What's the 'Scariest House in America'? HGTV aims to find out

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. – There's a house in the woods that some people find downright scary.

The spirit that haunts the place, locking people in a bathroom, would be enough to send some people running. But add in a vertigo-inducing three-story interior with balconies and a catwalk and plenty of places where one misstep would send you plummeting to your doom, and some might argue this home should win some kind of a prize.

Well, that's what led its owner to enter the house into HGTV's "Scariest House in America." The house is one of a dozen competing nationwide for a $150,000 home makeover on the show, premiering Friday (9 EDT/PDT) as a spinoiff of the network's "Ugliest House in America." Except that, timed for Halloween, the entrants will be judged on criteria including "scary appearance," "bad function" and "fear factor."

A real estate agent might simply call the house a 1,300-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom three-story with an elevator. But "Scariest" series host, actor and comedian Retta simply calls it a "frightening fixer-upper."

Among the quirks that got the home on HGTV's 'Scariest House in America'

• The walls are far from perfectly vertical, leaning inward or outward at considerably more than 90 degrees.
• An "energy" – some would use the word "ghost" – of a previous owner has locked people in a bathroom.
• The massive – roughly two feet thick – front door opens into a pit
• And, about that elevator: it only goes from the second to the third floor and it fits only one person at a time.

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The house that wins the contest, which will be announced on the Oct. 25 finale, will get a surprise makeover by interior designer Alison Victoria. Other serious competition includes:

• A former jail that makes unexplained clanking sounds.
• A house with wild bats flying around inside, occasionally brushing against people as they sleep.
• An 18th-century farmhouse whose kitchen is a 35-foot open well with who knows what at the bottom.
• A house with a ghost that bumps into people.
• A place with doors that lock and unlock and open and close by themselves.
• A house where screams and cries and quiet whispers are heard.
• The hideout of a former gangster with ghosts that have scared off the current owner's family.
• A house where a woman changing bedsheets was sat on by a ghost that wouldn't let her up.
• A place with freakishly high ceilings, as high as 20 feet on one floor.

At least, thankfully, the Rhode Island house won't compete against The Conjuring House, in Burrillville, R.I., which some would consider the scariest house in the world.