Now let me state for the record that I typically dislike haunted house movies. I usually find the premise fairly stupid, and the answer to the solution extremely obvious. A couple or family move into a home that was extremely affordable due to a tragedy that happened there in prior years. Strange and unusual occurrences begin fairly quickly upon the arrival of the new home owners. The incidents grow more and more violent causing the family to eventually do battle, somehow with whatever raging spirit or spirits are causing havoc.
What actually pisses me off, is that it takes the family, couple, or single inhabitant way to long to realize they are being haunted. Than, instead of high tailing it out of there, they usually bring in a medium or psychic who usually just confirms the audience's guess, that the fucking place is haunted. Which actually just exasipates the situation even worse.
Why no one runs from the home I will never understand. Now, there are certain films in which this solution is explored, like Insidious or Poltergeist II and it turns out it had nothing to do with the homes, I can't fault that at all. But when you know your home is fricking haunted, get the fuck out!
The 1986 flick House takes a pretty different path down the haunted house road, fortunately it's an enjoyable path. Roger (William Katt) is a former Vietnam vet and horror novelist whose aunt just committed suicide. Roger inherits her home, a home he grew up in, and the home in which his and his now separated wife, lost their son. Still hanging on the hope that his son will be found and being pressured to finish a new novel, he moves into his aunts home to finish his new novel, which is an autobiographical tale of his tour in Vietnam.
But Roger also has another motive for moving into his aunts home, to possibly discover what happened to his son. His aunt believed the house was haunted and the house stole Roger's son.
First off, the film is not scary. But, it contains some neat creatures, tense moments, and also some hilarious moments. The film is really does do the whole haunted house motif quite different. It gives the person living in the house a reason to continue to keep experiencing the madness.
This is about to sound weird. I don't really believe in ghosts. I know, for someone who started a horror blog, and someone who watches as many horror films as I do, one would think the opposite. But I don't. I honestly believe that everything can be explained, and what we think our ghosts, is just our mind playing tricks on us.
Part of me feels this way, because if ghosts did exist, it sort of validates all of these stories that we watch and read about, that are supposed to be fictitious Frankly, I don't want them to exist. I think the notion of haunted houses, demonic possessions, and unstoppable boogeymen are terrifying, but at the end of the day, I can say it's a story. If they were somehow proven real, I would be absolutely shitting myself (if someone tries to tell me that Ghost Hunters are real, than go fly a kite).
I also have a more personal reason for not believing in ghosts or haunted houses, and it's due to my mother. Before our family moved to the big city (of West Bend, WI) I lived in Newburg, WI (small town, actually whenever I hear John Cougar Mellencamp's Small Town, I think of this town). My parents rented a huge house that was on a farm. Apparently, it was built over an Indian burial ground (I am not sure if this is valid or not, but my mother believed so). Anyways, she tells us stories now, as adults that the house was haunted. She believes she heard noises upstairs. In fact, when the noises were getting a little rowdy, she would politely shout upstairs to please be quiet so everyone could sleep. Which somehow, calmed down the restless spirits. Apparently, these ghosts liked to party. She also claims she saw an Indian in a full feathered headdress standing over my brothers crib when he was a baby. She walked into the room, he turned, smiled kindly, and disappeared.
Now, these are spooky tales, and these are just a couple of my mothers rantings. What have I taken away from these stories, my mother is most likely crazy. The thing is, if these stories are true, my parents never felt the need to investigate further, they didn't seem to be in any hurry to move us out of the home, and they felt completely fine with us watching horror flicks in the home. The only reason we moved from what I understood was because the school I would have had to attend was 30 minutes away (and later I found out I would have only graduated with 35 people).
I am still under the firm belief if you ever experience ghostly apparitions or monsters in the closet you should either a.)pack up your shit and leave or b.) blow the fucker up and hope haunting are covered in home owners insurance.
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