10 Scariest Horror Movie Hotels, Ranked

Given the massive popularity of Netflix’s docuseries Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, it’s only natural to think about some of the most terrifying cinematic horror movie hotels and motels ever recorded on camera. The sad, tragic, and unnerving tale of Elisa Lam is a reminder that horrible things can happen when away from home and in the confines of a strange place with a sordid past and populated with even odder characters.

Subverting the notion of hospitality, hotels have long been a rife setting for horror movie villains to prey on unsuspecting strangers who often let their guard down for a night of peaceful rest.

10 Kingston Hotel – Private Parts (1972)

The closest cinematic establishment to The Hotel Cecil is the Kingston Hotel in the bizarre horror movie Private Parts. Directed by the late cult-director Paul Bartel in his feature debut, the Kingston is a rundown Skid Row locale shot in the real-life King Edward Hotel in downtown L.A.

The story finds teenage Cheryl (Ayn Ruyman) taking refuge at the hotel owned by her weird aunt, Martha (Lucille Benson), after fleeing her home in Ohio. There, she becomes the object of a creepy obsession by a disturbed man named George (John Ventantonio), who spies on her to no end.

9 Motel Hello – Motel Hell (1980)

Despite its satirical bent, Kevin Connor’s mordant and mortifying horror-comedy Motel Hell is based on the true story of German cannibal Karl Denke. The film follows Vincent (Rory Calhoun), a psychopathic farmer who kidnaps motorists and feeds their remains to his unwitting motel guests.

Along with his demented sister Ida (Nancy Parsons), Vincent buries his captives alive in his garden and harvests their flesh to make a gruesome gourmet that Motel Hello has become famous for.

8 Pinewood Motel – Vacancy (2007)

With due deference to the sleazy Klaus Kinski hotel horrors Crawlspace and Slaughter Hotel, Nimrod Antal’s Vacancy takes the creepy voyeuristic surveillance formula to the next degree.

When married couple Amy (Kate Beckinsale) and David Fox (Luke Wilson) become marooned at the secluded Pinewood Motel, they soon discover the place littered with hidden security cameras. If they cannot mount an escape in time, Amy and Davis learn that they’ll be the next to star in a gory snuff film.

7 Khaki Palms Motel – The Devil’s Rejects (2005)

The abject nastiness that occurs in the Khaki Palms Motel in Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects was deemed so degrading on a tonal and thematic level it required trimming from the MPAA to avoid an NC-17 rating.

The loose sequel to Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses picks up the grisly exploits of Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig), Otis (Bill Moseley), Firefly (Sheri Moon-Zombie) as they flee police on a southwestern killing spree.

6 Desert Valley Motel – Identity (2003)

Loosely based on Agatha Christie’s seminal whodunit Ten Little Indians, James Mangold’s chilling Identity is set at the rain-drenched Desert Valley Motel in rural Nevada. There, ten strangers with the same birthday are systematically slaughter, one by one.

Aside from the inescapable atmosphere due to torrential flooding, the maddening mystery ends with a giant unforeseen twist as the motel guests work to figure out how they are related.

5 Slovakian Hostel – Hostel (2005)

Subtract the ‘S’ from Hostel to get a sinister Slovakian Hotel in Eli Roth’s torturous 2005 horror outing. The film tracks a trio of American tourists who take the wrong advice and end up in a place where sadistic rich men carry out their most violent fantasies.

Until the motivations of the murder vacation are revealed in the final act, Josh (Derek Richardson), Paxton (Jay Hernandez), and Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson) think they’ve stumbled into a gore-sodden medieval torture chamber.

4 The Dolphin Hotel – 1408 (2007)

Based on the Stephen King short story of the same name, 1408 stars John Cusack as Mike Enslin, an author and paranormal skeptic who is invited to investigate the supernatural activity taking place at the infamous Dolphin Hotel in New York City.

With a jaded attitude ready to debunk the notoriously haunted hotel for his new book, Mike is soon ravaged by his own psychological demons that manifest inside the hotel room.

3 Starlight Motel – Eaten Alive (1977)

Tobe Hooper’s Eaten Alive features one of the foulest and fiendish horror movie motels ever filmed. The Starlight Motel is a moldering backwoods dump that doubles as a brothel, run by a scythe-wielding maniac named Judd (Neville Brand).

When things get out of hand on his property, Judd uses the scythe to slaughter his guests and then feeds their remains to a giant pet crocodile he keeps in a putrid swamp below the porch.

2 Bates Motel – Psycho (1960)

Alfred Hitchcock all but created the slasher movie template with his celebrated masterpiece, Psycho, which is primarily set at the infamous Bates Motel. While the motel is dressed to look innocent enough, the deadly details inside its wicked walls are as disturbing as they come.

Upon hitting the road with embezzled money, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) stops to rest for a night at the Bates Motel, where she is slaughtered with a butcher knife in the shower. The amiable Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) feigns innocence until revealing himself as a serial killer who often dresses up as his deceased mother.

1 The Overlook – The Shining (1980)

No single horror movie hotel looms like a lethal character more than Stanley Kubrick’s The Overlook in The Shining. Bad things don’t just happen there; the hotel itself makes people commit violent acts of atrocity.

When Jack Torrance  (Jack Nicholson) accepts a six-month caretaking gig of the Overlook in the fall and winter, he uses the downtime to write his new novel. Traveling along with his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd), Jack is slowly driven to murderous madness by the hotel’s hypnotic and horrifying history.