citation needed]}

Recent research suggests that perceived apparitions, cold spots, and ghostly touches are perceptual anomalies caused by variations in naturally occurring or man-made magnetic fields. Variation in electro- and geo-magnetic fields may stimulate areas of the right side of the human brain, causing perceived haunting phenomena on the left side of the percipient, including hallucinations in the periphery of the left field of vision, and physical sensations of cold, tingling, or being touched on the person’s left side.

Short stories and novels

Legends about haunted houses have long appeared in literature. Haunting is used as a plot device in gothic or horror fiction or, more lately, paranormal-based fiction. Roman-era authors Plautus, Pliny the Younger and Lucian wrote stories about haunted houses, as did the Arabian Nights (such as the tale of "Ali the Cairene and the Haunted House in Baghdad"), and more modern authors from Henry James to Stephen King have featured them in their writings. Haunted castles and mansions are common in gothic literature such as Dracula. Notable works of fiction featuring haunted houses include:

• The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole
• The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe
• The Fall of the House of Usher (1845) by Edgar Allan Poe
• The House of the Seven Gables (1851) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Turn of the Screw (1898) by Henry James
• The House on the Borderland (1908) by William Hope Hodgson
• "The Rats in the Walls" (1924) by H. P. Lovecraft
• The Haunting of Hill House (1959) by Shirley Jackson
• Hell House (1971) by Richard Matheson
• The House with a Clock in Its Walls (1973) by John Bellairs
• 'Salem's Lot (1975) by Stephen King
• The Shining (1977) by Stephen King
• The Woman in Black (1983) by Susan Hill
• House of Leaves (2000) by Mark Z. Danielewski
• The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red (2001) by Ridley Pearson
• The Amityville Horror (1977) by Jay Anson

Films

• The Haunted House (1921)
• The Cat and the Canary (1927)
• The Cat Creeps (1930)
• The Ghost Goes West (1936)
• Lonesome Ghosts (1937)
• The Cat and the Canary (1939)
• The Ghost Breakers (1940)
• Hold That Ghost (1941)
• The Canterville Ghost (1944)
• The Uninvited (1944)
• The Time of Their Lives (1946)
• The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
• Scared Stiff (1953)
• House on Haunted Hill (1959)
• 13 Ghosts (1960)
• The Innocents (1961)
• The Haunting (1963)
• The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966)
• The House That Dripped Blood (1970)
• Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973)
• The Legend of Hell House (1973)

• Burnt Offerings (1976)
• The Amityville Horror (1979)
• The Shining (1980)
• The Changeling (1980)
• Poltergeist (1982)
• Ghostbusters (1984)
• House (1986)
• Beetlejuice (1988)
• Night of the Demons (aka Halloween Party) (1988)
• Sweet Home (1989)
• The People Under the Stairs (1991)
• Casper (1995)
• Haunted (1995)
• Ghosts (1997)
• House on Haunted Hill (remake) (1999)
• The Haunting (remake) (1999)
• Thirteen Ghosts (remake) (2001)
• The Others (2001)
• The Devil's Backbone (2001)

• Rose Red (2002)
• Darkness (2002)
• The Haunted Mansion (2003)
• The Grudge (2004)
• The Amityville Horror (remake) (2005)
• House Of Wax (2005)
• The Grudge 2 (2006)
• Monster House (2006)
• An American Haunting (2006)
• In a Dark Place (2006)
• Stay Alive (2006)
• Return to House on Haunted Hill (2006)
• The Messengers (2007)
• The Orphanage (2007)
• 1408 (2007)
• Paranormal Activity (2007)
• Paranormal Entity (2008)
• The Haunting in Connecticut (2009)
• Deadline (2009)
• Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)
• Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
• Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (remake) (2011)

See also

See also Category: paranormal places

• Carson Mansion a famous Victorian in Eureka, California commonly used as a template for haunted houses in art
• Ghost hunting
• Legend tripping
• List of allegedly haunted locations
• Stigmatized property
• Scooby Doo

External links

• A Night In A Haunted House Abridged version of a story that appeared in The Southern Literary Messenger, June 1855
• Haunted Places
• The Scariest Haunted Houses in America
• Haunted Houses and other Haunted Locations throughout the UK
• Haunted Houses at The Ghost Database
• "Haunted Houses: The Film Genre That Won't Die". CNN. Archived from the original on 2000-05-23. http://web.archive.org/web/20000523152019/http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/Movies/9910/27/haunted.house/index.html.  A look at cinematic haunted houses
• Hong Kong's Hot Market in "Haunted" Houses - CNN. Archived from the original on 2011-11-22
• Haunted House List in Hong Kong