The Best Horror Movies Set In Hotels

The quintessential horror movie set in a hotel, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is a masterpiece the likes of which the horror community rarely sees, and even 60 years later, the film still more than lives up to the hype. A tense, paranoid thriller that diverges into something far more wicked and sinister as time goes on, Psycho is inarguably one of the best horror hotel movies in history. The Bates Motel takes center stage and has grown to become one of the most beloved and recognizable locations in all of horror thanks to its masterful use in this film, becoming a character unto itself. 

While Psycho often takes the cake as the best horror hotel movie ever created, The Shining is undoubtedly the scariest haunted hotel movie in existence. Stanley Kubrick brought The Overlook Hotel to life in painstaking and mind-altering glory, creating a building that on paper makes no sense, and when realized, becomes all the more terrifying. With the ghosts haunting its halls and danger seemingly around every corner, The Shining became so beloved and revered as a haunted hotel movie that to this very day over 50 years later, fans still desperately seek the opportunity to enter The Overlook Hotel.

Stephen King and haunted hotels go together like peanut butter and jelly, and in 1408, he created one of the most terrifying and bizarre ever seen in film. Following a writer who checks into the Dolphin Hotel in order to debunk the supposed supernatural phenomena happening in the rooms, the film quickly delves into complete and utter madness and showcases all the trademarks of a stellar scary hotel movie. With a laundry list of rooms each more terrifying than the last, a creepy concierge, and a neverending feeling of claustrophobia, and if someone is always watching, room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel is one of the most underrated hotels in horror history.

When ten strangers find themselves isolated in the remote Nevada desert, they have no choice but to stay at The Four Aces motel, little do they know however that they just entered the playground of a deranged murderer looking to have some fun. While Identity may not have the hallmarks of the traditional supernatural horror hotel movie, it beautifully mixes elements of paranoia, crime, and slasher to create an experience horror fans won't soon forget. The Four Aces motel plays as the perfect backdrop for our poor victims, and by the time the credits roll, viewers will be utterly stunned at the secrets lying inside the walls of the motel.

Bringing to life the terrifying fear of being stranded at a creepy hotel after a car breaks down on a long road trip, Vacancy manages to up the stakes of terror by including a crazed and deranged killer who wants them to star in their next snuff film. Showcasing an incredibly creepy cast of staff and some of the most paranoid scenes in modern horror history, Vacancy and its ominous hotel shine in forcing viewers to feel a neverending sense of dread as the walls feel like they are closing in on not only our protagonists but on the viewers themselves. Tense, spooky, and frightfully fun, Vacancy is the blueprint for the best modern motel horror movie. 

The film that made travelers of foreign lands never, ever, ever want to stay in a hostel as long as they ever live, Eli Roth's Hostel brought to light a new form of terror, masochistically mixing the horror hotel movie with the splatter film subgenre to create a hybrid so grotesque and revolting, it's hard to watch. The titular hostel in the film is filmed in such a disturbing and uneasy way that it immediately sets viewers up for scare the moment they first see it, and by the time the film ends, even the thought of ever staying at a hostel will make even the most hardcore of horror fans shudder.