taken up housesmay get all the attention , but apartment buildings can give off some mighty terrorise zip , too — whether it ’s in the chassis of something thatfollows you in , orsomething that pouncesonce you ’ve signed your lease . Here are 11 picture featuring flat you ’re glad are n’t part of your rental history .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5vljQQOISI

1) Inferno

Dario Argento ’s 1980 precious stone - toned phantasmagoria , the 2d in the “ Three Mothers Trilogy ” that begins with Suspiria , follows its agonist , music student Mark , from Rome to New York City in hunt of his troubled sister , Rose . Rose ’s obsession with the hulking apartment building where she ’s been living shortly becomes Mark ’s , especially since she ’s nowhere to be found once he make it . However , she has left some worrisome cue behind , including details about the structure ’s sinister original purpose as a custom - built mansion house for the witchy “ Mater Tenebrarum , ” and a series of riddle that inspire Mark to start ripping up floorboards in search of the the true .

https://gizmodo.com/the-19-scariest-freakiest-haunted-houses-in-movies-and-1819117330

His quest leads him through the construction ’s confusingly winding layout and menacing interior decoration — blood - red walls , heavy drapes , ornate stairway , candelabras , windows constantly being mishandle open by blow of malarky , hooded chassis with very bad intent , and loose - roaming packs of savage cat — and into his darkest nightmares .

Dark Water’s Jennifer Connelly wonders if any damage caused by ghosts is gonna come out of her deposit.

Dark Water’s Jennifer Connelly wonders if any damage caused by ghosts is gonna come out of her deposit.Image: Buena Vista Pictures

2) Ghostbusters

Also in New York City , symphony musicianDana Barretthas a very nice flat in “ the Shandor Building ” ( in real life , it ’s located at 55 Central Park West , and sadly , there ’s not really a Gozerian temple on the roof ) . The views are awful , butthe nerdy hombre down the hallis a little pushy — and there ’s decidedly something supernatural going on in the kitchen . Specifically , the fridge .

3) Candyman

Chicago ’s real - life Cabrini - Green public caparison task formed the backdrop for Bernard Rose ’s 1992 cult Hellenic about a ghostly , claw - handed killer whose superpower arefueled by the strength of his own urban fable . The decaying apartment towers are purposefully lensed to highlight the risk they turn back , as seen through the eye of the film ’s lily-white , upper - class protagonist , who barges into a biotic community where she ’s not welcome to do research for her grad - schooltime dissertation . But until she experiences it firsthand in her own swish condo , she ’s unable to comprehend the unmingled terror of living somewhere where a bloodthirsty bugaboo has the power to plug through the walls , happen out of bad dreams to take lives in the actual world . Of course , you fuck by now to annul enunciate his name into the bathroom mirror at all costs .

4) The Sentinel

We revisited the 1977 thriller The Sentinel last year as part of a circle - up of movies that combinehorror with the macrocosm of fashion . And while the main character is indeed a model , her life story of glamourous photoshoots takes a turn when she moves into a vintage Brooklyn apartment building that ’s hiding a diabolical secret .

https://gizmodo.com/7-glamorously-gruesome-movies-that-combine-horror-and-h-1835590690

5) Dark Water

After Ring and Ring 2 , both of which wereswiftly remade by Hollywood , Japanese filmmaker Hideo Nakata made Dark Water , establish on level by Koji Suzuki , who also wrote the Ring novel serial . Both Dark Water movies — because of course , it got its own NYC - set remaking — are about lately split up mother ( Hitomi Kiroki in the original , Jennifer Connelly in the remake ) with precocious young daughters who move into gloomy old apartments . The moms both break their persistently leaking ceiling are more than just an annoyance , they ’re the first confidential information of a supernatural mystery that ’ll soon entangle them … permanently .

Some lessons to be learned here : sometimes the split is suspiciously low-cost for sinister reasons ; sometimes what initially seems like a “ mere ” repair can spiral into something frustratingly intrusive ; and if you notice that your construction director is John C. Reilly , run .

6) Rosemary’s Baby

The most popular launching incontroversial directorRoman Polanski ’s “ Apartment Trilogy ” ( alongside surreal , claustrophobic nightmares Repulsion and The Tenant ) , Rosemary ’s Baby famously follow a untried Manhattan span ( Mia Farrow , John Cassavetes ) who move into their pipe dream apartment in the Bramford ( played by the Dakota , future internet site of John Lennon ’s slaying ) just as they ’re plan to start a house , only to feel out that the historical building ’s existing occupant are all members of the same Satanic enchantress cult .

https://gizmodo.com/the-top-10-horror-movies-of-the-last-10-years-1838494128

Of course , it claim the whole movie to debunk the demonic part , but the tension begins building as presently as the pregnant and paranoid Rosemary senses something evil about the “ bizarre ” senior duad next room access — and learns too late that if a previous tenant has made it a point to stop a specific cupboard , one should always check to make certain there is n’t some kind of undesirable secret - passage situation go on .

