Recently I've been asked by an old friend of mine to write a script for his feature movie (this will be his first movie). Nothing too extravagant nor complicated, mind you, but something that can make people scream and possibly die of heart attack. Having never written horror stories before, this is a bit of a challenge. My aim is to write the best story which my friend, the first-time director will be able to create into a real masterpiece. So said, the best ghost movie of all time, or at least for the next 5 years.
Personally, I prefer the suspense and shock delivered by a good horror movie. It doesn't have to show the ghost, but there's something to be said about knowing that there's something lurking around, waiting to pounce. You will be waiting for something, expecting something, but what came to you was something totally out of what you were expecting. Oh, by the way, this is not a thriller (no psychotic murderers), this is a pure ghost story. My friend has even consulted the local bomoh (malay shaman) so that the ghost appears as a ghost as seen by these spiritual doctors and not a man-made monster from Blue Lagoon.
Out of these, my all time favourite is The Blair Witch Project. Their use of shaky handheld camera delivered realism to the whole experience. The storyline was also good (for a found video genre), and managed to deliver the story well. I used to have goosebumps watching that movie, but then again, it was probably because I thought the story was real.
I like Nang Nak, the Thai ghost story relying heavily on folklore. There is just something about the movie that puts me on edge. And the ending was just cool at least from what I remember.
I love The Ring (Ringu, the original japanese version). I think it's the imagery and camera view that made it scary. But then again, I haven't watched it for so long that my memory may be faulty. I believe the Hollywod version of The Ring failed to deliver the same fear as the original japanese movie.
One Missed Call is another one of my favourite. It was the original idea that captured my interest at first. It was the depiction of supernatural death that kept me watching. All in all, I didn't regret paying for the movie. I even played it a few times and it still scared me.
So what is your favourite ghost movie and why did you like it?
Comments
mpvie
the shining always did it for me.
robert
What Horror Movies Do You Like?
I have no favorite as I like them all.
May Your Light Forever Shine
Wall Street? Was that a
Wall Street? Was that a horror movie? The name brings shivers to lots of people now. ;-)
The Shining was also one of my favorites, as was a made for TV Stephen King story, Storm of the Century.
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
Mine?
I was The Haunting, the original from back in the sixties, not the recent remake.
It was in black and white which helped the stark mood that was intended, and helped with the sense of 'This is not good' that the director wanted. Never once did you actually see what was doing things, but you heard what they did - like pounding on walls or pushing solid wood doors to the point where they creaked and bulged. One girl in the movie actually had something she thought was the girl sharing the room with her holding her hand during a really tense moment. It wasn't the other girl, but again, you never did actually see what was doing that.
Sometimes, the fact that the characters don't know what's going on, can't see the cause, and are scared out of their wits just adds and builds tension.
I can honestly say that was the scariest movie I ever watched.
Maggie
another vote for the shinning
another vote for the shinning here, although there's quite a few I like from the 70s and 80s. For a slightly more modern one how about 28 days later? I would love to like the Blair Witch Project as I can see how it's a good movie but both times I've tried to watch it I've got motion sick which somewhat detracted from it
The bad language
in the Blair Witch nearly made me give up half way through, but it was frightening. The ones which gave me the horrors for days afterwards were the M R James classics, 'Whistle and I'll come to you,' and, 'A Warning to the Curious.'
Both of these were done by the BBC some years ago.
For those of you who enjoy ghost stories, M R James has got to be one of the greatest writers of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._R._James
Perhaps the most powerful element of a story though is of the anguish of the protagonists, and some of the most effective have been of the sadness of the disembodied spirit rather than the terror of the embodied ones.
Angharad
The Host
It's a Korean film, available both dubbed and subbed.
Science fiction horror with a bit of an Asian family drama twist. Pollution produces a monster in the river but the government is lying about what is actually going on. Five members of one family deal with the monster and each other in their individual ways. Chilling, exciting, funny in parts, touching in others. Just a good movie because I don't really like horror movies.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Well, a movie I consider to be a ghost movie,
And one of my all-time favorites, is the classic "Carnival of Souls." True, it is more typically looked upon as an influence on zombie movies, but I've always considered it a glowing example of what a ghost story should be -- creepy, cerebral, and with enough mystery to keep you guessing as to what's going on until the very end.
A few other stories I'd recommend for the same type of flair are both the original and the early-2000's remake of "The House on Haunted Hill," the first being a wonderful example of using setting and subtlety to scare the pants off your audience and the second being a pretty decent example of how a story can benefit from adding touches of the modern to a classic tale, though it does overstep its boundaries on more than one occasion.
