Duskmourn: House of Horrors is releasing next month, and the premier set will bring Magic: The Gathering back into a realm of spooks and scares. Rather than Innistrad’s more classic horror inspiration, Duskmourn pays homage to more modern horror media. It shares much of its DNA with scary movies, so what better time to watch some of the best haunted house flicks in history?
We’ve handpicked horror tiles that match the vibe of the upcoming MTG set. If you want a little more info on Duskmourn itself, be sure to head to our MTG release schedule guide. This will tell you what we know about the haunted house plane of Duskmourn, as well as when the set itself launches. We also have a dedicated Duskmourn release date guide that can keep you up-to-date with card spoilers.
Poltergeist
Duskmourn is clearly taking cues from Stephen Spielberg’s 1982 film, Poltergeist. The packaging for the Nightmare Bundle is an ‘80s-style television, and the art shows several protagonists casing the joint with ghost-hunting gear. The parallels are so obvious that Wizards of the Coast may as well have printed “they’re heeeeeere” on the booster packs.
Poltergeist follows the story of Stephen, Diane, and their three children. When objects start to move on their own in the family’s new home, the phenomena are originally met with curiosity and delight. But the supernatural happenings quickly turn dark.
Inanimate parts of the house spring to life, portals open in closets, and voices from beyond grow louder – all with increasing intent to harm the homeowners. Parapsychologists help uncover the uncomfortable truth of this seemingly ordinary home, and the family must face the malevolent spirits they share an address with.
For all its ghosts and ghouls, Poltergeist is more of an adventure romp than an all-out scare fest. If you want your spine to tingle but aren’t keen on screaming, this ghost train of a movie is the perfect Duskmourn pre-game.
The Haunting
In Duskmourn, the house is a living, hunting entity. It lures visitors into mortal danger, and the recent MTG stories imply that it’s capable of cunning. If you’re looking to explore the classic ‘this house is alive’ horror genre, there’s one essential stop you must make – Hill House.
Personally, we believe the best way to visit Hill House is by reading Shirley Jackson’s original novel, The Haunting of Hill House. However, if you’re not a reader, Robert Wise’s 1963 movie The Haunting is an excellent alternative.
It’s a pretty faithful adaptation, where a plucky doctor heads to Hill House to document its many deaths and hauntings. Along with a psychic, the heir to the home, and a woman once touched by supernatural events, the doctor organizes an overnight shindig to study the house.
Like Duskmourn, Hill House is built with odd angles that create uneasy perspectives and self-opening doors. Also like Duskmourn, Hill House is very much a conscious being. It wants to worm into its visitors’ minds – and bend them until they break. This is a slow-burn, psychological haunted house movie that holds up incredibly well given its age.
Skinamarink
2023’s Skinamarink isn’t a haunted house movie in the traditional sense – in fact, it’s barely a movie in the traditional sense. Most of its scenes show darkness, off-center shots of carpets and ceilings, or the blare of a television screen. The two characters speak only in whispers, hinting at the horrors that lie beyond your vision.
The main reason to watch Skinamarink before playing Duskmourn is that they share a similar premise. The entire movie takes place inside a home where all windows and doors to the outside world have mysteriously disappeared. Instead of capable MTG planeswalkers, the heroes are two small children, wondering where their parents have gone. More objects gradually disappear from the house, and the situation grows more agonizing and disorienting from there.
This is something of a ‘marmite’ movie, meaning you may love it or hate it. For some, Skinamarink is a monotonous slog where nothing appears to be happening. But for others, it’s a perfect recreation of the terror you felt as a young child, convinced there was something dreadful in your closet.
House on Haunted Hill
It’s hard to get scared by spooky art on a Magic: The Gathering card. Rather than the sincere horror, we’re expecting Duskmourn to lean into the schlock-y, silly side of the genre. And nobody does silly spooky movies like director William Castle. 1959’s House on Haunted Hill is as corny as haunted house movies get – heck, it even stars the king of schlock scares, Vincent Price.
Mysterious millionaire Frederick Loren (Price) has invited five strangers to a haunted house, promising them $10,000 if they stay the night. Once the doors are locked, the sleepover turns sinister. Blood drips from the ceilings, heads appear without their bodies, and the house traps individuals in dark rooms.
Loren is playing a tense psychological game with his be-loathed wife behind the scenes, and to make matters worse, each of the highly-strung visitors is given a gun. Chaos, as you can imagine, ensues.
When this movie first released, cinemas would drop a skeleton on a wire to make the punters scream. We sadly can’t recreate that for you, but House on Haunted Hill is still ‘so bad it’s good’ even without props. Its trope-y exterior hides some genuine charm, and it’ll get you in the mood for a Magic: The Gathering set that shamelessly spins off classic horror movies.
For more on Magic: The Gathering, check out the best MTG Arena decks and MTG Arena codes.
Source: Wargamer
