Who doesn’t love a good ghost story? For centuries, people have gathered around to tell each other scary stories about specters and spirits as entertainment. Thankfully, these days we can rely on TV and film to scare us senseless, without having to put the effort into telling stories ourselves. Here are some of the best, most frightening ghost movies to hit our screens, from the classics like The Shining to some of the most popular horror flicks of the past few years, like Paranormal Activity.
One Missed Call (2003)
The original Japanese film, One Missed Call, directed by Takashi Miike, starts off with a novel premise: a chain of people receive an answering machine message on their mobiles revealing their time of death. The first couple of acts of the movie revolve entirely around that premise, following a chain of people meeting their untimely end as predicted by the all-knowing caller. In the final acts of the film, however, it completely spirals out of control in a surreal story of possession, haunted hospitals, and abusive family dynamics.
Some of the best scenes of One Missed Call manage to subvert horror tropes in totally unforeseen ways, making it a fantastic watch for even the most seasoned horror fans. The way these tropes are masterfully used demonstrates the filmmakers' deep understanding of the genre. There is no sense that commonly-used tropes, like creepy dolls and long ghostly locks of hair, are being used as a product of lazy writing or filmmaking, but instead as a love letter to all the films in the genre that came before them.
Dark Water (2002)
Written and directed by the duo behind Ring (Koji Suzuki and Hideo Nakata), Dark Water is an incredibly terrifying, yet tender story about a ghost child who haunts a recently divorced mother and her young child. Yoshimi (Hitomi Kuroki) and her six-year-old daughter Ikuko (Rio Kanno) move into an apartment together in the wake of a fraught divorce, in an attempt to build a new life together. Shortly after moving in, Yoshimi starts to notice a damp problem in their apartment — which is only the start of their problems. As the film unfolds, the unfortunate story of a missing girl is revealed.
Nakata’s subtle touch constructs a deeply unsettling ambience throughout the movie, twisting otherwise innocuous and wholesome childhood imagery into something completely morbid. At its core, Dark Water is a touching, tragic tale of childhood neglect and misfortune. Despite the tender storytelling and themes of the story, it doesn’t compromise on the fear factor at all. Some scenes around the climax of the movie remain some of the most memorable scenes in a horror movie, of all subgenres. Dark Water is an absolute must-see for fans of suspenseful, paranormal horror. Again, the Japanese original is far superior to its American counterpart.
Shutter (2004)
Shutter is a Thai ghost story directed by horror heavyweights Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom. The movie follows a photographer who starts seeing phantom figures in his photographs. Without giving too much away about the plot, the film starts off as a story about spirit photography and a mysterious death, before twisting into a dark story about the past coming back to — literally — haunt you. Whichever direction you expect this movie to go in, it goes the opposite way, making you second guess everything you see.
Shutter has received several remakes, including an English-language version in 2008 (of the same name). The remake wasn’t as well received, making it particularly worthwhile to dig into the film’s original release. Although some visual effects are a little dated in places, that doesn’t stop the movie from being terrifying, and it certainly doesn’t hinder the film’s exceptional storytelling. The use of deceptive, unreliable narration and novel plot devices makes Shutter a real treat for those who already feel well-versed in the genre, wanting to move onto something a little more "out-there."
Paranormal Activity (2007)
Now a part of a huge franchise (eight films and counting), Paranormal Activity is an iconic contemporary ghost movie for its innovative shooting style, extremely limited cast, and its overwhelming cultural success. The movie revolves around a couple trying to make an amateur documentary about a malevolent energy that’s residing in their house — or so they think. Similarly to other found footage movies before it, like The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity starts with a couple of people and a hand-held camera, and ends with a pretty grisly home video.
While Paranormal Activity has a huge volume of lore behind it, along with loads of spin-off, prequel, and sequel movies, the first film still stands on its own sufficiently as a novel (and terrifying) ghost story. Part of why the film is so frightening is its sparse production style and largely improvised dialogue, making the film really rich in a sense of mundane realism. This kind of realism makes it really look like a home recording, making it way easier to suspend your disbelief and get lost in the story for its full 86-minute runtime. We, the audience, become a fly on the wall of a horrific haunting in what feels like a very real way.
Host (2020)
A real product of its time and circumstances, Host is a found-footage interface horror recorded entirely over a video call on Zoom. Made remotely under COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and with a runtime just shy of an hour, this movie really manages to pack a punch, not despite the adverse situation it was made in, but by utilizing the scenario adeptly. The film follows a group of friends who partake in a séance over Zoom, only for it to go deeply, horribly wrong.
In case you doubted how truly petrifying the film is, there’s actual scientific backing for Host being one of the scariest films of all time. In 2021, a psycho-physiological study called The Science of the Scare was conducted, wherein 250 participants had their heart rates monitored while watching a number of iconic scary movies, like The Conjuring and Hereditary. Out of all the movies tested, Host was by far the scariest, with its audience’s heart rate jumping up to a whopping 130 beats per minute while watching. That’s pretty high!
The Shining (1980)
Although perhaps not explicitly stated in the Stanley Kubrick adaption of the story, which instead leaves a lot up to audience interpretation, Stephen King’s The Shining is firmly a ghost story. The Torrance family move to the Rocky Mountains for work, and end up getting a whole lot more than they expected. The Overlook Hotel, where The Shining’s many horrors happen, is riddled with specters that end up being fundamental to the Torrance family’s undoing. Even over forty years later, Room 237’s horrifying occupants continue to be as haunting as ever.
The influence of The Shining is clear across a wealth of modern horror films, of both the ghostly and non-ghostly varieties, making the classic a must-watch if you’re interested in the genre. From the cascade of blood scene, to the faceless woman crawling out of the bath, to the creepy twins, there’s really no shortage of terrors in this nightmarish dreamscape of a film. The pairing of King’s superbly terrifying world building and storytelling with Kubrick’s innovative, unique visual style is a perfect match in creating a movie as memorably chilling as The Shining (Even though King infamously didn’t like the adaption, as stated in an interview with Turner Classic Movies for their documentary “A Night at the Movies: The Horrors of Stephen King”).
Pulse (2001)
Pulse, also known as Kairo, is a beautiful ghost story from the turn of the millennium, highlighting fears and moral panics that arose along with the rise of interconnectedness via digital technology. The film follows two parallel storylines that converge with one another during the story’s later acts. Ghosts appear to start replacing living humans across Japan via a mysterious network connection appearing on people’s home computers. It’s an intensely beautiful, if harrowing, affair — as is the case with most of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's filmography.
Part of what makes Pulse so special is that the film is a multi-sensory experience without becoming style-over-substance by any stretch of the imagination. The visuals are of an outstanding quality. This point stands for both the paranormal and non-paranormal shots of the film. The cinematography is phenomenal throughout the film’s duration, making use of clever tricks using the analogue medium to construct eerie and uncanny effects. As well as the fantastic look of the movie, the story is an interesting thought experiment in what could become of the world in its now retro-futuristic setting, spanning out into science fiction and social commentary long before Black Mirror.