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The Creepiest Windows In Horror Movie History
Written By: Designer ConsultantPublished: 10-28-2015
Halloween is upon us once again, and that's when everything is supposed to be scary.
Unfortunately, that's a little tricky for us. Drapery rods aren't exactly scary. In fact, some would say that they're downright comforting.
Instead, we thought we'd look at some of the creepiest window scenes in horror movie history. Are we reaching? Maybe. But who cares, it's Halloween.
And of course, it should go without saying: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!
So without further ado:
The Others: It's not really the windows themselves that are creepy in The Others. It's the fact that light hardly ever passes through them.
This movie actually has a pretty decent twist in it, so we won't spoil it for anyone who's never seen it before. But here's the cliffnotes version:
Nicole Kidman lives in a big creepy house with her two creepy kids who are allergic to sunlight, so to keep them from being in constant agony, the windows are always covered with sheets.
If you're not quite up on the science of light, the basic formula is NL=CD, where NL stands for “no light†and CD stands for “creepy darkness.â€
The Amityville Horror: We were planning on just talking about how creepy the windows on the Amityville house look, and it would have been pretty easy to fill a couple paragraphs on it. I mean, just look at it.
But upon revisiting this classic horror film (the version completely devoid of bearded Ryan Reynolds), we found that the windows in this movie are actually on a whole other level.
First of all, there's the scene where the two boys decide to play a prank on their sister by dangling a fake spider over her from an upstairs window, which apparently upsets the window enough for it to slam down on one of the boy's hands.
And then there's the famous scene where Kathy is putting her daughter to bed, and looks out the upstairs window only to find her self face to face with two sinister red eyes.
For the record, that second one would have been solved with a drapery rod and drapes. Just saying.
The Mist: The windows in the The Mist aren't just creepy, they're integral to the plot.
The movie centers around a group of people trapped in a supermarket as an ominous mist rolls in, which normally wouldn't be a problem except that this mist is full of weird monsters that eat people.
They then spend a good portion of the movie looking through the large plate glass window at the front of the store and trying to decide what to do next before the weird monsters that eat people break through the glass and do what weird monsters that eat people do.
They may not be the traditional haunted house windows (and they probably wouldn't need any drapery hardware), but creepy windows are creepy windows, and they made it into our list.
Honorable mentions
Visiting Hours: In one of the creepiest trailers for a hospital horror movie, the facade of a hospital is shown with all the windows lit up. One by one some of the lights turn off until the only visible windows that are the lit form the shape of a skull. Windows don't get much creepier than that.
Nosferatu: This silent movie features a vampire who is truly scary looking. Windows feature prominently in the film and feature Ellen and Nosferatu appearing in windows. When Nosferatu appears in a window, the muntins make them look almost like a prison window he is trying to escape from.
Rope: A classic Hitchcock horror movie, the entire film takes place in a New York apartment. An enormous set of curved windows look out onto the New York skyline. As the horrible events are slowly uncovered, the sky becomes ominously darker and darker until the truth is finally known.
Unfortunately, that's a little tricky for us. Drapery rods aren't exactly scary. In fact, some would say that they're downright comforting.
Instead, we thought we'd look at some of the creepiest window scenes in horror movie history. Are we reaching? Maybe. But who cares, it's Halloween.
And of course, it should go without saying: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!
So without further ado:
The Others: It's not really the windows themselves that are creepy in The Others. It's the fact that light hardly ever passes through them.
This movie actually has a pretty decent twist in it, so we won't spoil it for anyone who's never seen it before. But here's the cliffnotes version:
Nicole Kidman lives in a big creepy house with her two creepy kids who are allergic to sunlight, so to keep them from being in constant agony, the windows are always covered with sheets.
If you're not quite up on the science of light, the basic formula is NL=CD, where NL stands for “no light†and CD stands for “creepy darkness.â€
The Amityville Horror: We were planning on just talking about how creepy the windows on the Amityville house look, and it would have been pretty easy to fill a couple paragraphs on it. I mean, just look at it.
But upon revisiting this classic horror film (the version completely devoid of bearded Ryan Reynolds), we found that the windows in this movie are actually on a whole other level.
First of all, there's the scene where the two boys decide to play a prank on their sister by dangling a fake spider over her from an upstairs window, which apparently upsets the window enough for it to slam down on one of the boy's hands.
And then there's the famous scene where Kathy is putting her daughter to bed, and looks out the upstairs window only to find her self face to face with two sinister red eyes.
For the record, that second one would have been solved with a drapery rod and drapes. Just saying.
The Mist: The windows in the The Mist aren't just creepy, they're integral to the plot.
The movie centers around a group of people trapped in a supermarket as an ominous mist rolls in, which normally wouldn't be a problem except that this mist is full of weird monsters that eat people.
They then spend a good portion of the movie looking through the large plate glass window at the front of the store and trying to decide what to do next before the weird monsters that eat people break through the glass and do what weird monsters that eat people do.
They may not be the traditional haunted house windows (and they probably wouldn't need any drapery hardware), but creepy windows are creepy windows, and they made it into our list.
Honorable mentions
Visiting Hours: In one of the creepiest trailers for a hospital horror movie, the facade of a hospital is shown with all the windows lit up. One by one some of the lights turn off until the only visible windows that are the lit form the shape of a skull. Windows don't get much creepier than that.
Nosferatu: This silent movie features a vampire who is truly scary looking. Windows feature prominently in the film and feature Ellen and Nosferatu appearing in windows. When Nosferatu appears in a window, the muntins make them look almost like a prison window he is trying to escape from.
Rope: A classic Hitchcock horror movie, the entire film takes place in a New York apartment. An enormous set of curved windows look out onto the New York skyline. As the horrible events are slowly uncovered, the sky becomes ominously darker and darker until the truth is finally known.
