When the Walls Shouldn’t Be There

In horror fiction, location is everything. From the haunted house to the abandoned asylum, settings shape the fear. But there’s one architectural horror trope that remains surprisingly underused despite its terrifying potential: incomplete or unfinished structures, buildings that never reached completion, or that seem to be still building themselves long after construction ceased.

Unfinished hospitals, skeletal skyscrapers, forgotten neighborhoods, or buildings that contain rooms no one remembers adding, these eerie places tap into deep psychological fears: abandonment, entropy, the uncanny, and the question of purpose gone wrong. What was this place supposed to be? And why is it still... changing?

Why Unfinished Structures Are So Disturbing

Unfinished buildings feel wrong because they violate the comfort of completion. Our brains like patterns. We like resolution. So when a structure is incomplete, missing walls, missing floors, exposed support beams, it creates a sense of unease.

But horror turns that unease into terror when the incompleteness begins to take on a life of its own. A half-built house that never gets finished, yet the scaffolding never collapses. A stairway that ends at nothing, but one night has a door at the top. Or a room behind the drywall that no one ever put there.

There’s something uniquely haunting about a structure that was never finished, as if its true purpose was never fulfilled. What if the reason it remained unfinished wasn’t budget cuts… but something darker?

The Winchester Mystery House: A Real-Life Inspiration

Any discussion of unfinished or ever-expanding architecture in horror must begin with the Winchester Mystery House. After inheriting a fortune from the Winchester rifle company, Sarah Winchester built and renovated her massive San Jose mansion constantly for nearly 40 years. Legend says she believed she was haunted by those killed by Winchester rifles, and that continual construction would appease the spirits.

The house contains staircases that lead to ceilings, doors that open to nothing, windows between rooms, and hallways that loop. Whether Sarah truly believed she was creating a spirit trap or not, the house remains a real-world monument to architectural madness and haunted incompleteness.

It's no wonder the house has inspired books, documentaries, and horror films. It also shows how powerful a horror setting can be when the blueprint itself is broken.

Fictional Examples of Architectural Incompleteness in Horror

While not as common as haunted houses or spooky forests, unfinished architecture has appeared in chilling ways throughout horror fiction:

1. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

At the heart of this novel is a house that grows from the inside. A hallway appears where none existed. The inside dimensions are larger than the outside. It’s a labyrinth that defies logic, and it’s terrifying. The horror doesn’t come from ghosts, it comes from the physical space itself refusing to obey the rules.

2. Session 9 (2001)

This psychological horror film is set in an abandoned mental asylum mid-restoration. The crew hired to clear asbestos uncovers disturbing recordings and supernatural forces. The setting, partially demolished, partially restored, makes it feel like the building is fighting back against its own rebirth.

3. The Backrooms (internet urban legend)

This modern creepypasta legend is rooted in liminal architecture: office spaces that go on forever, endless yellow rooms, moist carpets, and fluorescent lights that never turn off. The Backrooms feel incomplete, they weren’t meant to be seen, and yet you’re trapped inside them.

The Psychology of the Unfinished

So why does this hit so deep? Why does a half-built structure give us chills?

• Fear of the Unknown: An unfinished building holds potential. That blank wall might hide anything. That stairway might lead to nowhere, or somewhere impossible.

• Unresolved Purpose: What was this meant to be? Was it abandoned for financial reasons, or was there something here no one wanted to finish?

• Hostility of the Incomplete: Unlike a crumbling ruin, which tells a story of the past, an unfinished building feels like a promise denied. It’s a space that wasn’t just left, it was never made right.

How Horror Writers Can Use Incomplete Architecture

Looking for a new setting for your next horror story? Here are ways to build dread through unfinished places:

1. Construction Sites Left Behind

Imagine a suburban neighborhood where only one house was ever started. The bones of it still stand, and something lives inside.

2. Endless Building Projects

A hotel that’s constantly expanding itself—new wings appearing, guests getting lost in areas that weren't there yesterday.

3. Blueprint Horror

A protagonist inherits land and the architectural plans for a dream home, only to realize that the original builder vanished during construction. As they build, the house doesn’t match the blueprints. Or worse, it follows a second blueprint they didn’t approve.

4. Buildings That Rebuild Themselves

A burned-down church that keeps coming back. No workers, no materials… but every morning, a little more of it is back. Why? Who needs it?

Unique Visual Horror Opportunities

Unfinished spaces offer unique visuals: jagged rebar sticking from walls, concrete hallways ending in voids, scaffolding creaking in the wind, drywall that pulses like a heartbeat.

Even better, the space is naturally dangerous. A fall. A collapse. A sharp edge. Add a malevolent force and you’ve got danger from both environment and entity, a potent horror combination.

Conclusion: Build Your Horror from the Foundation Up

In a genre built on fear, unfinished places leave the deepest impressions because they resist resolution. They are liminal spaces by design, unclaimed by the present or the past. Horror lives in these gaps, between what was supposed to be and what is.

So next time you walk past a skeletal building project or an old frame of a house long abandoned, listen closely. If it’s unfinished… maybe it’s just waiting for the right person to complete it.

And maybe that person is you.

Be sure to check out my latest novel of terror - the Given. It's out now!

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