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Ghosts in the Movies

CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE EIGHT

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The Legend Of Hell House (1973)

This classic British haunted-house-and-horror movie has a lot in common with The Haunting, which preceded it by a decade. Both movies feature groups of paranormal investigators who take up quarters in an old mansion where disturbing deaths have occurred, and ghosts are reputed to roam. In addition, both feature protagonists who are haunted at least as much by sexual frustration as they are by the spirits of the dead.

However, in Hell House, many of the the supernatural manifestations are more theatrical than in the earlier movie, which largely avoided explicitness in favor of reproducing the dark psychological ambiguities of the Shirley Jackson novel (The Haunting Of Hill House) on which it was based. For instance, in the Hell House scene excerpted here, poltergeists completely trash a dining room after two of the ghost hunters get into an argument. [Read more…] about CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE EIGHT

CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE SEVEN

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The Amityville Horror (1979)

One of the main interests in the original version of The Amityville Horror is that it is a fictionalization of supposedly actual paranormal events experienced in 1974 and 1975 by two separate families who lived in the same Long Island home.

At 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York, on November 13, 1974, 23-year-old Ronald DeFeo, Jr., shot to death his entire family while they slept—his parents, two brothers, and two sisters. He at first attempted an insanity defense, claiming that voices in the house had told him to commit the murders—but later he admitted drugs and alcohol were probably responsible. [Read more…] about CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE SEVEN

CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE SIX

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Ghost (1990)

As ghost movies go, this one’s not all that scary—though it does contain plenty of suspenseful scenes. Rather, much of the pathos stems from the paranormal romance between Molly (Demi Moore), a potter, and Sam, (Patrick Swayze), her banker lover who is murdered and becomes a ghost after he uncovers some illegal financial activity.

With the help of medium Oda Mae Brown (Whoopie Goldberg), the ghostly Sam reestablishes contact with Molly, who at first doesn’t believe he exists. Sam then provides Oda Mae with the security codes to a bank account owned by the movie’s villain, Carl (Tony Goldwyn) and coaches her through a harrowing but successful attempt to withdraw all the money. [Read more…] about CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE SIX

CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE FIVE

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“I See Dead People”: The Sixth Sense

No collection of classic ghost movies would be complete without The Sixth Sense, the 1999 supernatural thriller that catapulted M. Night Shyamaian into prominence as a director. The movie stars Bruce Willis as child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe and Haley Joel Osment as Cole Sear, a boy with the ability to see the spirits of the dead. Crowe sets out to try to help Cole with his unusual problems, but by the end of the movie it becomes apparent that the boy has been helping his doctor at least as much as his doctor has been helping him. The boy also provides assistance to numerous other disembodied beings along the way.

Although the movie itself is not particularly chilling, the line, “I see dead people,” which Cole whispers to Crowe, became an instant classic in its own right and has remained in popular use ever since—often being employed in a humorous or ironic context, such as when people are driving past a cemetery. [Read more…] about CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE FIVE

CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE FOUR

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Poltergeist (1982)—Or, Oh No! A Clown!

Clowns are always good for a horror-movie scare. And when you mix a toy clown with poltergeist activity at a haunted home in the California suburbs . . . yikes!

In this scene from Stephen Spielberg’s 1982 classic film, Poltergeist, tension builds during a quiet evening after bedtime. The kids are safely tucked in, and mom’s enjoying a hot bath. [Read more…] about CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE FOUR

CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE THREE

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Holding Hands With A Ghost

Aauthor Shirley Jackson is probably best known for her eerie and unsettling short story, The Lottery, which is still read in many high school English classes. Not only is The Lottery a tale about irrational fear and deadly superstition, but it’s often interpreted as a protest against the Communist “witch hunts” of the 1950s as well as the evils of unthinking social conformity.

But Jackson also wrote The Haunting of Hill House, one of the finest literary ghost stories of the Twentieth Century. Jackson’s 1959 novel was adapted into a 1963 movie of the same name—and the movie itself, along with being faithful to the book, is quite fine. In fact, it’s considered one of the scariest movies of the Twentieth Century. [Read more…] about CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE THREE

CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE TWO

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The Ring: The Ghost From The Well

One of the scariest ghosts scenes in all of cinema occurs toward the end of The Ring—a 2002 remake of the 1998 Japanese horror movie, Ring, which was based on a novel by the same name.

Most of the chills in The Ring arise from the disorienting combination of an old-school ghost-story theme—a haunted well—with Twentieth-Century electronic technology in the form of a television and a cursed videotape. [Read more…] about CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE TWO

CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE ONE

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Ghosts In A Haunted Hotel: The Shining Twins

Not only is the classic 1980 film, The Shining, one of the greatest psychological thrillers of all time, but some critics consider it to be one of the best films in any genre. And it’s all about ghosts—ghosts who mess with the already messed-up psyche of alcoholic American writer Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson in one of his finest performances.

The Shining begins with Jack taking a job as the winter caretaker at the old, haunted Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. He is accompanied by his wife and young son, Danny, and he intends to get some writing work done during his term of isolation at the remote lodge. [Read more…] about CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE ONE