Maybe Hamlet's house extremely gruesome (7)
I believe the answer is:
village
'maybe hamlet's' is the definition.
'house extremely gruesome' is the wordplay.
'house' becomes 'villa' (villa is a kind of house).
'extremely' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'gruesome' with its middle removed is 'ge'.
'villa'+'ge'='VILLAGE'
(Other definitions for village that I've seen before include "little place" , "Small rural settlement" , "Goldsmith poem 'The Deserted .......'" , "Small group of dwellings" , "Small residential area" .)