Famous horror movie homes: How much are they really worth?
Photo courtesy of Jett Loe, untoldla.com
A certain subgenre of horror movie always starts the same way.
A family hoping for a fresh start moves into a new home. Sure, it has a couple cobwebs, and the family may get creepy vibe in one or two rooms, but that's nothing that cleaning and redecorating can't fix, right? And besides, this house has everything they were looking for.
Then weird things start happening. An item isn't where they left it. Doors close on their own. Lights turn off and on.
By the end of a two-hour movie, the family is forced to flee their dream home -- if they make it out at all.
Ever wondered how much the houses you see in those movies are worth?
Real estate website Trulia estimated the value of six real-world homes featured in famous scary films -- including "The Exorcist" and "The Amityville Horror" -- based on the prices of similar homes in their real-world neighborhoods. In some cases, the actual selling prices for the homes are comparatively high, indicating they may have been bolstered by the properties' ghostly reputations.
Buyers aren't the only people who seem interested in homes with a horror-movie history. As the couple who owns the home that inspired 2013's "The Conjuring" found out, houses with spooky starring film roles could also attract trespassing fans.
Click through to see about how much you'd have to spend to call these six possibly poltergeist-infested pads your own.
Paranormal Activity: $652,546
Photo courtesy of Jessica Rarity, Coldwell Banker
Director Oren Peli told a local CBS affiliate that weird things started happening when he moved into this four-bedroom San Diego house. Those creepy events, which he never really elaborated, inspired him to write and film "Paranormal Activity" in the house on a $15,000 budget.
Paranormal Activity: $652,546
In the film, a couple sets up cameras to try to document strange things that happen while they're asleep -- flashing lights, weird noises and doors closing -- and learns that a demon is haunting them.
Trulia estimates the home is worth $652,546, but it actually sold for $760,000 earlier this year.
The Exorcist: $1,149,000
Photo courtesy of Haydn Blackey
The three-bedroom Georgetown home where young Regan MacNeil was exorcised of the demon Pazuzu would be worth more than $1 million today, according to Trulia's estimate.
The actual home featured in "The Exorcist" last sold for more than $2 million in 2003, according to Zillow.
The Exorcist: $1,149,000
"The Exorcist" was inspired by tales of the 1949 exorcism of a Maryland boy known by the pseudonym "Roland Doe," one of only three exorcisms in the U.S. that had been sanctioned by the Catholic Church at that time. That exorcism was conducted in St. Louis, Missouri, and the home where Roland stayed during the ordeal has also become a popular destination for paranormal enthusiasts.
Poltergeist: $596,600
Photo courtesy of Joe Maddrey
Does building a subdivision on top of a Native American burial ground affect home values?
Trulia estimates the four-bedroom California home where the Freeling family battled otherworldly forces is worth about $596,600. It's probably safe to assume that's the value before it imploded and sank into the ground.
The house used for the exterior shots of the Freeling home is still standing in Simi Valley.
Poltergeist: $596,600
A curse supposedly haunts the cast and crew of the original "Poltergeist" trilogy, the production used real skeletons in the first two movies instead of dummies. Four cast members died in between "Poltergeist" and "Poltergeist III," some of them in violent ways. It's unclear whether that curse also applies to the former Freeling house.
The Amityville Horror: $425,000
Photo courtesy of Zillow
In 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered his mother, father, two brothers and two sisters in their Amityville, New York, home. Later, he told police that the voices in the house made him do it.
A year later, the Lutz family moved into the home and claimed to experience strange smells and sensations. Their account of the haunting became a book titled "The Amityville Horror" and a movie by the same name.
The Amityville Horror: $425,000
Trulia says the three-story, five-bedroom home is worth about $425,000.
The current owners purchased the home in 2010 for $950,000 -- more than twice Trulia's estimate -- and they say they've never experienced any ghostly occurrences.
Insidious: $1,175,500
Photo courtesy of Jett Loe, untoldla.com
When producers of the film "Insidious" were looking for a house to feature in the film, they wanted one that already looked like it could be haunted. This four-bedroom home in Los Angeles' Victoria Park neighborhood definitely fits the bill.
In the movie, a young boy falls from a ladder while investigating a creaking noise in the home's attic soon after moving in. The next day, he slips into a coma that doctors can't explain, and his family is stalked by ghosts. Moving to a less-creepy house doesn't fix their situation, because it turns out the boy is a conduit to the spiritual realm, and the dead are using his body to travel to the real world.
Insidious: $1,175,500
This house is the most expensive on Trulia's list, estimated at about $1.2 million.
The Haunting in Connecticut: $342,450
Photo courtesy of J.W. Ocker
When the Snedeker family moved into this five-bedroom home Southington, Connecticut, in 1986, they were shocked to find morticians' tools in the basement and learned that their new home was once a funeral parlor.
After this discovery, one of the children reported seeing ghosts in the house. Another family member said a bucket of mop water she was using to clean the kitchen turned blood red and smelled like decomposing bodies. When they called in paranormal investigators to check out the house, they were told the place was filled with demons. A priest performed an exorcism on the home, supposedly ridding it of all evil entities.
The Haunting in Connecticut: $342,450
Trulia estimates the real home is worth $342,450.
Several people have disputed the idea that the place had anything paranormal going on -- from the man who wrote up the Snedekers' accounts in the book "In a Dark Place" to the family's landlady, who says the family was well aware of the house's past before they moved in and that she never had complaints from tenants before or after the Snedekers.