Freehold, dungeons, ghosts and terror...all reasonable offers accepted [Some sitting tenants]...

[Please note in this list that we haven't overlooked the Overlook. It's a huge hotel, not a house! - Ed]

10) The Maitland House – Beetle Juice (1988)

Meet the Maitlands, Adam and Barbara (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis), they’re young, fun, newly married, and have just bought their dream house… oh, and they’re dead. Determined to reclaim the house they loved from its new, and mortal owners, the Maitlands set out to terrify the new residents with their very own haunting. However, as ghosts go they’re pretty poor, and soon enlist the help of a rather vulgar and tasteless ghoul by the name of Beetle Juice (Michael Keaton). It’s a decision they come to regret as Beetle Juice proves to be one ghost you don’t want on your side when trying to scare the bejesus out of an entire family. More comedy than horror, it’s still a house full of scares and things from the grave in this Tim Burton classic…

9) Hell House – The Legend of Hell House (1973)

This 70s British horror saw cult favourite Roddy McDowall turn his talents to all things supernatural. Joined by a team of fellow spook inspectors, McDowall’s Benjamin Fischer hopes to solve the legend of Hell House by spending an entire week there, which, we soon learn, is not as easy as it sounds. Far from it. Hell House takes a dislike to its latest guests and soon subjects them to a constant and consistent bombardment of paranormal activity, including erotic visions, skeletons, ectoplasm, and even possessed cats. Clearly all was not well with Hell House, and discovering its secrets proved to be one of the most terrifying moments in British horror – a truly frightening place to call home…

8) The Warren Mansion – The Spiral Staircase (1945)

After a string of gruesome and particularly violent murders in a small New England town, this 1945 tale of terror moves to the Warren Mansion, where the killer’s next victim – Helen – lives and works, caring for the bed-ridden invalid Mrs Warren. Also at the house are Mrs Warren’s staff, her son Steven, and stepson Professor Warren. All of them come under suspicion, though, when we learn the killer has followed Helen to the house and may in fact be one of the mansion’s residents. Helen, like all the other victims, suffers from a physical affliction and is considered a mute, and is therefore unable to scream or call for help as she fights for her life and struggles to escape the isolated manor. The film is a true classic and is remarkable for how scary it still is, given that it was released only a few months after the end of World War II and the world was no doubt looking for more light-hearted affairs. Making the film all the more terrifying, though, is Mrs Warren herself, a creepy old woman who rules the roost and keeps a well-trained eye over the mansion where someone is watching, where someone is waiting…

7) Aunt Elizabeth’s House – House (1986)

Horror and comedy often make for friendly bedfellows, and one of their finest sleepovers took place in Steve Miner’s cult classic, House. This 80s favourite saw lonely author Roger Cobb (William Katt) return to his Aunt Liz’s house after her death. Going through a divorce and saddened by the apparent abduction of his only son, Roger hopes to find some solitude in the old house and finish his next novel. How wrong he is. Taunting Roger with images of his aunt and missing son, while at the same time chasing him with floating garden utensils, the house also conjures up some truly monstrous incarnations of his estranged wife, allows the odd ghoul to run riot and even offers a gateway, via the bathroom mirror, to his past transgressions in Vietnam. Absurd and off the wall, House really is the perfect mix of horror and comedy, where, despite fantastic performances throughout, the real star of the show is the house itself…

6) The Marsten House – Salem’s Lot (1979)

‘An evil house attracts evil men,’ pondered Ben Mears (David Soul) in Tobe Hooper’s TV adaptation of Stephen King’s vampire classic. The residence at the heart of his musings is, of course, the Marsten House, an eerie old building that sits on the hill overlooking the town of Salem’s Lot. And Mr Mears is quite right, evil houses do attract evil men, for its most recent resident is none other than Richard Straker (James Mason), murderous guard and sharply-dressed watchdog of Kurt Barlow, the town’s head vampire. Venturing into the house to confront Straker and Barlow, Mears succumbs to his own childhood fears of the murderous manor and soon learns that something is very, very wrong with the Marsten House (even the ground on which it is built burns at the merest drop of Holy Water), and that getting in is a lot easier than getting out…

5) Hill House – The House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Directed by William Castle and starring Vincent Price, this horror classic told the tale of eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren (Price) and his unusual ‘party’ tastes. Inviting five guests to join him and his wife, Annabelle, at a secluded mansion, which may or may not be haunted, everyone is told that the doors are locked, the power out, and whoever is left standing at the end of the night will win $10,000. What follows, apart from some questionable special effects, is a night of pure terror as the guests fall victim to paranoia, fear, acid baths, spooks and spectres, and all as they struggle for survival in the House on Haunted Hill…

4) The Freeling House – Poltergeist (1982)

Talking TVs, possessed clowns, closets leading from this world to the next – all good reasons to think your house is not quite what you thought it was. But when your 5-year-old daughter is abducted by mischievous spirits and they refuse to give her back, well it’s probably a good idea to get the hell out of there. So it was for the Freeling family in the Spielberg-produced classic Poltergeist. Built on top of a cemetery, at first the spooks of Questa Verde seem harmless enough – moving the odd chair, using the TV to chat to the kids, playing ball with the family dog. But when they catch sight of little Carole Anne, all hell breaks loose – possessing trees and toys, and even calling in a mini-tornado. Powerful stuff for your seemingly run-of-the-mill suburban homestead. So powerful in fact that, in a last ditch attempt to snatch Carole Anne, it ends up swallowing itself whole – a disappearing act never attempted before or since…

3) The Psycho House – Psycho (1960)

Another house, another hill; only this time it’s the ever-watchful abode of Mrs Bates, invalid and dominant mother to resident psycho Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). In this Hitchcock classic Norman’s possessive mother watches over him and the Bates Motel, where overnight guest Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) meets her untimely end. Norman flits back and forth between the motel and the house, earnestly trying to appease his sick mother and cover up her crimes, which aside from one of the motel’s showers, mostly take place in and around the house. The house itself remains an iconic one and is still open for business on the Universal Studios tour - a sign of true staying power for any house of horror…

2) 112 Ocean Avenue – The Amityville Horror (1979)

‘Get out!’ Sound advice if you were a member or the Lutz family or a priest visiting 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville in 1979. As horror movie houses go, this detached devil had it all – blood running down the walls, demonic ghost pigs, a gateway to hell - and was even built on an ancient burial ground. Claiming to be based on a true story, The Amityville Horror told the tale of the Lutz’s, the family who fled their ‘dream’ house after only 28 days due to the dark forces already living there. With its eye-like windows and teeth-like porch, the house is still a hard one to look at and has become imbedded in popular culture as the home to stay away from…

1) Hill House – The Haunting (1963)

‘Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there… walked alone.’ So said Dr John Markway, parapsychologist and ghost hunter extraordinaire in Robert Wise’s The Haunting. With ingenious camera work, effective lighting, wonderfully eerie music, and direction following the ‘less is more’ philosophy, Hill House really felt as though it was alive – alive and filled to the brim with hatred and wickedness for its human inhabitants. From the wood in its doorways to the stones in its steps, the house was evil incarnate and had more than a passing affection for the film’s heroine, Nell (Julie Harris), who in return becomes equally enchanted with the house where no one stays in the night…in the dark…. The Haunting is horror at its finest and Hill House still has the power to terrify and scare us stiff to this very day, earning its rightful place as our number one House of Horror…

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