Image: TriStar Pictures

Candyman (Tony Todd) stops by for a not-so-friendly friendly visit.Image: TriStar Pictures

7) Poltergeist III

This isthe Poltergeist sequelthat nobody ever talks about , with sound cause . But this distant third entranceway in the serial — which was released just months after the tragical destruction of 12 - year - previous star Heather O’Rourke in 1988 — does take us from the Los Angeles suburbs to the mettle of Chicago , where spectre attractor Carol Anne ( O’Rourke ) move to live with her aunt and uncle ( Nancy Allen , Tom Skerritt ) , who somehow are n’t aware of the blanket supernatural ordeal she ’s recently endured .

https://gizmodo.com/10-weirdly-great-but-often-overlooked-horror-sequels-p-1837934560

Unfortunately for all demand , the Beast has no trouble infiltrate their high - rise apartment complex ( portrayed by the typical skyscraper formerly know as the John Hancock Center ) , where internet site - specific horrors transpire in and on lift beam of light , parking garage , swimming pool , and window - washer lifts , and the Poltergeist ghouls — who’ve long since moved preceding TV set — use the edifice ’s many glimmer mirrors as passageways and tools of mind - fuckery rather .

Image: Paramount Pictures

Minnie Castevet (Ruth Gordon, with Mia Farrow) may be the neighbor from hell, but she makes a mean Vodka Blush cocktail.Image: Paramount Pictures

8) Troll

The flashy sequelgets all the erotic love , but particular effect creative person - turn - conductor John Carl Buechler ’s O.G. Troll movie — often observe as the celluloid debut of a post - Saturday Night Life , pre - Seinfeld Julia Louis - Dreyfus — has its own magical spell . Goofy pop Harry Potter ( obviously , the motion-picture show pre - date the arrival of that other one ; here , he ’s played by Michael Moriarty , furor - dear star ofThe Stuff and Q : The Winged Serpent ) and his family move to a little apartment building in San Francisco , where the common close - quarters difference of opinion , like teasing fire dismay and noisy neighbors , on the spur of the moment seem tame once the construction ’s magical invader get down take a leak their presence felt up .

The first footmark is kidnapping Harry ’s vernal girl and physical structure - swap her with a troll in disguise , the pure covering for an flat - by - flat movement to transform the building into a battleground in the ancient storybook war between humans and fairies . Good matter there ’s a sympathetic witch living on a higher floor ( run by Lost in Space ’s June Lockhart ) who ’s there to keep the balance — but not before Troll showers us with musical numbers , interpretative dance , a wacky cameo by Sonny Bono as a horny swinger , the sight of Louis - Dreyfus as a wood nymph , and lots of genuinely distressful creature .

9) Citadel

After his pregnant wife is murdered in the hallway of their crumble flat building by a gang of what seem to be savage children clad in grimy hoodies , Tommy ( Aneurin Barnard ) must picture out how to navigate his crushing heartache while being a single father to his infant daughter . He shortly comes to suspect that the flak was n’t random , especially when he receive a crusty honest-to-goodness non-Christian priest who keep that the kids who ’re terrorise the orbit have been transformed by infection , poison , or worse into roughshod , mutate , not - quite - human tool .

There are lots of gruesome thing in the Glasgow - set Citadel — the debut film from writer - film director Ciarán Foy , who went on to make Sinister 2 andEli — to make you shudder ( showing A : many bloodless - knuckle joint moments of “ baby in peril ” ) . But those tower blocks , live by scurrying little monsters who are very much the product of the can’t - be - devil company that ’s cruelly cast away them , are ominous as sin .

10) Critters 3

A baby - face teen namedLeonardo DiCapriomakes his first bragging - screen appearance in this gumptious entry in the proudly punk sci - fi horror series . The activity shifts from rural Grover ’s Bend to Los Angeles , where a widowed pappa and his two kids unwittingly bring a certain breed of nasty , furred aliens along when they return to their run - down apartment construction after a route trip . The ravenous creatures do everyone a favour by decimating the building ’s ginzo maintenance guy first , then the greedy landlord — but as their rampage continue , the few remaining tenant band together to struggle for survival , with a key help from scrappy series regular Charlie ( Don Keith Opper ) .

11) Under the Shadow

WhenBabak Anvari ’s 2016 hair-raiser Under the Shadow begins , the situation is already nearing unbearable for a young female parent named Shideh ( Narges Rashidi ) in eighties Tehran , where her activist past has blacklisted her from returning to medical school . thing are made even bleaker by the fact that her hubby did become a doctor , and is now being put to solve on the unsafe front lines , even as missile strike start to barrage their own neck of the woods . This intend that Shideh and her rambunctious daughter have to stay unsympathetic up inside their apartment for safety grounds — which becomes a major problem when an evil intent hellbent on adding to their torment manifest in their midst . The circumstances are more to blame than the flat itself , but as Shideh ’s trial by ordeal worsen , the mild outer space steady becomes shrink - wrapped in more and more layers of agony .

https://gizmodo.com/scream-stream-10-spooky-halloween-horror-selections-1839173995

Honorable mentions

The Barcelona apartment construction in2007 incur - footage horror movie [ REC ] , which becomes background zero for a apace - spreading zombie virus

The Macau flat tug plagued byhopping vampiresin 2013 stunt - stravaganza Rigor Mortis

The Chicago building in1988’sChild ’s Playthat demonstrate why you should never , ever bring a possessed doll into a trammel space like an apartment , specially one located on a very high floor

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The generic Los Angeles building complex in gruesome 1978 slasher The Toolbox Murders , where residents are stalk by a bloodthirsty killer

Montreal ’s high - wage hike Starliner Towers inDavid Cronenberg ’s 1975 Shivers , where a leech transforms the taint into violent sex maniacs

The San Francisco flat in   2005 read-only memory - com Just Like Heaven , where bewildered subletterMark Ruffalois accosted by the “ not dead yet ” ghost of late occupant Reese Witherspoon

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

For more , ensure you ’re observe us on our Instagram @io9dotcom .

CandymanDario ArgentoGhostbustersHaunted housesHorrorTrollVampires

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