Time to say your prayers!

While prepping a new adventure for Gods & Monsters, I’ve been watching a lot of movies and reading a lot of books involving haunted, shifty houses.

One of the things that makes horror houses appealing to me as an adventure guide is that they are mini (or not so mini, in the case of Rose Red) dungeons. Often, little ideas—creatures, traps, hauntings—can be pulled straight into a dungeon room.

The descendants of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House are the most RPG-friendly. A group of people, each with special skills, are brought together to investigate unknown phenomena; they do so by walking into an ancient structure and searching the rooms!

Werewolf by Night

The inspiration for House on Crane Hill is this multi-issue story from the seventies comic book Werewolf by Night. Marcosa House scared the crap out of me as a pre-teen. It is clearly influenced by The Legend of Hell House, right down to the name of the ghost. This is from when the Werewolf was mostly an excuse to highlight different eerie phenomena each story; you could pretty much remove the Werewolf from the story without losing anything except the big fight at the end. Which, incidentally, I only saw recently; part of the reason the Marcosa House storyline has stuck with me for such a long time is that I didn’t know how it ended, and the ending is the only thing that turns it into a superhero comic.

Penciler Don Perlin seems moderately influenced by Ditko in these issues, which adds to the eeriness.

As a Hill House descendant combined with superhero aesthetics, this could be used almost verbatim as a dungeon adventure.

Phantasm

Its been a long time since I last saw this movie; about all I remembered about it was the shiny things and that there was something other-dimensional about it. The latter meant it might be a good source for the adventure.

Phantasm is possibly the first reality-bender I watched. The ending is very reminiscent of the later Nightmare on Elm Street ending. Unlike Elm Street (which doesn’t quite count as a horror house, though it shares many similar features), Phantasm is centered around a mysterious funeral home run by the very odd Angus Scrimm. I enjoyed this low-budget movie more now than I remember enjoying it in college.

The Shining

The movie version of the Overlook Hotel was shiftier than the book, but both are great haunted houses. King solved the problem of keeping his victims from leaving by putting them in the middle of nowhere covered in snow. This meant that the house itself didn’t have to shift. It was a hotel, with the potential for any number of haunted rooms each with their own ghost.

1408

I’ve slept in rooms like this. It’s the wallpaper that does it. It’ll turn any room evil.

I saw the movie before I read the short story in Everything’s Eventual. This was a real tour-de-force for John Cusack. The front rooms of Crane House are inspired as much by Suite 1408’s idiosyncrasies as by Marcosa House. There’s very little gore for a modern horror movie. I think the most blood comes from a minor hand injury before the supernatural even starts in earnest.

1408 builds to its horror; it is very much a mind game. It’s also well-acted and well-written. There’s never a point where Mike Enslin (Cusack) does something ridiculously stupid just to keep the plot moving. Once it’s obvious he should leave, he tries to, but by then it’s too late.

This movie was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed it.

Poltergeist

Poltergeist is probably the weakest of the lot, but it’s still an interesting movie. The academic researchers in Poltergeist know real psychics, and can call on them when things get dangerous. This is a bit of a twist on The Haunting—it switches from the psychic investigators to the family living in the house. The nonchalant introduction of psychic researchers doesn’t quite work for me. When they’re up front, as in other Hill House imitators, I can accept them as the unbelievable thing that begins the action. When they come in halfway through, it’s too late.

It’s like if, halfway through a standard cop drama, you suddenly had a superhero group show without warning to save the day.

Rose Red

Looks like she’s running for president. Do you dare vote against her?

Rose Red is practically a superhero movie, putting its genre at odds with the driving force behind the main character. Professor Joyce Reardon wants to prove that the paranormal exists. In order to do this, she assembles a team of known paranormals, one of whom can reliably and repeatedly lift boulders, freeze water, and shake buildings, and brings them into a dangerous, insane house. She pays four people $5,000 each, and the one powerful telekinetic $12,000.

Why not just test what Ann can do? Rather than measurements that could be faked and must be performed in an old house, Reardon could have done a double-blind study with Ann on one end and her unbelieving nemesis on the other. If Ann is willing to enter Rose Red for $12,000, I’d think that $32,000 should buy quite a bit of telekinetic activity.

That out of the way, this is a very fun movie, with some serious acting chops thrown in. It is always a pleasant surprise to see Melanie Lynskey in a movie when I don’t expect it; this movie also sports an amazing performance by Matt Ross as an insecure post-cognitive who is annoyed at seeing dead people all the time.

This is a 4-hour miniseries, but it’s worth it, so set aside some time to watch it. This Hill House descendant is a dungeon. The only thing it’s missing is the monsters.

The Haunting of Hill House

Clearly the forerunner of both Rose Red and Hell House, The Haunting is a beautiful movie. It was directed by Robert Wise, probably better known for West Side Story, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and The Sound of Music. Rose Red is pretty much an updating of Hill House with greater power levels. Hell House is an update with “modern” technology. From the poltergeist child to the academic assembling a team of psychics to the house you get lost in, The Haunting laid the groundwork for its descendants.

It is also, despite a few 1960s over-the-top performances, well-acted and well-scripted.

The book is amazing. Despite the many attempts at copying the book, no one has copied its heart: a young woman, lost, lonely, and scared of life, constructing a magical life for herself as she takes on a new adventure. And if you can find a copy of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, buy it. Strange, beautiful, and eerie, without any hauntings whatsoever.

The Legend of Hell House

Clearly inspired by Haunting, this is a fascinatingly weird story that is almost as much science fiction as it is horror. In The Haunting we know the scientist has a theory but we don’t hear much about it. In Hell House, his theory is explained and comes with a giant be-metered metal box. It comes with a bit of a let-down at the end; some psychological underpinnings that just aren’t strong enough to hold up the legend of the house. But it’s definitely a fun seventies movie.

Videodrome

Videodrome isn’t a house, but it shares some ideas with these houses: reality is malleable; people can return from the dead; the “house” has an agenda of death. Once you’re “in the house” everything is alive. Television is the house in Videodrome. Like any good haunted house, it changes. And the house watches you as you explore it. You never know when it’s watching or who watches along with it.

Suspiria

This is a beautiful film. The “house” in this case is a school for dancers in Germany. The supernatural builds very slowly; only at the very end do we learn the nature of the place. Secret rooms, a history of witches, and dying revelations lead the way. Suspiria could be a role-playing game on its own. It is well worth watching as a movie.