The exact 22-film ranking attributed to Entertainment Weekly cannot be independently verified from the available copy, so it would be misleading to reproduce its entries or placements as fact. What can be assessed is the haunted-house tradition behind the headline: films that turn a house, hotel or other enclosed place into a source of menace, from Robert Wise’s psychologically ambiguous The Haunting to the surreal Japanese fantasy House.
Why the exact 22-film ranking is uncertain
A Yahoo search result identifies the ranking as an Entertainment Weekly article and preserves an excerpt mentioning Le Manoir du diable (1896). But the article itself was not retrievable, and a search did not locate an original Entertainment Weekly copy. That evidence does not establish the full list or its order. This article therefore does not attribute a ranked placement—or membership in the 22—to any film. The available ranking reference supports the title and attribution, not the complete ranking.
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What makes a haunted-house film work?
The strongest examples make the setting more than a backdrop. A building can distort space, preserve a buried history, or turn familiar domestic rooms into threats. The films also differ in how firmly they establish a supernatural cause: some leave room for psychological explanation, while others make the haunting an explicit force. Comparing those choices is more useful than pretending “best” has an objective measurement.
- Point of view: Is the haunting independently confirmed, or filtered through a character whose perceptions may be unreliable?
- Setting: Is menace tied to an isolated mansion, or does it invade an ordinary home or institution?
- Pace and style: Does the film build dread through restraint, or rely on spectacle, rapid cutting and startling effects?
- History: Does the building’s past drive the mystery, or is the place mainly a stage for supernatural events?
Seven films that show the genre’s range
The Haunting (1963): architecture and uncertainty
In Robert Wise’s film, a group gathers at Hill House, where spatial and temporal distortions make the building’s geography feel wrong. Its black-and-white widescreen photography and performances favor atmosphere over explicit effects, while its unresolved relationship between supernatural events and the heroine’s mind keeps the source of dread unsettled. BFI critic Kevin Lyons calls it “the haunted house film against which all others are measured”—a critical judgment, not a measurable ranking. BFI’s guide to haunted-house films discusses the film’s techniques and place in the genre.
#1 Best Overall
- Blu-ray
- Multiple Formats, Blu-ray, NTSC
- English (Published), German (Published), English (Original Language)
- 3
- 285
The Innocents (1961): a literary ghost story with an unreliable viewpoint
Jack Clayton adapted Henry James’s 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw into a restrained story about a governess who believes ghosts are threatening the children in her care. The film never fully settles whether she has perceived a genuine haunting or whether the threat is bound up with her own damaged psyche. That uncertainty makes it a natural companion to The Haunting, though its gothic restraint and literary source give it a different texture. BFI’s 2013 guide noted that the film was then available on BFI Blu-ray; that is historical availability, not confirmation of a current edition or stock. The BFI guide provides that context.
House on Haunted Hill (1959): theatrical shocks and a showman’s touch
William Castle’s film has Vincent Price invite guests to stay overnight in a supposedly haunted house in exchange for money. Its playful presentation reflects Castle’s “Emergo” gimmick: in some cinemas, a pulley system was used to make a ghost appear to fly toward the audience. The film’s appeal lies partly in that theatrical spirit and in the tension between a seemingly supernatural night and the possibility of rational explanations. BFI’s genre guide describes the film and the gimmick.
Rank #2
The Changeling (1980): grief becomes a mystery
Peter Medak’s film follows a grieving composer who moves into a Seattle mansion and investigates the ghost of a murdered child. Rather than making the house only a setting for shocks, it gives the haunting a mystery structure: the protagonist’s search for an explanation is central to the story. BFI highlights George C. Scott’s performance and the film’s investigative approach. The BFI guide discusses both.
Poltergeist (1982): the haunting moves into suburbia
Tobe Hooper’s film relocates the ghost story from the remote mansion to an ordinary suburban home built on a desecrated cemetery. The family’s television and everyday rooms become channels for supernatural danger. That shift matters: domestic familiarity, rather than isolation in a grand old house, is what makes the setting unsettling. BFI describes the film’s movement into the suburban home. Read the BFI guide.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThe Others (2001): period atmosphere and restraint
Alejandro Amenábar sets his film in postwar Jersey, where a mother’s fear for her sickly children shapes the story’s fog-bound, understated supernatural mood. BFI places it within a revival of quieter supernatural horror around the late 1990s and early 2000s. Its period setting and controlled point of view distinguish it from the faster, more spectacular approach of Poltergeist. BFI’s guide considers the film in that context.
House (Hausu, 1977): surreal horror-fantasy
Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Japanese film sends seven schoolgirls to an aunt’s country house. Painted skies, saturated color, rapid editing, animation and stop-motion give it a deliberately comic, hyperactive style; it is not conventional sustained-dread horror. Beneath the visual play is a melancholic undercurrent connected to wartime trauma echoing into a younger generation. BFI writer Sarah Cleary describes it as “a fevered flight of horror-fantasy like no other.” Cleary’s BFI feature on House explores that collision of style and subject.
Rank #4
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More routes through the haunted-house tradition
BFI’s 2013 guide also considers films that broaden the usual mansion-and-ghost formula. The Legend of Hell House (1973) centers on a supposedly malignant house investigated through a pseudo-scientific approach. The Amityville Horror (1979) draws on disputed claims about a real-world haunting, while The Shining (1980) leaves room for ambiguity around the Overlook Hotel. In The Grudge (2002), a curse is attached to a Tokyo house; The Innkeepers (2011) turns a hotel into a slow-burn setting. The guide spans films from 1959 to 2011, showing how varied the genre’s places and methods can be. See the BFI guide for its selection and discussion.
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