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How can you protect yourself against an invisible intruder?
To whittle down the list, weve instituted a few rules.
So no haunted hotels (sorry,The Shiningand1408) or orphanages (sorry,The Orphanage).
No haunted apartments, either (so noDark WaterorBhoot).
But can anything bloom in a house where flowers decay rapidly and ghostly cries echo through the night?
Even the films final stab at horror is goofy at best.
As participants in a game everyone is desperate to win, they seem destined to lose.
The Haunting(1963)
At Hill House, no one can hear you scream.
The house itself is an architectural anomaly, the distorted vision of a distorted mind.
Rapid camera movements only add to the sense of disorientation.
The second thing to know aboutHouseis that it is nothing like Steven SpielbergsJaws.
The Amityville Horror(1979)
The crazy Christians made it a hit.
Recurring imagery of swarming flies reinforces the idea of it being rotten from within.
The houses sheer vastness underscores just how alone he is in it.
Theres only silence where there should have been the chatter of a child.
Even more frightening, however, is the realization he isnt its only tenant.
The Freeling family moves into their new California home, only to discover that its built atop a cemetery.
In a Burton film, even the dead still have a beating heart.
This third installment of the franchise isnt as gory as the first film, but itisunsettling.
Dinners are fraught with loaded pauses.
The film uses its score sparingly, all that silence making for an atmosphere of constant unease.
Lake Mungo(2008)
Theres no closure when someone you love dies unexpectedly.
How many times have you wished that you could see them just one more time?
Is the entity a metaphor for parental abuse?
Has a sleepwalking accident left Kevin in a coma, the entire film a product of his imagination?
There are no answers, only an unending darkness.
India has a long tradition of haunted-house stories, but Rahul Sadasivan reinvents the genres tropes withBhoothakaalam.
The cries that echo through the house at night arent ghostly wails but Ashas gut-wrenching sobs.
Eerie silences are just as disquieting as the screaming matches.
