Overview
Hollywood is passionate about turning real-life haunted houses into films. Although some haunted houses have received a lot of backlash because families are trying to gain fame from them, there are plenty of haunted houses with very creepy stories.
Here are eight real-life haunted houses that were turned into movies in Hollywood. You may have seen them, or you may want to watch these movies for the first time. Check out this list.
8 Horror Movies Houses That Actually Exist
The Real Entity House
In 1974, the Entity House, also known as the Doris Bither case, took place in Culver City, California. Doris Bither experienced some terrifying paranormal activity in her home, which was documented, turned into a book, and then made into a Hollywood film.
Doris contacted Barry Taff, a parapsychologist, in 1974 when she began to experience horrible events in her home. Taff did various paranormal experiments in the home and interviewed Doris. There was a lot of doubt when it came to her stories because she had a history of drug and alcohol abuse and had a very traumatic childhood.
One of the stories that Doris shared was about one night when she was trying to relax and unwind in her home. Her kids had gone to sleep, and she was in her bedroom. She witnessed three different entities in the room. She said that two of them grabbed her arms and held her down on her bed. She said that the other one, who was much larger, was the one who sexually assaulted her. Doris claimed that she was paralyzed with fear and couldn’t scream or move. She said that this occurred over the next several days as well.
Not only was she sexually assaulted by these entities, but she said that they would drag her around the house, and even her oldest son said that he saw it happening. The other children had gotten scratched, slapped, and bitten by these entities and a fourth one. There was nothing that Doris felt she could do to get rid of the entities in their home.
Bither and her children were living in the house together, and she claimed that she was raped and attacked by one of the entities living in this house. She also claimed to see human shapes and poltergeist events in the home.
Taff and his team were in Bither’s home for ten weeks, and they witnessed objects falling from shelves, bad odors, strange lights, and various cold zones in the home. The investigators saw orbs, strange lights, and shadow figures when they took photos. Taff felt that after all of the research they conducted, this house was haunted.
The Entity Movie Trailer
The Real Entity House movie was released in 1982. It stars Barbara Hershey and Ron Silver and was called one of the scariest movies at the time. The house is still standing in Culver City, California, and other paranormal investigators have claimed that Doris faked it all for fame. However, she passed away in 1999 after claiming the spirits followed her all the way to Texas when she moved there with her children.
The Amityville Horror House
The Amityville Horror House has received considerable publicity since Hollywood made the first film about it in 1979. The book about the house was also released in 1977. Tragic murders occurred in this house in 1974, and those who lived there witnessed terrible paranormal events.
In 1974, Butch DeFeo was arrested for killing his entire family. He shot them all in the Amityville house. When he committed these murders, he was 23 years old, and he told the police that the mafia did all of it. However, after a lot of time with investigators, Butch told them that he had heard voices that told him to kill his entire family.
In 1976, George and Kathy Lutz moved into the Amityville house. They thought this was their dream home. After less than a month of living there, they began to encounter terrifying events. The family would get swarmed by flies, and then they would just disappear. One of the children reported that he was in his room levitating at some point. Some objects would fly across the room, and a green ooze would come out of the walls.
When the local priest came to bless the house, he heard a demonic voice tell him to leave. There have been a lot of rumors about how nothing in this house ever happened and that the Lutz family was just trying to make money off of their story. However, they moved out of the house in 1977; they claimed that the paranormal actually followed them there. They claimed that the entities from the Amityville house were attached to them. Interestingly enough, none of the other families that have lived in the house have ever claimed to witness paranormal activity.
Quite a few films and books were inspired by the events at the Amityville Horror House. The first film was released in 1979 and titled The Amityville Horror. This movie documented the Lutz family’s experiences in the home and made George out to be more into the occult and Satanism. In 2005, another Amityville film was released and it was considered a bust. In 2017, Amityville- The Awakening was released. Even though horror fans were thrilled about it, it didn’t do as well in theaters as expected.
The Amityville Horror Trailer
The Amityville Horror House was bought in 2017 for $850,000. Since its purchase, there have been no incidents of paranormal activity.
The Snederker House- The Haunting in Connecticut
One of the most haunted houses in the United States is the Snedeker House in Southington, Connecticut. This small town was unaware of the popularity and chaos this house would bring. In 1986, the family living here reported tales of horrifying paranormal activity. After Hollywood began to hear more about this house, A Haunting in Connecticut was released.
