The House Gets Top Billing
Gothic movies in which the setting (usually a house or mansion) functions as a character.
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- DirectorAlejandro AmenábarStarsNicole KidmanChristopher EcclestonFionnula FlanaganIn 1945, immediately following the end of Second World War, a woman who lives with her two photosensitive children on her darkened old family estate in the Channel Islands becomes convinced that the home is haunted.This is the only movie I "solved" faster than my husband--who is a bit of a whiz at ruining movie endings! I'll never forget that obsessive door-shutting, which was what gave it away for me.
- DirectorDavid MunStarsRae OlivierChristian OliverMarietta MarichAfter a family tragedy in the chaotic city, Chris and Maggie Conley, in a last-ditch effort to save their dying marriage, purchase an isolated home in the deepest woods, to which they quickly discover evil has a key.I love the psychological element in this movie's resolution. Also, the gothic movies in which the heroine is renovating or repairing the house, rather than just inhabiting it, fascinate me. The house problem at the movies beginning is that the young couple wish to restore the large country home as a single family residence, but there are still tenants on the other side of the duplex. In the meantime, they must make do. There's crone imagery employed in the elderly neighbor, and the threatening male force that encloses the heroine in the house appears to be her aging yet abusive husband. The tale employs powerful water imagery in a nearby stream where the heroine goes to swim in a clear use of baptism imagery.
- DirectorCourtney SolomonStarsDonald SutherlandSissy SpacekRachel Hurd-WoodAn invisible entity haunts a 19th century family, and family secrets soon begin to surface.
- DirectorRobert MulliganStarsUta HagenDiana MuldaurChris UdvarnokyA series of gruesome accidents plague a small American farming community in the summer of 1935, encircling two identical twin brothers and their family.
- DirectorRichard RoyStarsKristy SwansonDavid KeeleyChristopher BondyWhile going through a difficult divorce from her domineering, businessman husband, Alexandra moves back into her old childhood home, where she's forced to re-examine the circumstances surrounding the murder of her aunt by her insane mother several years ago when Alexandra was a young girl. As a series of bizarre and unsettling incidents prod Alexandra to investigate her past, she finds herself wandering deeper into danger as her past comes back to haunt her.The myth of the murdering mother drives the plot of this tale in which a young woman who thinks she is psychologically troubled finds the answers to her past's mysteries while renovating her family home. Another gothic tale employing the theme of renovation, which I love. I also loved the jewelry as a symbol of family trouble/truth, passed down through generations. The water imagery is powerful in this one as the girl's attempted murder took place in the pool. And the cleric in this movie might be seen as the psychiatrist. There's also a lost object: the hidden room concealing the object of the heroine's quest.
- DirectorJames WanStarsPatrick WilsonVera FarmigaRon LivingstonParanormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse.I prefer gothic tales that end with self-discovery rather than the defeat of a monster, but I do appreciate that these two plot points can be used interchangeably (save discovery can require the defeat of an inner monster, etc). When reading a movie's symbols, then, I don't mind gothic house tales in which the house has a monster or is one. This is one of those. The central problem involves the murdering mother, and the cleric role is played, in a way, by the ghost hunters who save the day. This house, too, is located near water. The basement and close crawl spaces are important in this plot, too.
- DirectorTom ProvostStarsMira SorvinoShane WestJustin KirkA woman travels to an isolated cabin she begins to think she is losing her mind when her boyfriend comes to stay.Water imagery introduces this story which takes place in a remote cabin on an island. A young woman must forgive her father before she will be able to embrace love and a new family of her own. There's powerful guardian angel/devil imagery here, and there is also a gothic hero (the young man she's trying to love). Jewelry imagery gets employed here as the lost object: the engagement ring that seems to tumble over a cliff. The house imagery is particularly powerful when it involves crawl spaces under the house or the remote outdoor plumbing.
- DirectorBrett DonowhoStarsSteve BacicTara WestwoodAlix Elizabeth GitterA small town is haunted by the twin daughters of a wrongfully convicted man. Young Jordan is sent down the path to who the real killer is, only to find the killer is very close to her.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsVal KilmerBruce DernElle FanningA struggling horror writer visiting a small town on a book tour gets caught up in a murder mystery involving a young girl. That night in a dream, he is approached by a mysterious young ghost named V.
