Allow an architect to explain what makes some of film's most famous haunted houses look scary
Architect Michael Wyetzner looks at houses from Psycho, Get Out, Beetlejuice, and more
Michael Wyetzner is an experienced architect and we’re only a week out from Halloween, so it only makes sense to ask the man to explain what, exactly, makes a haunted house look creepy. In order to do just that, Architectural Digest presented Wyetzner with a few of the most famous scary homes in horror film history and had him discuss their design.
Wyetzner starts off with Psycho’s Bates Motel, a Victorian home that “sets the stage for houses of horror in film” going forward. He notes that the Motel was inspired by Edward Hopper’s House By The Railroad and evokes a “symbol of decaying America” before moving on to discuss Beetlejuice’s house, which was renovated from another Victorian house into a trendy ‘80s deconstructed home.
As he goes on, Wyetzner digs into The House On Haunted Hill’s blend of modern and ancient “temple-like forms” and The Shining’s enormous Overlook Hotel (which isn’t really a house, but gets by on reputation). For the most modern example, the video highlights the unassuming house from Get Out and its combination of Cape Cod and plantation manor design.
Almost all of these buildings, Wyetzner notes, are set atop a hill and have “really deep, high roofs” that hint that they hide a big, spooky attic. Given how hard it is to find a first home in 2022, they’re all also places that would probably sell very quickly if priced well—no matter how often the walls bleed and demonic wailing echoes through the pipes.
[via Digg]
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