10 Horrifying Haunted House Films

10. Crimson Peak

Crimson Peak is a Guillermo Del Toro directed horror film released in 2015. It’s also a love letter to brooding gothic-era ghost stories.

When Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) marries Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) after a whirlwind romance, they abscond together alongside Thomas’ sister and move to the Sharpes' ancestral home, Crimson Peak. It’s immediately apparent that the mansion has seen better days; the estate is neglected and rundown, leading Edith to believe the Sharpe family may not be as wealthy as they’ve led on.

Where the film is really outstanding though is in the realisation of its macabre phantoms.

Due to the red clay Crimson Peak has been built on - and derives its name from - the ghosts which start appearing to Edith are completely red in colour and are horribly disfigured by the fatal injuries they sustained: one such ghost has a cleaver protruding from its split skull, while another still wears a noose about its broken neck.

Doug Jones, the actor who has the uncanny talent for bringing monsters to life onscreen (as seen in Del Toro’s other films, Pan’s Labryinth, and The Shape of Water), brings an unusual physicality to the grotesque red revenants that shamble through Crimson Peak during the dead of night.