- DirectorCarles TorrensStarsKai LennoxGia MantegnaMichael O'KeefeA team of parapsychologists try to figure out a strange phenomenon occurring in an apartment building.
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsHarrison FordMichelle PfeifferKatharine TowneThe wife of a university research scientist believes that her lakeside Vermont home is haunted by a ghost - or that she is losing her mind.
- DirectorJorge DoradoStarsMark StrongTaissa FarmigaBrian CoxA man with the ability to enter people's memories takes on the case of a brilliant, troubled sixteen-year-old girl to determine whether she is a sociopath or a victim of trauma.
- DirectorGriffin DunneStarsSandra BullockNicole KidmanStockard ChanningTwo witch sisters, raised by their eccentric aunts in a small town, face closed-minded prejudice and a curse which threatens to prevent them ever finding lasting love.
- DirectorMichael SpierigPeter SpierigStarsHelen MirrenSarah SnookFinn Scicluna-O'PreyEnsconced in her sprawling San Jose, California mansion, eccentric firearm heiress Sarah Winchester (Dame Helen Mirren) believes she is haunted by the souls of people killed by the Winchester repeating rifle.
- CreatorMike FlanaganStarsMichiel HuismanCarla GuginoHenry ThomasFlashing between past and present, a fractured family confronts haunting memories of their old home and the terrifying events that drove them from it.
- DirectorLenny AbrahamsonStarsDomhnall GleesonWill PoulterRuth WilsonAfter a doctor is called to visit a crumbling manor, strange things begin to occur.
- DirectorSam MendesStarsDaniel CraigJavier BardemNaomie HarrisJames Bond's loyalty to M is tested when her past comes back to haunt her. When MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
- DirectorDennis IliadisStarsPatricia ClarksonGenesis RodriguezTopher GraceA man recently released from a mental institute inherits a mansion after his wealthy parents die. After a series of disturbing events, he comes to believe it is haunted.
- DirectorWilliam Brent BellStarsLauren CohanRupert EvansJames RussellAn American nanny is shocked that her new English family's boy is actually a life-sized doll. After she violates a list of strict rules, disturbing events make her believe that the doll is really alive.
- DirectorD.J. CarusoStarsKate BeckinsaleMel RaidoDuncan JoinerA mother and her young son release unimaginable horrors from the attic of their rural dream home.
- DirectorJaume BalagueróStarsCalista FlockhartRichard RoxburghElena AnayaAt her new job in a rundown children's hospital, a nurse desperately tries to keep her patients safe from a plague of random, mysterious attacks.
- DirectorKevin GreutertStarsIsla FisherAnson MountGillian JacobsAfter moving to a vineyard to start a new life with her husband, a pregnant woman begins to experience terrifying visions.
- DirectorPeter MedakStarsGeorge C. ScottTrish Van DevereMelvyn DouglasAfter experiencing tragic personal losses, a music professor rents a Seattle mansion, haunted by a slain boy.
- DirectorMike FlanaganStarsKaren GillanBrenton ThwaitesKatee SackhoffA recently released inmate from a mental asylum learns from his sister that the murders he was convicted of committing were actually orchestrated by a supernatural entity, the Lasser Glass mirror.
- DirectorFede AlvarezStarsStephen LangJane LevyDylan MinnetteHoping to walk away with a massive fortune, a trio of thieves break into the house of a blind man who isn't as helpless as he seems.
- DirectorLeigh WhannellStarsDermot MulroneyStefanie ScottAngus SampsonA prequel set before the haunting of the Lambert family that reveals how gifted psychic Elise Rainier reluctantly agrees to use her ability to contact the dead in order to help a teenage girl who has been targeted by a dangerous supernatural entity.
- DirectorStacie PassonStarsTaissa FarmigaAlexandra DaddarioCrispin GloverMerricat, Constance and their Uncle Julian live in isolation after experiencing a family tragedy six years earlier. When cousin Charles arrives to steal the family fortune, he also threatens a dark secret they've been hiding.
- DirectorGary DaubermanStarsVera FarmigaPatrick WilsonMckenna GraceWhile babysitting the daughter of Ed and Lorraine Warren, a teenager and her friend unknowingly awaken an evil spirit trapped in a doll.
- DirectorTravis StevensStarsPhil BrooksTrieste Kelly DunnSarah BrooksDon Koch tries to renovate a rundown mansion with a sordid history for his growing family, only to learn that the house has other plans.