Why one extra door makes a haunted house scarier

Then give me one more door than the plan allows.

That would bother me more than a corridor full of whispers. With the whispers, I already know we’re doing ghosts. The extra door gives me something to check. I can go back to the plan, count the rooms, look for a narrow space beside the stairs. Doing something sensible becomes part of the fright, because it doesn’t help.

I’d want the rest of the house to stay ordinary for quite a while. If every room rearranges itself at once, I stop trying to follow the layout. The house can do anything, so I might as well wait for the next surprise. But if the kitchen stays put and the cupboard is still full of towels, I’ll keep trying to account for that one door.

Matching paint. Same handle as all the others. It could almost persuade me the drawing was wrong.