Thankfully, there are a whole slew of writers who have shared that sentiment! When it comes to haunted house books we have plenty of scares to fill our shelves. But lying in bed and hearing something move inside your house? That’s always going to be worse. Looking out your window and seeing something staring back at you is scary. There is also a good deal to be said with regards to the relation between women, hauntings, and domestic spaces, and if that is an area which interests you make sure you check out Sarah Smeltzer’s post on Women, Trauma, and Haunted Houses.
So their modern descendants come by it rightly. Even the Gothic romances, from which the modern haunting story stems, were about the inversion and disruption of the domestic space. There is also the fact that hauntings in books often either stem from or cause domestic disruption, further destabilizing the interior of the home and annihilating any feelings of being safe or protected. But in haunted house books the monsters are inside, with you, violating that sense of security. Even in a hotel there is an expectation of safety and security, even more so in the apartment or house you inhabit. Whether it’s a massive multi-room building like a hotel or apartment building, a creaky old mansion, or an unassuming suburban home, haunted houses derive their horror from feelings of invasion and violation.
Book, film, video game there is nothing creepier than big, empty spaces and being stalked by something unseen. The haunted house is probably one of my favorite tropes across the whole horror genre.
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