If you're looking for old movies to rent that are sure to give you lots of Halloween goosebumps, think unreal estate. The following three classic films star houses as symbols of evil.

Psycho, 1960, directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Based on a novel by creepmeister Robert Bloch, "Psycho," the motion picture offers two sinister homes, an imposing Victorian Gothic residence atop a hill, and a home-away-from-home you might never leave, the Bates Motel.

The story is of a lovely young woman, besotted with a out-of-town married man of modest means. She desperately steals $40,000 from her employer to finance what she hopes will be his divorce and their new life together. She drives for a day and a night to meet him and finds herself off the main road at the Bates Motel, a deteriorating roadside motel with a few rooms overlooked by the imposing, shadowy Bates home. The lonely but gregarious innkeeper, Norman Bates, played by Anthony Perkins, is immediately attracted to the young woman, played by Janet Leigh, to the jealousy of his off-screen mother. All Leigh wants to do is get out of the rain, wrestle with her conscience about returning the money, and...take a shower. And the rest is movie history.

Psycho ended the idealistic 1950s with a murderous jolt. Shot in black and white, the movie was carefully planned to deliver a shock that the movie-going public had never seen before - the now infamous shower scene in which a beautiful woman is graphically and quite brutally knifed to death. Leigh herself has said that the scene was so terrifying to shoot, that she has never showered since.

Although Hitchcock described the movie as "fun," America was not so comfortable with the notion of a sexual killer channeling his mother through a confused psyche. The Norman Bates character was based by writer Robert Bloch on the most notorious killer of the era, Ed Gein, a seemingly harmless Wisconsin farmer who killed and dismembered women, among other abnormal behaviors. Gein's was also among the inspirations for another film, 1991's "Silence of the Lambs," directed by Jonathon Demme.

The adult themes of Hitchcock's Psycho - infidelity, theft, loneliness, madness, and murder had never been combined in such a graphic manner before. For the first time, lead characters weren't painted in the black and white of good and evil. In Hitchcock's world, good people do evil things and bad things happen to good people.

The "Psycho" home still exists and is available for viewing via the Los Angeles Universal Studios' bus tour of its backlot property. Visitors will be surprised to learn that the house is a facade, built at a fraction of the scale of a normal residence. The home was designed to be photographed as if being viewed from a distance, as if its character is forbidding and aloof, like Norman Bates' twisted mother.

The Haunting, 1963, directed by Robert Wise

Long before Stephen King became the king of horror fiction, Bloch and Shirley Jackson were the reigning writers of psychological horror fiction throughout the fifties and sixties.

Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" was a novel written in 1959, and has inspired haunted house books and films ever since. The greatest of those taken from the book is "The Haunting," directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Russ Tamblyn, and Richard Johnson, Broadway actors who know how to give each line the proper nuance.

Four intrepid souls who each have a connection to the supernatural agree to spend the night in a mansion that is said to be so haunted that no one can live there. Servants won't work there after dark. One emotionally fragile woman wants adventure but finds more than that as the house seems to take a special supernatural interest in her.

Can a house be "born bad?" The tragedies suffered by occupants of the monstrous gothic mansion certainly suggest so. Sneering gargoyles, doors that breathe in and out, and walls with maniacal laughs make the audience feel that the house is evil and very much alive. They wonder at every creak and turn of the film that the ghosthunters are next to die tragic but perfectly explainable deaths attributable to their own fears.

That's the oversimplified storyline, but the emotional and psychological interchanges between the four guests and the house are priceless and beautifully shot. Without the gore that so many horror films rely upon, this movie succeeds in delivering the chills and thrills Halloween calls for by allowing you to scare yourself.

The Amityville Horror, 1979, directed by Stuart Rosenberg

Since the blockbuster book was released in 1979, the gruesome story of "The Amityville Horror" has attracted its share of conspiracy theorists, morbidly curious, and critics.

Based on the real-life murder of an entire family by the eldest son, Ronald DeFeo, the book chronicles the brief but horrifying tenancy of the new owners of the home where the murders took place. According to George and Kathy Lutz, in their story written by Jay Anson, the couple knew they house they purchased had been the scene of a bloody massacre, but they hadn't counted on reliving the murders through apparitions and being driven from their new home.

What inspires controversy is that the book and movie suggest that the rifle-shot murders that took place in 1974 on Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York (Long Island) were caused by evil spirits. The Lutz family moves out of the house because the same murderous urges are taking over George as took over the spoiled, entitlement-driven son of the murdered family.

But the story may have been fabricated by the real monsters - George and Kathy, who merely wanted to get out of a mortgage that was too much for them. An attorney for DeFeo's defense was all too eager to help, as he was trying to win a new trial for his client and an insanity plea due to being mad by evil voices would help a lot.

Despite the discrediting of the Lutz family and the book, The Amityville Horror continues to fascinate.

In all the publicity for the book and film, the house is the star of the show, and has inspired curiosity seekers for the next three decades to drive past. The distinctive three-story Dutch Colonial home had telltale eyebrow windows on the third floor that seemed to suggest tragedy and sadness. Subsequent owners have changed the windows, and they've moved the house to a new location and changed the address so that the curious will be thwarted.

The film stars Margot Kidder and Barbara Streisand's hubby James Brolin, who were either at the height or nadir of their careers with this film (it's hard to tell.) Not in the same class as Psycho and The Haunting, The Amityville Horror is included because it clearly shows that it's all about the real estate.

Published: October 29, 2004

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Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment. Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's. Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. To contact Blanche, email her at . For more articles by Blanche, click here.