Movies About Ghosts

Hello there… today we’re discussing some ghost movies (some are very scary, some are funny and some are even romantic). The list below isn’t a comprehensive list; these are my specific favorites, and I’ll tell you why.  You’re encouraged to share your favorite ghost movies or shows in the comment section.

1.       The Shining (1980) – A small family stays alone in a Catskills-like hotel over the winter season, so the husband & father can be the caretaker. In the meantime, the hotel is severely haunted, and angry ghosts torment the family in various ways (the young boy can see all the ghosts).

Scariest scene: The elevator opening and releasing a bloodbath.

2.       Poltergeist (1982) – A nuclear family moves to the suburbs and begins to experience increasingly frightening situations in their home, resulting in the capture of their youngest daughter by a demonic spirit. They learn that the real estate company built their home right on a cemetery site (only moving the headstones).

Scariest scene: When going into a portal in the closet, a giant evil face comes out & growls.

3.       Ghostbusters (1984, 1989, 2016)

1984 – This movie is so classic, it needs no description 😊

Scariest scene: When Dana is dragged screaming into her kitchen, while demons in her chair wrapped their arms all around her. That still terrifies me!

1989 – After a hiatus, the team regains popularity when they have to deal with negatively-charged slime underneath their city of New York.

Scariest scene: When the evil man from the ancient painting is being sent back into it by the Ghostbusters, and he is so strong and his features become more demonic each frame.

2016 – The all-female remake (I quite like it and don’t understand people’s problem with it). The Ghostbusters in this case, have to deal with an evil man (Rowan) who is wanting to bring about world destruction by summoning evil spirits. Sure enough, he makes himself a ghost as well.

Scariest scene: When Rowan’s ghost ends up huge and very destructive! 

4.       Beetlejuice (1989) – A young gothic girl & her selfish family move into a home, formerly belonging to a young, childless couple who cannot ‘haunt’ the new family away. The teen girl develops a friendship with the ghost couple and an evil spirit needs to be banished.

Scariest scene: The waiting room of the afterlife, where we see gruesome zombies.

5.       Ghost (1990) – A young urban couple move into a Manhattan loft to start a new life, when sadly the man is murdered over discovering a co-worker’s secret. He can come back as a ghost and communicate with his widowed girlfriend through a psychic medium.

Scariest scene: When the evil co-worker gets killed after pursuing/trying to kill the girlfriend and the medium; his death is gruesome and he gets dragged to hell afterward.

6.       Casper (1995) – A widowed father (paranormal investigator) & pretty pre-teen daughter move into a notoriously haunted mansion, where Casper falls in love with the girl and befriends her.

Scariest scene: Though this video is more cute than scary, the evil woman does make a terrifying ghost when she gets killed by her partner to take new form.

7.       The Frighteners (1996) – After a man loses his wife during their car accident, he goes into depression but can also see ghosts. He makes a business out of paid ‘exorcisms’ by hiring corny ghosts to haunt people so they’ll call him. He ends up dealing with a really serious, evil entity.

Scariest scene: Whenever the ‘Grim Reaper’ spirit pursues someone, it’s dramatic!

8.       The Sixth Sense (1999) – A young boy struggles with fear of spirits who come to him, while he gets bullied in school and his divorced mother doesn’t know how to help. A deceased child psychologist/psychiatrist reaches out to help the boy before he can move on.

Scariest scene: I’d have to say the woman in the kitchen, who cut her wrists while yelling.

9.       The Haunting (1999) – A psychologist invites a small group of participants to a haunted building, on the guise that he’s only studying insomnia (he is actually studying fear). Sadly, this house is quite evil and hurts/kills some of the participants.

Scariest scene: When one of the male participants is attacked by a lion statue (by the fireplace) and is decapitated. His head is shown flying for some time ☹ 

10.   House on Haunted Hill (1999 remake) – An eccentric horror/thrill tycoon invites 5 participants to an eerie party in a notorious old Asylum, where if they can spend the night without a meltdown, they will win $1,000,000. As the participants turn out to be descendants of the ghosts, they are hunted and tormented by the enraged spirits.  

Scariest scene: This movie is loaded with them, but I’d say the screaming woman under water, with a close tie to the jump-scare zombie in the basement.

