Build Your Own Scary 'Dream House' Using the Creepiest Rooms in Movies
Dream House promises to chill you with intrigue and suspense, but will the actual 'dream house' provide any of the scares? Here's hoping yes. Freaky houses are a touchstone in horror cinema, and today I'm building a blueprint for a spooky manse made only from rooms in creepy movies. Norman Bates, Jack Torrance and Leatherface all contribute to the interior decoration.
Have your own customized design suggestions? Share them in the comments.
Dining Room: Texas Chainsaw Massacre
In what remains the freakiest movie ever made, Leatherface and his quaint family gather 'round the dinner table as their squirming victim screams for her life. The juxtaposition of the fine table with the smattering of bones and death really make this noshing nook "pop."
Bedrooms: The Exorcist and Poltergeist
When your children can't sleep, they should be able to climb their bedroom walls freely and hurl dressers at their parents. Kids rule! In The Exorcist, we see a tall bureau come after Ellen Burstyn like an enraged Beauty and the Beast setpiece, and in Poltergeist, Dominique Dunne JoBeth Williams scampers up the walls like either a gecko or Lionel Richie.
Kitchen: Scream
We've seen grotesque and paranormal feng shui so far, but how about a pristine, suburban kitchen with shock-white walls and enough windows to please your neighborhood's murderous, ghostfaced voyeurs? In Scream, Drew Barrymore kicks off the proceedings by unsuccessfully avoiding a masked killer. As she's stabbed repeatedly, we watch her popcorn burn on the stove. Who makes popcorn on a stove anymore? Hair-raising!
Basement (and Bathroom): Psycho
You'll need a motel-size bathroom with an intrudable shower in your nightmare house, but you'll also need a horrifying basement that serves as a drawing room for your decayed mother. In Psycho, my time-machine husband Anthony Perkins is protective over his tiny inn, and he keeps his most prized possession in the cellar of his adjacent residence. Mommy, hold me.
Bubble Room: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Yep, our house has a Bubble Room. No one understood creepy like Roald Dahl, and in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, we watched in agony as Charlie Bucket and his ragtag grandfather defied Gene Wilder's orders, downed some Fizzy Lifting drink, and nearly floated up to an early death. With a vertical like this, we don't need the attic from The Changeling!
Yard/Hedge Maze: The Shining
Finally, no scare fortress is complete without landscaping. In The Shining, the Overlook Hotel's massive hedge maze is both a metaphor and a battleground for Shelley Duvall's showdown with Jack Nicholson. Pretty for such a terrifying place!
Comments
Max's apartment in _Videodrome_ can be the TV room.
Guest Bathroom: Dressed to Kill....replete with medicine cabinet, razor and a pair of squeaky white nurse's shoes outside the door.
Nice to see my favorite movies getting some play! The dining scene in TCM is underrated. Apparently it was quite hellish for the actors involved, too (especially the lead who had dirty rags stuffed in her mouth) as it was sweltering.
BTW, the bedroom scene in Poltergeist is JoBeth Williams, not Dominique Dunne
the "basement" from MARTYRS would make a good addition.
What about the Bathroom from Saw??
The room in David Lynch's "Rabbits" is the most horrifying room imaginable.
How can you work for a movie website. The girl the Poltergeist scene is JoBeth Williams not Dominque Dunn.
Calm down. Mistakes slip through sometimes. It's corrected.