Maybe it's the water?

If there's a Hollywood producer out there on the search for a horror film location and wants weird ambiance from the trees, I'd like to submit my neighbours yards for candidacy.

I've heard the expression "swamp spruce" used to refer to particularly Charlie Brownish type of trees.  I'm not sure if it applies here .. these go beyond sparse-branches-but-sorta-redeemable-with-lights variety of tree .. these trees are the stuff you tell ghost stories to your kid brothers about.  Bring on the nightmares.