One reason that I think he uses the characters in the story to make the story creepy/scary is that in The Landlady he makes the LandLady creepy. The text states, “ I stuff all my animals myself once they die so I do not feel alone and so that I have someone to talk to when i'm sad”. This makes the LandLady seem like a psychopath and a creepy person in general. That is one way he uses the characters to make his writing creepy/scary.
Another reason is that he makes the setting seem creepy because they are in a town and