Woman Shocked by Mysterious Roof Door: ‘Horror Films Start That Way’

A video of a door to the roof of a home appearing to be “haunted” as it flaps around on its own has gone viral on TikTok.

The video was shared by Hayley McLachlan (@hayleymclachlan90) and has amassed 659,000 views since it was shared on December 13.

The footage shows a small door on the ceiling of a room opening and closing repeatedly, making a banging noise. A child’s voice is heard in the background saying “mom, mom,” and she answers: “Yeah, I see it, I see it,” before the clip ends.

In a later comment, the poster said they had only been home for about five minutes and “no windows or doors were open” at the time of the incident. A caption shared with the post says “Sooo.. either someone is living in my roof or my house is officially haunted… daughter then made the smart suggestion of ‘should we leave?!'”

As scary as the scene in the viral clip might seem, it turns out exposure to a frightening event may have health benefits.

According to the findings of a study due to be published in the January 2025 issue of Brain, Behavior and Immunity, “fear in a recreational setting may positively impact the immune system” by reducing inflammation.

The study, which observed visitors to a real-life intense frightening haunted house attraction, located in Vejle, Denmark, found that “total leukocyte [white blood cells that help fight infection] numbers decreased, supporting that inflammation attenuates in response to fear in a recreational context…”

The study reported “a decrease in inflammatory markers and cell counts, particularly for those already inflamed.”

‘Scared the Hell out of Me’

Some viewers on TikTok were frightened by the mysterious roof door in the viral clip, such as jadeyb14 who wrote: “Girl….. I’d be gone, so far away out that house. Absolutely NOT!!!”

Pauline said: “Hell no, to many horror films that start that way, you need to put a lock on that.!

User @howdyunstoppable said: “Girl cleanse your house that’s not normal especially in Oz stay safe,” and user19056696910835 noted: “I’d be out of there quicker than Usain Bolt with the runs !!”

Other TikTokers were less bothered, with several saying it may be down to an air flow issue.

MotherEffingMoms wrote: “This happened to us in a house we flipped. It was the air and it scared the helllll out of me! Wouldn’t go back by myself.”

OnlyClaireJones said: “It’s actually normal it’s to do with the air in the attic mine used to do it you just need to do the latch up.”

Stephen Hopper Hair noted: “This happened to me 3 days after i moved into a new house I wanted to cry, turned out it was just the wind coming through the vents in the new build.”

Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via TikTok. This video has not been independently verified.