In 1986, the Snedeker family began to report the strange events happening in the house. They were struggling as a family during this time. Allen, the father, had issues with alcoholism, and his wife, Carmen, was always between jobs. The couple had serious financial woes and found it difficult to take care of their children. Their oldest son was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and had to get cancer treatments. They had to move to Southington for these treatments, and this house seemed perfect for them.
The home used to be The Hallahan Funeral Home before the Snedekers moved in. When they moved in, they began to experience events that would shake them as a family. They found photos from when the home was a funeral home. They found a coffin, some headstones, and even bodies that were buried on the property. The family had a lot of concerns about what they should do since they really couldn’t move.
The paranormal activity began with some small bizarre sounds in the house. They would occur at night and during the day. There would be scratching on the walls, and chains would rattle in the home. The children began to see ghosts walking in the hallways, too. The kids wanted to leave, but Carmen told them they were just imagining things. Some rooms had cold spots, and eventually, these paranormal events began to get physical.
One day, when Carmen was showering, the shower curtain started clinging to her body, and she couldn’t get out. She said that it was choking her, and she couldn’t move. These attacks began to happen more frequently to Carmen, always when she was home alone. Her niece, Tammy, claimed that she had been attacked as well. She also mentioned seeing black shadowy figures and heard whispering when no one was around.
The Snedekers ended up calling Ed and Lorraine Warren to help them out. They tried to cleanse and bless the house, but these had no effect on the spirits in the house. The Warrens felt as if there had been Satanic activity in the house, and this was what was causing the spirits to be so active. There were so many investigators in and out of this house. One group didn’t even make it through one night before they left because they were scared.
After the Warrens performed an exorcism of the house, the media grew very interested in the Snedeker house. When they moved out, it was purchased, and the new owners wished to remain anonymous. They claimed that they never witnessed anything paranormal in the home, and they suggested that the Snedekers made it all up.
The Haunting in Connecticut Trailer
The Haunting in Connecticut was loosely based on the events in this house. After they shared their story, they pretty much disappeared. Carmen has given talks about what happened in the house, but they are few and far between these days. Ed and Lorraine Warren helped write the script of the 2009 film. This story has intrigued horror fans for years.
The Conjuring House
One of the most popular horror film franchises is The Conjuring. The Conjuring House is located in Rhode Island, and in 1971, the Perron family moved in. They had five daughters, and they felt as if they had found their dream home here. Of course, everything seemed perfect to the Perrons. This was the home that they had always wanted.
When asked about the paranormal activity in the house, Carolyn Perron said it only took about five minutes for it to get started. The paranormal events happened during the day and at night. One of the daughters, Cindy, woke up one night, and she heard voices all around her. She was so scared that she went into her sister’s room. She felt safe there, but soon they heard the voices again. This time, they told the girls that there were seven dead soldiers buried in the walls of the house.
Soon, Carolyn and her husband, Roger, began to see and feel the paranormal activity in the house. When Carolyn was cleaning, she found that some of her clean tools had been moved around the house, but in a playful manner. However, after doing more research into the house, the Perrons found out that there had not been any occult practices or deaths in the house. When the Warrens were called in, they discovered that there was a ghost named Bathsheba Sherman haunting the Perrons.
When the Perrons learned about Bathsheba, they discovered that she had a reputation for being a witch in the town. Her name kept coming up for Lorraine Warren when she would investigate the home. The Perron children also claimed to have seen her in the home. The house received a cleansing and a blessing through a seance. Carolyn was really affected by the seance, and her body was physically wounded because of it. After the seance, however, the Perrons never felt the spirits here again.
The Conjuring House stories have also received a lot of backlash. Some investigators have been there and not felt anything paranormal, although others have. The movie was based on the events that the Perrons spoke about. The house is owned by private owners, and they have mentioned that they constantly get trespassers and just want the freedom to live in their happy home.
The Real Conjuring 2 House in Enfield, England
Ed and Lorraine Warren have been part of plenty of these haunted houses, and the Real Conjuring 2 House in Enfield, England is another. In 1977, they went to help out a family in England who felt that their house was haunted. Peggy Hodgson was renting the house with her four children and she began to witness paranormal events.
The children claimed to have seen clothing moving around the house on its own and the drawers of the dresser opening and closing. They also heard noises, but they never could find the source of the sounds. The upstairs of the house seemed to be the most haunted area, so for 18 months, Peggy and the kids all slept downstairs.
