Cult-TV Theme Watch: Haunted Houses

A haunted house is a dwelling “often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased, who may have been former residents or were familiar with the property,” according to Wikipedia. 

In terms of cult television history, the haunted house, like the vampire or werewolf, is a staple of the form.

The paranormal anthology One Step Beyond (1959 – 1961) hosted by John Newland, depicted haunted houses on more than one occasion.  In “The Captain’s Guests,” for instance, a couple named The Courtneys (Robert Webber and Nancy Hedley) moved into a lovely old New England estate, only to see Mr. Courtney possessed in the home by the spirit of a bitter sea captain named Clausen.  

A less serious version of the sea captain ghost/haunted New England estate story came in 1968 with the TV series The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1968 -1970).   There, at gull cottage, Mrs. Muir (Hope Lange) fell in love with the ghost of spirit Captain Daniel Gregg (Edward Mulhare).  Mrs. Muir’s son was named John, but no, I’m not related…

In Rod Serling’s Night Gallery (1969 – 1973), haunted houses occasionally made appearances, such as in the installment “A Question of Fear.”  This second season tory saw arrogant Colonel Malloy (Leslie Nielsen) make a ten thousand dollar bet with Dr. Mattsey (Fritz Weaver) that he couldn’t spend an entire night instead a supposedly haunted house.  Memorably, this haunted house, as was also the case in Thriller’s “The Purple Room” -- was actually the famous Psycho House.

Ghost Story/Circle of Fear (1972 – 1973) featured haunted houses frequently as well.  In “The New House,” the new residents Eileen (Barbara Parkins) and John Travis (David Birney) learned that their new home was built atop an old “hanging tree” hill, and that one hanging victim, Thomasina Barros (Caitlin Wyles) was still very possessive of the land.  Other episodes involving haunted domiciles include “The Concrete Captain” and “Doorway to Death.”

In 1998, Frank Black’s (Lance Henriksen) yellow house -- a symbol of escape from the darkness of the world -- itself became a haunted domicile in the second season Millennium (1996 – 1999) episode “The Curse of Frank Black.”   Here, Frank found his old home inhabited by the ghost of Bob Bletcher (Bill Smitrovich), who had been murdered (and gruesomely displayed…) in the basement during the episode “Lamentation.”

An X-Files (1993 – 2002) episode from the same year, “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas” also revolved around a haunted house.  In this case, however, Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigated an allegedly haunted house in Maryland on Christmas Eve. There, they encountered two playful but also malevolent spirits, Maurice (Edward Asner) and Lyda (Lily Tomlin), a couple who had entered into a kind of murder/suicide pact in 1917.  Now, in the present, they seemed hell-bent on making Mulder and Scully go through the same “test” of love…

Last year, American Horror Story’s (2011 - ) first season centered on a dysfunctional family, the Harmons (Dylan McDermott, Connie Britton, Taissa Farmiga), moving into a haunted house in Los Angeles. The house was already the home for a gaggle of troublesome ghosts, some malevolent, some merely annoying.  As the Harmons soon discovered, their haunted house was also a prime attraction on a local “Murder House” tour.

Haunted houses have also appeared on Sapphire and Steel (the first serial), Dark Shadows, The Next Step Beyond (“The Haunted Inn”), Supernatural (“Hell House”) and other notable series.