Halloween is just around the corner. To get in the spirit, I decided to rewatch an old favorite, The Sixth Sense. It held up incredibly well and still made my skin crawl all these years later. While gripping my popcorn bowl for safety, I realized what put me on edge more than anything else in the film were the interiors. In movie classics like The Sixth Sense, The Shining, and Beetlejuice and even television shows like American Horror Story and Scooby-Doo, the spaces become characters in their own right—spooking us more than any ghost ever could. We don’t need the monsters. We are terrified of the spaces themselves! So what makes horror movie houses so scary? I’m climbing into the attics and peeking behind closed doors to uncover the movie set design principles that go into creating some of the most iconic scary movie houses. 

6 Horror Movie House Design Principles to Make Your Skin Crawl  

Using my interior design expertise (and my love of scary movies), I uncovered six design principles that go into creating some of Hollywood’s most frightening movie sets. 

1. Off-kilter Color Palettes 

Both The Sixth Sense and The Shining use color to trigger our agent detection mechanisms. This is the same thought process that puts us on alert when we hear a squeaky floorboard or door creek behind us and brace to fight the monster in the house. In The Sixth Sense, we see the subtle use of red in interiors to signal that a ghost is about to appear. This visual motif becomes a literal red flag in the design of the spaces to encourage us to look out. The design of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining takes this further, using red hexagonal carpets, elevator doors, and bathroom wall paint that echoes the bloody scenes that make us squirm. 

2. Conflicting Design Styles 

When it comes to interiors, cohesion puts us at ease, while disjointed styling sets us on edge. The Shining set is terrifying in the way that Stanley Kubrick contrasts the historic and stately hotel exterior with out-of-place interior choices. The Overlook Hotel is set inside the real-life Stanley Hotel, which was built in 1909. In the movie, the Colonial Revival exterior clashes with David Hicks inspired 1960s carpeting and space-age style red bathroom alongside other hotel features like floral wallpapers and vintage green tiled bathrooms. The result leaves us feeling visually confused as if we can’t entirely trust what we see.   

The Beetlejuice house does this in a similar, but more playful, way. After Delia Deetz’s husband buys a rustic farmhouse from the recently deceased, she proceeds to remodel every inch, screaming, “If you don’t let me gut this house and make it my own, I will go insane, and I will take you with me!” The resulting 80s postmodern decor, paired with the existing farmhouse architecture, leaves the audience feeling a little insane, too, as we try to make sense of the glass brick and faux granite paint finish living alongside Craftsman woodwork and white-washed plank siding. 

3. Lack of Sightlines 

One of the biggest reasons haunted houses scare us is simply the fact that we don’t know what lies around the corner. British geographer Jay Appleton proposed the “habitat theory,” which explains that two of the biggest components that make us feel safe in our homes are prospect and refuge or being able to see clearly outside while feeling secure inside. Haunted houses lack both. For example, most of The Shining takes place inside windowless spaces, like hallways, that don’t give a clear view of what lies outside or even in the next corridor. Similarly, the Beetlejuice house makeover covers most of the windows with curtains, grates, or view-obstructing glass blocks. Cutting off views outside makes us feel trapped in the house with them, left to face whatever ghosts are lurking around inside. 

4. Too Much Privacy 

While privacy can help make us feel secure from the threats of the outside world, too much of it creates the fear of being detached. The Shining opens with a discussion around space and privacy, explaining that the location of the Overlook Hotel was chosen for its seclusion and that the winding road up the mountainside stretches 25 miles. This reinforces the idea that there are limited ties to the outside world or agencies that could supply help when a threat presents itself. 

5. Confusing Layouts 

Part of why The Shining is so frightening is because we can’t make sense of the hotel layout. Many dedicated Stanley Kubrick fans have attempted to map out the floor plan of the Overlook Hotel, with little success. There are multiple doors and hallways that lead to nowhere, and some of the interior windows don’t match the exterior design. Scooby-Doo cartoons use the same technique. The iconic hallway chase scenes are completely nonsensical, with hallways and doors that share no connection to each other and offer no explanation of how they’ve transported characters to the next room. We have the natural inclination to make sense of our spaces. When we can’t, we’re put on alert. 

6. Sparse Furnishings 

At first glance, the American Horror Story: Coven house is a beautiful, grandiose mansion that lures you in with an inviting front porch and Greek Revival columns. However, when you look at the interior, something feels amiss. While many of the furnishings are tasteful, they are sparse. There doesn’t seem to be a proper place to land, and the emptiness of the main living areas feels cold enough to give you chills. There’s no place to refuge or sit and connect with anyone inside who could help you.   

Uncomfortable Spaces are Creepy  

What all haunted houses lack is a sense of comfort, which is terrifying for an interior designer (or anyone else, for that matter). As a rule, our homes are places that make us feel safe and offer protection from all the creepy crawlies out there. Haunted houses do the opposite, placing us on the edge of our seats and causing us to second-guess our surroundings—whether that’s through clashing decor or layouts that cut us off from each other. Scary movies and haunted houses are fun, just as long as they can be enjoyed in the safe recluse of your comfortable home. 

 

Houses should be all treats and no tricks.