Peggy did admit that her children had played with a Ouija board in the home, and she felt that this could have brought out the spirits that were haunting them. The neighbors often called the police about the loud noises in the home, but there was never any proof of the family committing crimes. When paranormal investigators got involved, the events ramped up.
Items in the home began to levitate, and there were constant loud bangs coming from the walls. The investigators confirmed that this was a poltergeist haunting. The Warrens were called in to help the family, and eventually, the home was blessed and cleansed. This was considered one of their “top three” investigations of all time.
The Conjuring 2 Trailer
The family that lived in the home was happy to move out after the cleansing. The children have all grown up, and they live very quiet and private lives. They don’t like all the publicity, and they are glad that they all made it out of that house.
The Smurl Haunting
The Smurl Haunting took place in West Pittston, Pennsylvania. Jack Janet Smurl bought the home in 1974. They had young daughters and wanted enough room for their growing family. There were early signs that the house was haunted and began very quickly after they moved in.
The paranormal events started with banging noises on the ceilings and walls. Some foul smells then began to occur in the house. One night, the family’s dog was picked up and violently thrown across the room, and the entire family was there to witness it. This startled the family, and they knew that they had to get help.
The Smurls lived in the house for years and tried everything they could to eliminate the spirits here. Some horrible events began to happen, such as Jack being sexually assaulted by a succubus in the family’s living room. Janet also admitted to being sexually assaulted by a spirit in the home as well. They called Ed and Lorraine Warren to help them remove the spirits in the house.
The Warrens told the Smurls that at least four entities were in their home. Two of them were women, one was a teenager, and one was a man who had died in the house. There was also a very powerful demon living in the home. The Warrens called a priest to bless the house and perform an exorcism. In total, there were three exorcisms performed on the Smurl house.
The Haunted Movie Trailer
The Smurls eventually felt as if the spirits had left the home. After the movie’s release, the popularity of the house skyrocketed. The Smurl family also received a lot of media attention, and the children, who are all grown, want to live a nice, quiet life.
The Bothell Hell House
The Bothell Hell House is located in Bothell, Washington. In 2012, Keith Linder decided to rent a home with his girlfriend, Tina. He worked as a software engineer and was happy to live close to Seattle. This home seemed like a dream come true for the young couple, and everything seemed right on track for them. However, this all came crashing down when they began to witness paranormal events in the home.
Tina and Keith began to see things move independently or completely disappear shortly after moving in. Of course, they wrote off the items, thinking they might just have get lost in the move. One night, while they were watching television, the couple noticed a vase levitating all on its own. Then it fell to the floor and broke. The couple began to experience more intense events and found local ministers to check out their home.
Tina and Keith realized that there was something paranormal in their home and Keith contacted a woman that used to live there. She told him that she would never go back there and added, “That house is a living Hell.” Paranormal investigators were called in to help, and they realized that the house was haunted. The events in the home were too much for Keith and Tina to take, so they moved out. The new tenants claim that there is still a lot of paranormal activity taking place here.
Demons in Seattle Uncovered Trailer
The Screaming House of Union, Missouri
Steven LaChance moved into the house of his dreams with his children in 2001. His wife left him and the children, and he was trying his best to deal with that. He was doing very well at his job, and that is why he moved into this home. When they moved in, Steven was outside, and a car pulled up and told him, “Hope you will get along well with them,” and they drove off very quickly. Steven wasn’t sure what they meant, but he would soon find out.
The first thing the family began to notice was the changes in the lights. They would get very bright out of nowhere, so bright that they were almost blinding. A contractor checked out the house and said that there was nothing out of the ordinary with the lights. The events began to get worse, though.
The kids were terrified to walk without their dad from one room to another. They felt something demonic in the house and one of his sons said he saw a demon-looking creature resembling a clown. The screaming began in the home and the family couldn’t take it. Steven knew that he had to get help. He contacted paranormal experts from all over the world.
The biggest event happened when the entire house began to shake violently and scream. His daughter got locked in her room and Steven tried everything to get her out. Paranormal investigators and the Catholic Church got involved with the house. The church wrote a 156-page report on how there was a demon in the home. This is the most haunting case in America and has been terrifying tenants for decades.
All of these homes have a history of being haunted. When Hollywood got ahold of their stories, they decided to make movies to scare the pants off of horror lovers. Ghost hunters from all over the world would love to explore these homes, but keep in mind that there are families that currently live in most of them.
