Haunted Hauntings
In 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed his family in this Long Island town's Dutch Colonial home. The next owners, the Lutz family, fled after just 28 days.
What is Amityville?
"Here's Johnny!" Jack Nicholson axes his way through the Overlook Hotel in this 1980 Kubrick film.
What is The Shining?
Prohibition made this Chicago mobster known as "Scarface" rich, but tax evasion is what finally sent him to Alcatraz.
Who is Al Capone?
Vincent Price performs the creepy spoken-word rap at the end of this 1982 Michael Jackson hit, whose 14-minute zombie video was directed by John Landis.
What is "Thriller"?
A shaky 1967 film shot at Bluff Creek, California is said to show this huge, hairy Pacific Northwest hominid in mid-stride.
What is Bigfoot (sasquatch)?
Irish author Bram Stoker told this 1897 novel through letters and diary entries, beginning with Jonathan Harker's trip to Transylvania.
What is Dracula?
Docked for good in Long Beach, California, this retired ocean liner was nicknamed the "Grey Ghost" when it carried troops in WWII. Cabin B340 was considered so active it was closed to guests for years.
What is the Queen Mary?
This classic 1978 John Carpenter horror film stars a murder dawning what was really a cheap Captain Kirk mask painted white and walking suspiciously slowly.
What is Halloween?
This charming former law student faked injuries with a cast or sling to lure victims. He escaped custody twice before Florida executed him in 1989.
Who is Ted Bundy?
Bobby "Boris" Pickett's 1962 novelty song about "a graveyard smash" hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 just before Halloween.
What is "Monster Mash"?
People in Point Pleasant, West Virginia reported a red-eyed winged creature in 1966–67, just before the Silver Bridge collapsed. Today the creature has its own statue and festival.
What is the Mothman?
"Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'" Baltimore's NFL team is named after this author's most famous poem.
Who is Edgar Allan Poe?
Sarah, the widow of a rifle-making tycoon, kept building this San Jose mansion for 38 years. It's full of staircases that lead into ceilings and doors that open onto walls.
What is the Winchester Mystery House?
Pea soup, a 360-degree head turn, and a possessed girl named Regan all appear in this 1973 film, which was loosely based on a real 1949 case.
What is The Exorcist?
Known as the "Milwaukee Cannibal," this killer was the subject of a 2022 Netflix series starring Evan Peters.
Who is Jeffrey Dahmer?
Ray Parker Jr.'s 1984 movie theme drew a lawsuit from Huey Lewis, who said it sounded too much like his "I Want a New Drug."
What is "Ghostbusters"?
The Spanish name of this creature means "goat sucker." It was first reported in Puerto Rico in 1995 after drained livestock were found.
What is El Chupacabra?
Its subtitle is "The Modern Prometheus." Mary Shelley started this novel at 18 during a ghost-story contest with Lord Byron in 1816, the "Year Without a Summer."
What is Frankenstein?
Stephen King spent a night in Room 217 of this Estes Park, Colorado hotel, and it inspired him to write The Shining.
What is the Stanley Hotel?
The "blood" going down the drain in this 1960 Hitchcock film's shower scene was actually chocolate syrup.
What is Psycho?
She "...gave her mother forty whacks." A jury acquitted this Fall River, Massachusetts woman in the 1892 hatchet murders of her father and stepmother.
Who is Lizzie Borden?
Rockwell, the son of Motown founder Berry Gordy, had a paranoid 1984 hit with this song. Michael Jackson sang the chorus without credit.
What is "Somebody's Watching Me"?
Legend says Mother Leeds' 13th child became this winged creature of the Pine Barrens, and an NHL team is named after it.
What is the Jersey Devil?
Ichabod Crane, a lanky schoolteacher, rides for his life from a Headless Horseman in this 1820 Washington Irving tale.
What is "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"?
An 1834 fire at this French Quarter mansion uncovered Madame Delphine's horrific torture of enslaved people. Nicolas Cage owned it centuries later.
What is the LaLaurie Mansion?
A shape-shifting alien takes over an Antarctic research station in this 1982 Carpenter film. Kurt Russell's blood test scene is legendary.
What is The Thing?
This unidentified Bay Area killer of the late 1960s sent coded letters to newspapers. His "340" cipher wasn't cracked until 2020.
Who is the Zodiac Killer?
Screamin' Jay Hawkins used to climb out of a coffin on stage to perform this 1956 song. Bette Midler later sang it in Hocus Pocus.
What is "I Put a Spell on You"?
In Algonquian folklore, this cannibal spirit of winter and greed is always starving, no matter how much it eats.
What is the Wendigo?
Robert Louis Stevenson's wife reportedly burned the first draft of this 1886 novella about a respectable doctor and his monstrous other self.
What is Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
Starting in 1817, this spirit tormented John Bell's family in Adams, Tennessee. Legend says Andrew Jackson came to see it for himself.
What is the Bell Witch?
Sergeant Howie travels to the Scottish island of Summerisle looking for a missing girl. In this 1973 British film, Christopher Lee's pagans have a fiery surprise waiting for him.
What is The Wicker Man?
He built a "Murder Castle" hotel to prey on visitors to the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and he's the villain of The Devil in the White City.
Who is H.H. Holmes?
In Warren Zevon's 1978 song, the title creature drinks a piña colada at Trader Vic's, "and his hair was perfect."
What is "Werewolves of London"?
Canada's answer to Nessie, this serpent is said to live in British Columbia's Okanagan Lake. It got its name from a 1920s novelty song.
What is Ogopogo?
"Whatever walked there, walked alone." This 1959 novel was written by the author of "The Lottery," and Netflix adapted it as a series in 2018.
What is The Haunting of Hill House?