11.   Thir13en Ghosts (2001) – A widowed man inherits an unusual glass mansion from his [supposedly] dead uncle, who is a ghost hunter for selfish gain from their powers. The particular ghosts here are very upset and filled with vengeful rage, making them quite dangerous.

Scariest scene: The obnoxious lawyer who gets cut in half by the glass doors closing on him.

12.   1408 (2007) – A sarcastic and saddened paranormal author stays in a notoriously haunted hotel room, where evil ghosts mock his sad past of losing his daughter and marriage.

13.   Scariest scene: Being chased by a zombie/ghost in the air ducts. Many other scary scenes.

14.   Dead Silence (2007) – After a young wife is murdered by a mysterious doll, the widowed husband investigates the situation and learns of an evil female spirit (Mary Shaw) who haunts the town, avenging her own gruesome death decades ago.

Scariest scene: Any time Mary’s ghost lunges at people to bite their tongue out!

15.   Apartment 1303 (2007) – A young Japanese girl dies along with her abusive mother, and together they haunt an apartment that threatens to kill each new tenant by causing them to try to jump from the balcony. It’s a Japanese movie, so slightly harder to follow.

Scariest scene: The scene where the dead girl’s hair becomes like tentacles and ‘grabs’ at the horrified onlookers. 

16.   One Missed Call (2008) – An evil entity torments victims with eerie phone calls predicting their deaths, days before actually killing them. It turns out an angry ghost (of a disturbed girl) who died while locked up for harming her sister, is killing people off one by one.

Scariest scene: Other than the death scenes, it’s when Ellie’s furious & evil ghost appears.

17.   A Christmas Carol (2009 animation) – Ebenezer Scrooge (voiced by Jim Carrey) is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, who forewarns his death if he does not heed the advice of more ghosts to visit him.

Scariest scene: There are several, which made parents wonder if this was child-friendly. With that being said, though this is a Christmas story, it’s also fitting for Halloween.

18.   The Haunting in Connecticut (2009) – A teenage boy is terminally ill, causing him to be able to connect with the deceased, when his mother moves them to a creepy old house to be closer to his medical treatments. The spirits here are from when it was a funeral home/morgue, during the days of seances and strange ritual sacrifices.

Scariest scene: Most of this movie is quite disturbing and not for the faint of heart.

19.   Insidious franchise (2011, 2013, 2015, 2018) – Admittedly, one of my favorites on this list. A young family is tormented in their new home by evil ghosts with intent to harm, later finding that it’s the husband/father they want, after stealing the soul of their youngest son. By the third movie, a teen girl goes through similar torment in a haunted apartment, and I’ve yet to see the fourth one, but I’m sure it’s gonna scare the socks off me!

Scariest scene: In the first film, it’s the demonic male who paces back & forth outside a second story window, before suddenly appearing in the baby’s room. In the second film it’s a jump scare by an angry & abusive mother spirit. In the third one, it’s when the girl gets hit by a car.

UPDATE: Rob & I watched 'The Last Key' together, and it was very good (the strong psychic Elise gets her own backstory). As per the scariest scene, it's when she's talking with the cop at the police station, when the ghostly spirit of her niece appears behind him and screams. This startles the crap out of Elise, but the cop is unaware of what she just saw.

20.   Paranormal Activity franchise (2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015) – This series is considered contemporary because it doesn’t use typical Hollywood recording methods, relying on more relatable home movie footage, cell phone camera shots and CCTV. This makes the jump-scares more terrifying as they seem like they could happen. Each movie features a couple or family dealing with demons and angry ghosts.

Scariest scene: Mostly, a lot of sudden jump-scares after a long silence.

21.   ParaNorman (2012) – A stop-motion animation about a young boy who can see and talk with ghosts (despite his family thinking he’s weird). Norman uses his talent when confronting a furious female spirit who was wrongfully killed as a child, and calms her down.

Scariest scene: This isn’t a super kid-friendly movie, and certainly toward the end, when the female ghost (thought to be a witch and killed centuries ago) is shown to be very terrifying.

So there you have it, my personal list of favorite movies about ghosts. Though it sort of saddens me that they’re often portrayed as evil and malicious in Hollywood films, there are also those that give them some lovable relatability. After all, for the most part, they used to be human before dying…

What are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments!