Retta has a way of making you feel safe, right? She’s funny, she’s got that incredible comedic timing from Parks and Rec, and she usually spends her time on HGTV poking fun at ugly wallpaper. But Scariest Houses in America is a different beast entirely. It’s a spin-off of the massive "Ugliest House" franchise, but instead of just looking at carpeted bathrooms and questionable DIY choices, this show leans hard into the uncanny.
It's weird. One minute you’re laughing at a poorly placed gargoyle, and the next, you’re looking at a basement in a former funeral home that genuinely looks like it’s holding onto some heavy secrets. People love being scared, but they also love real estate. This show is the perfect, chaotic intersection of both.
What is Scariest Houses in America Actually About?
Basically, the show follows the same successful DNA as Ugliest House in America. Retta travels across different regions—the Midwest, the Northeast, the South—to tour homes that owners claim are absolutely terrifying. Now, "scary" here is a broad term. Sometimes it means the house looks like the setting of a 1970s slasher flick. Other times, it means the house was literally a jail, a cemetery caretaker's cottage, or a place where the local legends are a bit too vivid for comfort.
The stakes? A $150,000 renovation by designer Alison Victoria.
That’s the hook. If your house is creepy enough to win the title of the absolute scariest, HGTV throws a massive amount of money at it to turn it into a "dream home." But honestly, seeing some of these places, you have to wonder if a new backsplash and some open shelving can really outrun a vibe that feels that dark.
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The Contrast of Retta and Reality
Retta is the secret sauce. Without her, this might feel like a low-budget paranormal investigation show. She walks into these places with a healthy dose of skepticism and a lot of relatable "hell no" energy. When she explores a house in the "Scary-on-the-High-Seas" episode or visits a former jailhouse, her reactions are exactly what yours would be. She isn’t trying to hunt ghosts. She’s trying to figure out how someone lives with a door that leads to nowhere or a basement that smells like a hundred years of damp regret.
Real Locations That Made Our Skin Crawl
The show doesn’t rely on jump scares. It relies on history. Take the "Hidden Marble Hill" house or some of the former institutional buildings featured in the Northeast region. These aren't just "ugly" homes. They have architectural features designed for things other than domestic bliss.
- The Former Jailhouse: There’s a specific kind of dread that comes with a home that still has iron bars on some of the windows. You can paint the walls "Agreeable Gray" all you want, but the layout of a correctional facility doesn't exactly scream "cozy Sunday morning."
- The Funeral Home Conversions: This is a recurring theme. America has a lot of big, beautiful Victorian homes that spent fifty years as mortuaries. When you see a house that still has a commercial-grade lift for coffins, it’s hard to un-see that.
- The "Vibe" Factor: Some houses aren't scary because of their history; they're scary because of the owners' choices. Think taxidermy in every room or "art" that looks like it was cursed by a woodland deity.
Why We Can't Stop Watching "Scary" Real Estate
There is a psychological phenomenon at play here. It’s called "benign masochism." We like feeling a little bit of a chill when we know we are safe on our own couches. Scariest Houses in America taps into the same vein as horror movies, but with the added "Value-Add" of home improvement.
We also love to judge. Honestly, we do. We watch these owners and think, Why on earth would you buy a house built on an old asylum site? But then we see the architectural bones—the soaring ceilings, the hand-carved woodwork—and we kind of get it. It’s a bargain. You get a mansion for the price of a condo, provided you don't mind the occasional unexplained cold spot in the hallway.
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The Alison Victoria Factor
Alison Victoria, known for Windy City Rehab, has a tough job in this show. In the regular "Ugliest" series, she’s dealing with bad aesthetics. Here, she’s often dealing with bad energy. Her task is to take the "scary" out without losing the character. It’s a fine line. If you renovate a 200-year-old "haunted" house and make it look like a modern farmhouse, did you win, or did you just make the ghosts angry?
The transformations are usually stunning. They focus on light. More light, more glass, more white paint. It’s the architectural equivalent of a sage cleansing.
Is It Better Than "Ugliest House in America"?
It’s different. Ugliest House is about bad taste. It’s funny and a bit cringey. Scariest Houses in America feels higher stakes. The "ugly" houses are just eyesores. The "scary" houses feel like they have stories they aren't telling.
The pacing of the "Scariest" specials—usually condensed into a short event series—makes it much more bingeable. You get the tour, the history, the "yikes" moments, and then the reveal. It doesn’t overstay its welcome.
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How to Handle Your Own "Scary" House Issues
If you’ve watched the show and realized your own home has some "scary" features, you don't necessarily need a TV crew to fix it. Most of the fear in these homes comes from three things: darkness, isolation, and history.
- Lighting is everything. The show constantly proves that shadows are the enemy. Installing high-K (Kelvin) lighting in basements and attics instantly changes the mood.
- Clear the "Bad Taste" Clutter. Sometimes a house isn't haunted; it just has too much heavy, dark furniture.
- Address the "Creaks". A house that makes noise is a house with structural personality, but a little WD-40 on a hinge or a tightened floorboard goes a long way for your mental health.
The show reminds us that every house has a past. Whether that past involves a local legend or just a previous owner with a penchant for velvet wallpaper, it can be changed.
What to Do Next
If you're genuinely interested in the intersection of history and home design, start by researching your own property's deed. Most people find mundane things—farmers, accountants, a family of ten. But every now and then, you find something that makes you want to call Retta.
Check your local library for historical maps. See what was on your land in 1850. If it was a tannery or a schoolhouse, cool. If it was a "sanatorium for the nervously exhausted," maybe buy some extra sage.
Watch the show on Max or HGTV to see how professionals handle these spaces. Take note of how Alison Victoria uses color to counteract "heavy" rooms. Use those tips for your own dark corners. You’d be surprised how much a coat of "Cloud White" can do for a room that previously felt like the setting of a Victorian tragedy.
Keep an eye on the HGTV schedule for the next regional rollout. The show moves fast, and the "Winner" reveal is usually tucked into a finale that shows the full renovation. It’s satisfying to see a house go from "run away" to "move in."