Flickering Myth’s Casey Chong presents a selection of hotel horror movies for your watch list…
In the world of horror movies, checking into a hotel room can be your impending doom. Look at Marion Crane, who stays at Bates Motel, only to end up being brutally stabbed to death while she’s in a shower in Psycho. Or watching Jack Torrance’s slow descent to insanity after his caretaking position turns into an unsettling experience at The Overlook Hotel in The Shining. Others like Mike Enslin, who insists on staying in The Dolphin Hotel’s titular haunted room in 1408, and a married couple – David and Amy – find themselves stranded in a rundown motel filled with dirty secrets in Vacancy. All these characters have gone through hell and face the biggest nightmares of their lives. There’s no doubt that hotel horror movies have made their mark, for better or worse, and here, we have selected six that are well worth checking out…
The City of the Dead a.k.a Horror Hotel (1960)
This black-and-white supernatural horror was released in the same year as Psycho, and there’s no prize guessing which movie emerged as the most talked-about among the two. Interestingly, The City of the Dead (or Horror Hotel in the U.S.) shares a similar narrative pattern with Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal horror classic, notably the fate of Nan Barlow (Venetia Stevenson). She plays a history student who is eager to know more about witchcraft in the history of the (fictional) Whitewood in Massachusetts by visiting the small town on her own.
The movie marks John Llewellyn Moxey’s directorial debut, and he proved his flair for showing enough atmospheric dread with a dash of gothic horror on the side. His liberal use of fog and moody cinematography, lensed by Desmond Dickinson, adds a sense of eeriness to the small-town setting and the Raven’s Inn. The City of the Dead only runs at a modest 78 minutes, but Moxey manages to bring enough twists and turns to this supernatural horror.
Daughters of Darkness (1971)
The luxurious seaside hotel at Ostend, Belgium, becomes a surreal, yet seductive backdrop for the newlywed young couple (John Karlen’s Stefan and Danielle Ouimet’s Valerie), who are both under the spell of an enigmatic Hungarian countess, Elizabeth Báthory. The latter is played by the alluring Delphine Seyrig, whose cryptic charm and ethereal beauty are the highlight of the movie.
Belgian director Harry Kümel approaches his Daughters of Darkness in an elegantly paced rhythm, which may turn off genre fans looking for a more straightforward horror fare. Instead, he embraces the distinctly Euro touch by incorporating softcore erotic elements with gothic horror and psychological underpinning. The countess in question turns out to be a vampire in disguise, but don’t expect this to be an all-out gore fest, even though the movie still has plenty of blood and violence.
The vampire genre is more of a metaphor to explore the hidden desire and power dynamics, along with a contrasting view of how a relationship can be potentially ruined by the sheer intimacy and manipulation. Daughters of Darkness is also a triumph in its technical aspects, from the stunning production and costume designs to Eduard van der Enden’s atmospheric cinematography that captures the underlying sense of enigma of the movie.
Ghostkeeper (1981)
This obscure Canadian horror film follows the story of Jenny (Riva Spier), Marty (Murray Ord) and Chrissy (Sheri McFadden) on a trip in the Rocky Mountains riding their snowmobiles. Their ill-advised decision to go for a ride deep in the snow before ending up at the seemingly deserted hotel, and even subsequently being stranded there due to the blizzard.
Director and co-writer James Makichuk seems to be taking a cue from The Shining playbook, prioritizing slow-burning atmospheric dread over in-your-face jump scares and shock tactics. The movie may have been lagging in some places, making the otherwise lean 87 minutes feel longer. The acting is nothing to write home about, except for Georgie Collins in her formidable supporting turn as the innkeeper.
Ghostkeeper also deserves mention for making good use of Alberta’s Banff National Park and the Deer Lodge hotel to capture the isolated setting that is far away from civilization. Despite the obvious budget constraints, the movie still manages to boast John Holbrook’s moody lensing and Paul Zaza’s haunting score that complements the supernatural-based Wendigo elements in this movie.
The Innkeepers (2011)
Writer-director Ti West sure loves his horror films that utilize the slow-burn technique over the typical jump scare-heavy approach, giving them a distinctly 1970s classic feel. Such is the case with The Innkeepers, which revolves around the two young innkeepers – Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) – working in their final days at the Yankee Pedlar Inn. The first half of the movie is pretty much a series of mundane, yet uneventful stretches that may bore conventional horror fans looking for some scares.
But West somehow has a knack for keeping his deliberate story interesting and surprisingly watchable, thanks to the lived-in chemistry between Paxton’s Claire and Healy’s Luke, who love to spend their free time trying to cover the alleged supernatural occurrence within the hotel. As in ghost hunting via paranormal investigation-style, but don’t expect Ghostbusters– level either, even though their moments of levity help to keep the movie from being overly glum and joyless.
The Innkeepers is predominantly about the atmosphere, which grows unsettling as the movie slowly but surely creeps up on you, while West throws in a few effective scares sparingly. This is the kind of supernatural horror film that relies heavily on the power of imagination rather than in-your-face terror, culminating in a creepy and thrilling third act. The hotel itself manifests into a character itself — antiquated décor and furniture within its vintage interior is like a step back into the olden days, complete with a foreboding sense of haunting and dread.
Bug (2006)
William Friedkin’s late-career trajectory saw the veteran filmmaker returning to the horror territory, albeit not in a familiar Exorcist-type supernatural scares. Instead, it’s more small-scale in his approach, favoring a predominantly single location within the confines of a derelict motel room somewhere in Oklahoma. The motel room in question is inhabited by a woman named Agnes (Ashley Judd), who’s been living in fear and agony from the repetitive ringing of a landline phone to the occasional visit of her ex-husband, Jerry (Harry Connick Jr.). She is also lonely and desperately needed company, which she eventually finds one in the form of a drifter, played by Michael Shannon as Peter. Their subsequent one-night stand and Peter’s sleepover are more than just fulfilling their sexual needs.
Adapted from Tracy Letts’s 1996 play of the same name, Friedkin delves into the deep-seated paranoia surrounding Peter’s conspiracy theories about the government. The movie is more psychological in its execution, even though we do get some grisly violence every now and then. Friedkin uses the motel room to his advantage, bringing in enough claustrophobic tension as the movie progresses, while mirroring its confined setting with the characters’ descent into insanity. It’s a pity that Bug, like some of Friedkin’s underappreciated movies in the past, was largely ignored at the time of its release, grossing only a paltry $8.2 million on a relatively small $4 million budget.
The Beyond (1981)
Director and co-writer Lucio Fulci eschews the traditional storytelling method in favor of all things surreal and bizarre imagery in The Beyond. In other words, logic is thrown out of the window, allowing the legendary Italian director to blur the lines between reality and fantasy, or more appropriately, nightmare. The story follows Liza Merrill (Catriona MacColl), a young New York-based woman who inherits an old Louisiana hotel. The hotel itself has a dark past, including the fact that it was built over one of the seven gates of hell.
Fulci uses this setup to unleash hell, both figuratively and literally, with enough explicit gore and violence. His penchant for dreamlike imagery and visceral shocks is on full display here, all vividly graphic designed to make you feel queasy and uncomfortable. The practical effects tend to be over-the-top in some scenes, and yet, this is the kind of cult classic that requires you to sit back and enjoy the out-of-this-world supernatural horror show.
What are your favourite hotel horror movies? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Casey Chong
Originally published November 29, 2025. Updated January 21, 2026.
