Sue St.Clair and Matthew Didier's Paranormal Blog

Beautiful Dunsmuir House pictured above is located on a 50 acre estate in Oakland, California. The house was built in 1899 by Alexander Dunsmuir for his new bride, but tragically he died before it was completed so never got to share it with her.

Dunsmuir House was also the location of Burnt Offerings, one of my favourite horror films as a kid. I recently saw it again as it has been playing on the Drive-In Classic channel, and it got me to thinking about certain beliefs within our study.

The film is about a fictional family who move into a haunted house that rejuvenates itself with each death that occurs inside of it, and is based on a horror novel by Robert Marasco.

The house is not haunted by spirits, but has seemingly taken on a life of its own and is possessing one of the occupants. In other words it is the house that is the entity. Cool idea eh!

I do have to wonder about these older films (this one was released in 1976) and how much they have clouded the thoughts, and ideas on ghosts, and hauntings today?

As an example we get lots of queries about specific houses that are either Gothic or Neoclassical-Revival architectural styles, and never questioned about modern buildings, yet it is from the latter that we get far more ghost, and haunting reports.

Perhaps films such as Burnt Offerings have skewed the general public's idea on what a haunted house should look like, and what goes on inside of them. I should make mention that Dunsmuir house was purposefully made to look run down, and decrepit at the beginning of this movie....more like the classic "abandoned" or neglected house...and don't get me started on that.

Just more musing on a rainy Thursday morning.......

Image Credits: Wiki (please see links for further details)