Every year since I’ve started this blog, I’ve published a few classic open access stories of horror for the Halloween season! In recent years, I’ve started to make a theme for each year.

This year, the theme is “haunted houses,” which probably needs no further explanation, so let’s get into some stories! The only note is that we stretch the definition of “house” as we proceed…

The Shunned House, by H.P. Lovecraft (1937). A doctor and his nephew investigate a strange house that has been shunned for decades, not realizing the danger lurking within it and the horrible thing that lies beneath it…

The Haunted and the Haunters; or, The House and the Brain, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1859). Another classic haunted house story, in which a rationalist attempts to exorcise the spirits from a house with a particularly strange haunting. The link is to a copy of the original text on the Internet Archive, which includes an often-removed epilogue beginning with “But my story is not yet done” that makes the tale even weirder.

Number 13, by M.R. James (1904). A twisted tale of missing space from the master of ghost stories M.R. James. A man staying in room 12 at the “Golden Lion” inn notices that his room appears smaller at night and that a room 13 appears next door that was not present during the day.

The Whistling Room, by William Hope Hodgson (1910). Carnacki the Ghost Hunter is called to investigate a chamber in a mansion that exhibits an eerie whistling sound. He soon finds himself trapped with a malevolent supernatural being that could consume him utterly.

The Upper Berth, by F. Marion Crawford (1926). Sharing again one of the most effective ghost stories ever written, with one of the best closing lines of any such story, as well! When the sailor Brisbane takes an Atlantic voyage on the ship Kamtschatka, he is assigned the lower berth in room 105. Soon he realizes that his chamber may be occupied by something not quite human.

The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe (1839). Poe’s classic story of the last family members of the House of Usher and how their house itself is tied to their own fate.

The Vacant Lot, by Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman (1903). Sometimes the haunting persists even when the building is gone. A family finds themselves troubled by strange happenings that seem to be connected to the vacant lot next door to them.

Negotium Perambulans, by E.F. Benson (1922). A man returns to his childhood village, intrigued by the stories of a monstrous creature that haunts one of the houses in town. When he learns that an old friend, an artist, has taken up residence in the house, he has an opportunity to experience the horrors it contains first-hand.

The Man From America, by Michael Arlen (1925). This story is absolutely wonderful and has a twist for the ages! Two Londoners make a bet with a gentleman from America that he can’t spend the entire night in a haunted house. This bet will end in a place that none of them are expecting.

Happy Halloween, and I hope the stories give you a few fun chills!