While I'm at it, if you haven't checked it out, also watch Travel Channel's "The Dead Files." I'm still not sure if the people in it are for real or not (I prefer to give the benefit of the doubt,) but most episodes are a lot of fun to watch from a paranormal investigation standpoint, and the backgrounds behind some of the places they visit would be great inspiration for a ghost tale on screen.
Melanie E.
Yes CARNIVAL of SOULS
had a wonderful hallucinatory quality that was almost a precursor to David Lynch. Once the paranormal crosses your life EVERYTHING CHANGES. Things no longer line up quite the way they did the day before. Little touches- like repeatedly finding mangled bloody dead birds, one on your porch in the morning, one on the windshield of your car when leaving the mall later that day (Once is explainable, a cat got the poor thing, but THREE TIMES? This actually happened to a UFOlogist friend of mine)- can give a great sense of foreshadowing. And it keeps building. Not just that something uncanny has entered your world, but your very perceptions are skewed, the nature of time and space, unexplained jumps in time---you were there and now you're here---and seeing what others don't. Too many horror stories keep experience too prosaic, and wrap everything up too neatly; it's inconsistent the actual accounts as I understand the literature of the paranormal. But then I'm a fan of chaos and confusion. About the scariest and GREATEST horror movie I ever saw was Adrianne Lynn's JACOB'S LADDER- a trip thru Hell right out of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The "guy with the shaking head" effect has been copied a lot but it still freaks me out.
~hugs, Veronica
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.
=|
"Nothing too extravagant"? Well, I guess I shouldn't take it personally.
I prefer the thrillers though, the more blood and gore the better. >:)
The Scariest Horror Movie
For me was the first "Alien". I was watching it on a smallish TV at house of friends of my ex, pretending to be a guy, etc.... It was just some of their kids and I watching; they'd seen it before. In a few 10s of minutes I was afraid to look at the set! I think at this point in the film, the alien had not been seen clearly at all, just a fast moving, dark blur, but the victims were vividly displayed. After I finally saw the alien, I wasn't quite as scared, then my fear diminished as the film progressed.
I remember a foreign film, Italian? Fellini?, called "Compulsion" or something like that; only one word.
After Research: only negatives; not Fellini, not a 1959 movie named Compulsion, not Italian.... OK: Roman Polanski, "Repulsion", 1965, British.
I watched (as a teen), but it really creeped me out for a long time. The scariest scene had a character, the protagonist, I guess, walking down a dim, featureless, white hallway when arms came out of the walls on either side, trying to grab her. Reading about the film, I see that I didn't remember much except that hallucinatory scene, but probably, the rest of the film disturbed me, too. Maybe that made the one scene even more memorable.
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee
Låt den rätte komma in
The Swedish original of Let the Right One In. (I haven't seen the US remake.) Not a screaming-slasher but creepy and oppressive. Very dark. The book is one of the better vampire treatments.
Jamie
movies
the movie Terror Island did it for me as i was 6 at the time scared the crap out of me for years after and now i love horror movies go figure
The readers/observors imagination is a powerful tool
It has been argued the first Jaws movie was much scarier than the sequels in that the shark was only hinted at, or seen in brief glimpses until rather late in the tale.
The observer's imagination is often far scarier than any special effect he or she can experience.
Have fun..
John in Wauwatosa
P.S. Turning things on their heads is often an effective terror device.
IE the kindly old priest who is really the Devil in disguise. The little child who is a demon.
Or a fav of mine, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood as seen through a twisted mind. Have you ever watched the closing song and imagined him as a soft spoken but ominous SS Waffen Officer about to interrogate a suspect.
..."you'll have things you'll want to talk about. I will too."
Or in one of the best suspense films ever, North by Northwest, look at James Mason.
When he says the line about killing Eve Marie Saint "This is a problem best solved at a great height over water. " it is possibly the most evil thing ever said in a film yet so utterly *civilized*.
Civil, cultured terror or pure, unreasoning alien terror are best. IE the Devil vs The Blob. And in the shadows, unseen terror is best. Use a Mc Guffin like Hitchcock did, misdirect.
John in Wauwatosa
The innkeepers, the grey, the
The innkeepers, the grey, the women in black, the devil inside are some of the new horror movies in year 2012. The movies is rock solid powerful to make some one very afraid. When you watch this film you will feel terrific and pass by horror wives inside you. Good work by makeup artist and creative team. Top bollywood actors