Ready for a little spooky fun?
Daniel Radcliffe, best known for playing the boy wizard Harry Potter, has re-entered movie theaters, this time as a young man in "The Woman in Black." Reportedly, the story is not about guts and gore, but is instead packed with suspense.
Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipps, a widowed lawyer who is so lost in his grief that his career is in jeopardy. He is sent to a remote village to settle the estate of a recently-deceased eccentric. But after he arrives, it quickly becomes evident that the entire town is keeping a deadly secret.
The townsfolk try to keep Kipps from finding out what their secret is, but he discovers that the house left by his dead client is haunted by a woman who is looking for someone or something she lost, and no one is safe from her vengeance.
Sounds like a good ghost story, huh? It's a movie I'm looking forward to seeing. And it got me to thinking…while I don't believe in ghosts, I do enjoy a good scare. And haunted houses are a great place to get them.
There are a ton of reportedly haunted houses out there, and there are some particularly famous ones I'd love to visit. Here are my favorites.
• The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo. – It's where the movie "The Shining" was filmed, and supposed to be haunted by several ghosts.
• Preston Castle in Ione, Calif. – One of the most haunted places in California, you can spend the night there. But bring your sleeping bag…and some No-Doze.
• Dracula's Castle – Yep. It really exists. It's in Romania and you'll have quite the hike to get to it, but the visit is guaranteed to raise the hairs on the back of your neck.
• Tower of London – Famous for its myriad of ghosts, this is one location that will scare you to death – bring extra underpants.
• Although it's just fake, I'd love to spend the night in the old house that Barnabas Collins lived in – in the classic 1960s-era vampire soap opera, "Dark Shadows." So spooky!