subject: Killer Hotels [print this page] Killer Hotels Killer Hotels
I recently stayed in a boutique hotel in Cape Town on holiday and it was lovely. Usually I find hotels creepy I'm sure most horror buffs would agree. Sure, a luxurious stay in a bed and breakfast or a sea side cottage isn't particularly scary. I'm thinking more along the lines of The Hotel California - you know - the one's you can never leave
The Bates Hotel
What would a fictional scary hotel list be without this winner coming in at number one? Ever since the creepy venue was made famous in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 movie people everywhere stopped taking showers with the bathroom door unlocked. Norman Bates, with his identity disorder and his overly controlling dead mother urging him to cross dress and kill, created a generation of overly paranoid hotel guests. Janet Leigh, who was filmed being murdered in the iconic shower scene, said once in an interview that after filming she never took a shower unless she absolutely had to, and when she did she'd lock all the doors and leave the shower door open.
Overlook Hotel
"Here's Johnny!' Who can forget Jack Nicholson's deranged face leering through a hole in a door while trying to axe his wife to death? In truth, Stephen King was inspired to create the Overlook Hotel in The Shining while staying at a place called The Stanley Hotel in Colorado. You'd think that would be bad PR but the hotel is still going strong. Although the movie wasn't shot there, it's been said that The Stanley plays The Shining on continuous loop on a channel in all of its guest rooms as a nod to the author. That's definitely not something you'd find at a Long Street hotel.
Wessex Hotel
What 13th floor?' said staff at the Wessex Hotel in the classic horror called; you guessed it, Nightmare on the 13th Floor. Of course there was one; of course the staff were all crazed satanic nut jobs; of course guests who stayed there got their asses hauled up to the 13th floor - of course they died. Now for the interesting part, did you know that Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13? There are many superstitious builders in the world as it's common for most buildings to skip the 13th floor completely, rather labelling it as the 14th floor or simply calling it level M (the 13th letter of the alphabet). Elevators are even built to skip the 13th floor in some buildings. Sometimes they simply close the 13th floor off to the public completely, which really freaks out conspiracy theorists.
The Hotel Dolphin
What's with Stephen King and killer hotel rooms? In the 2007 movie based on his short story of the same name, 1408 tells the tale of a room that guests never last more than an hour in. A horror writer insists on staying the night despite the warnings of the staff, and as the movie unfolds we realise why 1408 is better left unoccupied. The real life Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan was used for most of the interior shots in the film four people have died there over the years, for various reasons.
How to survive? Avoid creepy hotels with psychopathic concierges and rooms where people have died, although that's more difficult. Famous celebrities that have died in hotel rooms include Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, David Carradine and Anna Nicole Smith to name a few. There are billions of deaths every day and many ways to clean up a scene in a hotel room - if you get what we're saying. If you're looking for somewhere safe to stay, a nice little bed and breakfast or a boutique hotel in Cape Town just sounds distinctly benevolent doesn't it? Good luck
