The Eighth Annual Mutant Awards: 2005

This is a category near and dear to my heart, because I am a huge fan of horror and suspense films and atmosphere plays such an important part in these genres. Most specifically, it’s all about location, location, location! How many films tumbled into the clearance bin because they aren’t memorable in any certain way, while other quality films prosper and make it on to UMD for the PSP because they have specific elements that in many ways transcend the film itself to become a piece of pop culture themselves. I don’t have the exact numbers. But it’s probably a lot. Believe me.

When it comes to cinematic locations, there are many specific structures and locales that just stand out and either make you go “Man, I’d love to live there” or “Please don’t ever let me be there after dark!” I think we managed to collect a respectable number of the more genuinely disturbing ones for your voting pleasure. I’m happy to see that our choices stretch across the decades, meaning that no matter how many films with creepy elements inspired by older films pop up, it’s the quality originals that stick in the mind and continue to give so many nightmares to most who see them.

Places like the house from Poltergeist (3%) and the neighbors’ house in The ‘Burbs (3%) got some sentimental attention, but I was personally surprised that two comedies, The Addams Family (6.8%) and Beetlejuice (5.7%), featured houses that seemed to creep people out to this day. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (15.9%) got significant attention by virtue of the tense scenes in the Mines of Moria, and also by the fact that millions and millions of people saw Fellowship and obviously got creeped out. Popularity helps!

But to my immense relief, it was two horror films that top the top spots in this category. I’ll always remember the Bates motel from Psycho (20.8%) because it was the most memorable landmark on the Universal Studios tour I took when I was a little kid on vacation in California: it was freaky even in the California sun.

Ultimately, it’s the Overlook hotel from The Shining that grabbed 36.0% of the vote and proved that it wasn’t just the ghostly twins or the elevators full of blood that had you on edge during that film: it was the maliciously haunted Overlook itself. Maybe it’s much more pleasant during the summer when the grass is green and the ghosts head north for the shadowy cold, but during the movie it’s an oppressive and terrifying place that most of you wouldn’t sleep in even if your car had just died in the middle of a snowstorm down the way and there was no one else to go. I don’t blame you at all, actually. Maybe it would be better to spend the night in the hedge maze out front; how bad could the cold be?

FINAL TALLY:

1. 36.0% The Overlook Hotel in The Shining
2. 20.8% The Bates Motel, Psycho
3. 15.9% The Mines of Moria from Fellowship of the Ring
4. 8.7% The Amityville Horror House
5. 6.8% Addams Family Manor (Addams Family, Addams Family Values)
6. 5.7% Beetlejuice - the Maitlands' old house
7. 3% The Poltergeist House
8. 3% The Klopek House from The Burbs

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