Am I the only one who is tired of seeing so many haunted house movies with the same formula of watching the living get the pants scared off them by the dead? I would actually rather watch a ghost story that puts the ghost, or ghosts, in the spotlight and, luckily, plenty of those do exist. Here are some great horror movies and TV shows (and even a few that are not quite horror, but still spooky) that will put you in good spirits about… well, spirits.
Beetlejuice (1988)
Director Tim Burton’s horror-comedy classic Beetlejuice was one of the first ghost stories to flip the script by following ghosts trying to rid their home of the living instead of the opposite. Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis) become desperate enough to call upon Michael Keaton’s mischievous title character (spelled “Betelgeuse”), only to regret calling his name thrice when they befriend young Lydia (Winona Ryder).
Christina Ricci as a father and daughter who encounter the friendly ghost (voiced by Malachi Pearson) and his uncles (voiced by Joe Nipote, Brad Garrett, and Joe Alaskey) when they move into the mansion they haunt.
Johnny Depp) as he tries to get out of his accidental marriage to the reanimated Emily (Helena Bonham Carter). Surprisingly, the story is most sympathetic of Emily, exploring her struggle to find love before (and after) her tragic, untimely death.
twist of the acclaimed M. Night Shyamalan movie, The Sixth Sense, that we realize we are watching a movie told largely from a ghost’s point of view. Not even child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) realizes he is dead until after he helps young Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) come to terms with his ability to see spirits.
anthology horror TV show, American Horror Story, retroactively subtitled “Murder House,” follows a family who move into a new home with a haunting history. Some of the various storylines explored in the 12-episode season focus purely on those who haunt the California estate, the lives they lived, and how they cope with the afterlife.
David Koepp’s Ghost Town as a non-sociable dentist forced to become more cordial when a near-death experience gives him the ability to see the dead. He is asked by one persistent spirit (played by Greg Kinnear) to help him prevent his widow (played by Téa Leoni) from marrying the wrong man.
Megan Trinrud, School Spirits stars Peyton List as 17-year-old Maddie Nears, who, for reasons she cannot remember, suddenly finds herself trapped in her high school with other teens who also passed away on campus. The only one who can see her is her best friend, Simon (Kristian Ventura), who helps her investigate the mystery behind her death in the acclaimed series available with a Paramount+ subscription.
surprisingly heart-warming examples of a horror-comedy is director Christopher Landon’s We Have a Ghost, which is based on a short story named after a friendly spectre known as Ernest. David Harbour stars in the role of the silent spirit, who is befriended by young Kevin Presley (Jahi Winston) and turns him into a social media sensation.
romantic “horror” thrillers of all time is Ghost, which is an unlikely film from one of the directors of Airplane!, Jerry Zucker. Patrick Swayze stars as Sam, a murdered Manhattan yuppie who enlists the help of a medium named Oda Mae Brown (played by Whoopi Goldberg in an Oscar-winning performance) to warn his lover, Molly (Demi Moore), that she is in danger.
horror movies about grief with A24’s A Ghost Story.
ScreenCrush, M. Night Shyamalan refuted an internet rumor that he was inspired to write The Sixth Sense after watching an episode of Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark? Considering “The Tale of the Dream Girl” ends with the main character, Johnny (played by Fab Filippo), coming to the late realization that he is a ghost, it is quite reasonable why some might suspect the filmmaker owes some credit to the Midnight Society.
compared to Beetlejuice.
Guillermo del Toro’s best movies, The Devil’s Backbone, mostly follows 12-year-old Carlos (Fernando Tielve), who, after his father dies in the Spanish Civil War, is sent to live at an orphanage that he soon discovers is haunted. Carlos is initially afraid of Santi (Junio Valverde), the ghost of a boy who was killed at the orphanage years earlier, until he learns the details of his death and the two become allies.
Movies with shocking twist endings in which the main character (or characters) were dead the whole time were more popular in the late 1990s and 2000s than you may have realized. Just a couple of years after The Sixth Sense was released, Nicole Kidman starred in The Others as a mother of two who believes her house is haunted, only to realize that she, her children, and others are truly the ghosts haunting it.
film that kills off the main character but keeps that fact a secret until the end. The unsettling classic begins with Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) suffering a terrible car accident before joining a traveling carnival as an organ player, only for it to be later revealed that she never survived the crash.
entry-level horror movies for younger audiences, such as The Scream Team. Ian Carlyle and Kat Dennings play a pair of siblings, grieving the loss of their grandfather, when they meet a ghostly trio (played by Tommy Davidson, Kathy Najimy, and Eric Idle) who help defeat a vengeful spirit stealing innocent souls.
forgotten Disney movie Blackbeard’s Ghost stars Peter Ustinov in the title role of the legendary pirate’s spirit. He is accidentally summoned in modern times by a track coach (played by Dean Jones) who receives help from Blackbeard to prevent a local mobster from condemning a local hotel.
The Haunted Hathaways (2013-2015)
Nickelodeon’s The Haunted Hathaways is the story of a single mother and her two daughters who move into a New Orleans house, which they end up sharing with the family of ghosts that live inside.
Ghoster (2022)
In Ghoster, a teenage girl meets the titular spirit, whom she must help free from the new home she has inherited.
R.I.P.D. (2013)
R.I.P.D. imagines a special place in the afterlife where deceased law enforcement officials are recruited to protect the living from malevolent forces. That is what happens to Ryan Reynolds’ Nick Walker, who is partnered with veteran Roy after he is brought to the Rest in Peace Department.
Over Her Dead Body (2008)
In Over Her Dead Body, Eva Longoria plays a woman accidentally killed on her wedding day whose spirit returns to break up her old fiancé (played by Paul Rudd) and his new girlfriend (played by Lake Bell).
Ghost Dad (1990)
From director Sidney Poitier (yes, that Sidney Poitier), Ghost Dad is a supernatural family comedy starring Bill Cosby as a widowed father who never has time for his children, but becomes motivated to make time for them when he becomes a ghost following a freak car accident.