Ghost House Pictures

Background

Ghost House Pictures was established in 2002 by Sam Raimi (who is the founder of Raimi Productions) and Robert Tapert to produce high-concept horror films. Most of its theatrical films are produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures.

Logos

1st logo (October 22, 2004-): In dim light, an old door slams shut by itself. The view then moves to the door's keyhole, through which an evil-looking smiling skull suddenly moves into view from the left. The view pulls back to show the skull vignetted in the keyhole. As the view pulls back, the company name surrounds the keyhole in a "ghostly" manner in white.

2nd logo (March 15, 2009-May 22, 2015): On a black background, the skull from the previous logo emerges from the darkness and zooms in, this time shown in full view. The company name appears below like in the previous logo, but now they have some stains dripping down on the words "GHOST HOUSE". The skull seems to vibrate while the logo goes.

Music/Sounds

1st logo: We first hear a sound that sounds like someone screaming in the distance (possibly a victim in the haunted house) and then a loud bang when the door slams, causing the screaming to stop, then typical spooky horror movie music with ghostly singing in a high pitched tone. A whoosh is heard when the skull slides from the left.

Audio Variants:

• On The Possession, when the skull appears, it makes a louder and scarier whoosh sound than the normal version, sounding like a short roar.
• Sometimes, it's the opening theme of the movie, and/or we only hear the door slam and the ghostly singing, or only the door slamming, or no sounds at all.

2nd logo: Same as the previous logo, but the whoosh sound is omitted. Sometimes, it's the opening theme of the movie.

Scare Factor

1st logo:Medium to nightmare, even though this was likely intentional. The skull appearing may be a surprise at first, but the loud door slam is startling even if you know that it is coming, along with the music and the child singing. However, the scare factor is lower for those who are used to seeing this, and this is a cool logo, especially for horror movie fans (like the Blumhouse logo). However, the next logo is much scarier than this...

2nd logo:

• Original: Nightmare. The scare factor is more higher than before since the manner the skull now in full view appears out of nowhere and rapidly zooms in (a la Viacom's "V of Doom") along with the rough motion, which can catch unsuspecting people off-guard, in particular those who are afraid of the dark.
• Poltergeist: Nightmare to off the scale. The glitching of the logo make matters even worse.

However, it is a stepdown from the previous logo as there isn't as much effort put into it.

Video

Ghost House Pictures Logo 2009-Present