Why are hotels scary in movies?

[Chinaski]

Shining, Psycho, 1408, etc... I suppose the list is long. Why is it that Hotels & Motels are perfect premises to create a creepy vibe?



Is it the feeling that a lot of people have stayed in there, and that their souls have left an impression?

[GoggleboxUK]

They are perfect settings for horror movies because in a hotel you may only be a wall's width away from a complete nutcase.



You can add Roadkill, Night Games and Horror Hotel to that list. You could also add the place I stayed in Luxor, not strictly a horror movie but if you'd seen the stuff they were serving as dinner you'd have been frightened too.

[ILoveThe70s]

Hotels often have a history that the unsuspecting guest doesn't know about. An example being 'Number 13', one of the more recent editions of 'A Ghost Story for Christmas'.

[Chinaski]

So which one is your #1 hotel movie? I'd probably say Shining (Kubrick, obviously).

[AdrianTurner]

Billy Wilder's Avanti! (1973). Now that's a nice hotel.

[GoggleboxUK]

1408, cracking good movie.

[jaycad]

the chance of meeting lenny henry in a 'premier inn' scares the s*** out of me!

[Gerald Lovell]

The Witches (1990), with Rowan Atkinson as the manager!

[moonfleet]

name='AdrianTurner']Billy Wilder's Avanti! (1973). Now that's a nice hotel.

Yes, it's a crazy house in Avanti !, I think it has inspired Blake Edwards for Victor Victoria's so marvelous and funny hotel scenes !!



For a scary hotel, I'd say the one of Shining of course, big, labyrinthic, isolated in a high mountains part, it was the theatre of an horrible crime, built over an indian cemetery, and it's suposed to be Jack Torrance' mind !!?? What else do you need. I'm always catched by the opening of this film, the helicopter travelings on the road to the hotel with that suspens-style music, I don't know why .....

[markrgv]

How about Hotel Paradiso? That was a horror for all the wrong reasons!

[HUGHJAMPTON]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgPhc5EZsV4]YouTube - IDENTITY (2003) Official Theatrical Trailer *16x9 HQ*[/ame]



Written by Michael Cooney, the son of Ray Cooney. Double click.

[Steve Crook]

Why are hotels scary in movies?

Are hotels scary in movies?



There are quite a few where they are nice, or at least interesting places.

What about Plaza Suite, The Graduate, Some Like it Hot, Notting Hill and many others? They all have pleasant and/or amusing scenes set in hotels



Steve

[CaptainWaggett]

name='Steve Crook']Some Like it Hot,

I think I'd be justifiably a bit scared if all other guests in my hotel were on America's Most Wanted list

[Mr Sloane]

name='CaptainWaggett']I think I'd be justifiably a bit scared if all other guests in my hotel were on America's Most Wanted list

Not to mention that sex pest of a bell boy, the ease of access for cat burglars and that nightclub in the basement.

[moonfleet]

Some Like It Hot (suite spéciale)



And those lunatics who have a bath all dressed !!

[Mr Sloane]

name='moonfleet']Some Like It Hot (special suite)



And those lunatics who have a bath all dressed !!

But still my favourite comedy

[moonfleet]

Jack Lemmon, when in the wagon with the orchestra girls, always makes me laugh

[CaptainWaggett]

I've been to the hotel where it was filmed (but not stayed there - I could only just afford a drink in the bar )



Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne had some interesting hotel experiences - most notably in Crook's Tour where the bathroom door leads directly into the Bosphorus and NW gets into a compromising situation with Great Gynt

[Steve Crook]

name='Mr Sloane']But still my favourite comedy

Mine too. It's just about perfect



Steve

[paul99]

And they always choose Hotels to have the whodonits in