As a story-telling medium, movies have campfire gatherings deep in their souls. And there’s no more quintessential campfire tale than the ghost story. Folktales are rife with the spirits of the departed, and these legends have crept their way into works of theology and literature from all parts of the globe.
Thus it’s only natural that tales of haunting and other ghostly doings are easy subjects for screen adaptations. However, the traditional formulae usually require some modifications. For example, one of the most famous conventions of the ghost story is that ghosts cannot directly harm the living. In a “true story,” you can get away with that. The mere thought of a spirit returning from beyond the grave would be spooky all by itself if it really happened. But audiences automatically assume that movies are make-believe, so merely putting in an appearance usually isn’t enough of an act even for dead people.
Thus Hollywood tends to elaborate. They blur the line between ghosts and zombies. Or ghosts and serial killers. Or rather than the ethereal remains of a dead person, the antagonist is a demon or other evil spirit possessing a house or person.
Or the rule against direct harm can be bent or even directly broken. For example, the Headless Horseman is a vengeful spirit not the least bit shy about chopping heads directly, at least in the Tim Burton version of the tale. Many of the entries in this list take a similar approach.
Regardless of the specific details, there’s just something about a good ghost story. And here are eight of them.
The Haunting – If you’re in the mood for an empty-headed thrill ride, by all means check out the 1999 version. But the original is thoughtful and spooky rather than slick and noisy. Further, for better or worse it sticks a lot closer to Shirley Jackson’s source story. As such, it’s the perfect generic ghost story (“generic” in the sense of typifying the genre, not in the sense of being crappy because it isn’t name-brand).
The Legend of Hell House – While The Haunting is the sort of picture I dutifully include on a list like this, Hell House is the sort of picture I actually like. The plots of this one and the last one are similar: a group of investigators stays in a house reputed to be extremely haunted. But this time the tale is less gentile and spooky and more visceral and menacing. This isn’t a festival of gore or nudity, though such a picture could easily have been made from Richard Matheson’s novel. Instead the violence and sex are largely implied, making them even more intense than if they’d been explicitly shown. The story works well and the actors do a good job with Matheson’s script.
The Shining – If we were continuing the vaguely Scooby-Doo-flavored theme of researchers versus haints, the Stephen King work we’d include here would be Rose Red. But The Shining is a considerably better (not to mention more tightly plotted and thus shorter) production. Stanley Kubrick’s wonderful visuals combine with Jack Nicholson’s iconic performance as an unfortunate, ghost-maddened winter caretaker in an old hotel. Of the eight movies on this list, this is one of three that I actually have in my collection and the one that I’d keep if I could keep only one.
Poltergeist – Sure, at heart it’s an overblown Twilight Zone episode. But the script supplies plenty of eerie moments, never letting the story bog down in extended dull sections. The effects are good particularly by pre-CGI standards. And then of course there’s The Curse (assuming that the deaths of four series stars counts as a curse, particularly when two of them died under ordinary circumstances). This is also one of only two pictures on the list that has sequels (and the only one that has both a second and a third installment), in case you want to keep the party going.
The Cry – As I mentioned in the intro, ghosts are ubiquitous. They show up in one form or another in just about every culture on the planet. Thus this list benefits from really good ghost tales based on folktales from cultures outside the United States. One such tale is the creepy legend of La Lllorona, a child-murdering spirit from Mexican folk traditions. Though she can be a challenge to work with, The Cry does a superior job of integrating the legend into modern, urban culture. Further, the production values sit nicely on the fence between too expensive and not expensive enough.
Kwaidan – This picture gets two strong votes for inclusion on the list. First, it’s a Japanese production. Yes, you’ll have to read subtitles. But it’s worth it. Nobody does a good ghost story like the Japanese. Second, it’s a quartet of shorter stories rather than a single, feature-length plot. This makes it a bit more like ghost stories told around a campfire, directly to the point and full of simple scares.
The Ring – And of course anything that does well in a foreign market stands a good chance of getting remade by Hollywood. I don’t know that this really justified all the hype that surrounded it during its original release, but it is an entertaining, stylish ghost story. I also liked the anyone-can-blunder-into-the-thing’s-clutches element. In most haunted house story lines, the menace can be avoided just by not going into the house. But once curiosity or happenstance brings you into contact with a certain videotape, the ghost in this one will get you in a week no matter what you do.
Beetlejuice – If you were going to watch all these movies in one sitting, you’d probably want to finish the set with a little comic relief. This picture also reminds us of the whistling-past-the-graveyard aspect of many childhood ghost stories, which often turned out to be elaborate jokes. The title character is a great blend of funny and dangerous, though he does have just a bit too much obnoxious stirred into the mix. Plus the list needed at least a little Tim Burton somewhere.
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