THE TOP TEN GHOST HUNTING MOVIES

It is the thought of those in the field of paranormal and Ghost Hunting that these movies have helped to spawn the ghost hunting craze of the 21st century. Her is the Top Ten List that was voted by you the many visitors to hauntedamericatours.com for 2008. A few of these hit movies might just be pure fantasy but still they have sparked the real curiosity in the paranormal and brought out the real Ghost Hunter in all of us... Or at least make us want to go out and find a real ghost of our own!

These of course or the most haunted movies that any real Ghost Hunter loves to watch. Many of the movies feature ghost haunting's and paranormal activities that border on the reality that is what ghost hunting is today is all about.

1. GHOSTBUSTERS

Ghostbusters (titled on-screen as Ghost Busters) is a 1984 fantasy-comedy film about three eccentric New York City parapsychologists-turned-ghost exterminators. The film was released in the United States on June 8, 1984. It was produced and directed by Ivan Reitman and stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, and Ernie Hudson. The film's original release grossed almost US$230 million in the U.S. and $50 million abroad during its theatrical run, making it the biggest grossing film of 1984.

It was followed by a sequel, Ghostbusters II (1989), and two animated television series, The Real Ghostbusters (later renamed Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters) and Extreme Ghostbusters. Ramis, who co-wrote the first two films, has confirmed that a script for a potential third film is being developed by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, the writing team best known for their work on Curb Your Enthusiasm and the American version of The Office.

In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Ghostbusters the 44th greatest comedy film of all time. The American Film Institute ranked it 28th in its list of the top 100 comedies of all time (in their "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs" list). In 2005, IGN voted Ghostbusters the greatest comedy ever. In 2006, Bravo ranked Ghostbusters 76 on their "100 Funniest Movies" list.

Plot Synopsis

Three misfit parapsychology research professors that specialize in research of ghosts, Drs. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), Raymond "Ray" Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), are expelled from Columbia University after their research grants are terminated. To maintain their livelihood, they establish "Ghostbusters", an organization described by Venkman as a "professional paranormal investigations and eliminations" service, using an old firehouse as their headquarters, a 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor Ambulance dubbed "Ecto-1" as transport, and one Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) as a telephone-calls receptionist. Before they are impoverished, they are hired by the staff of a hotel plagued by a ghost whom, in The Real Ghostbusters, is named "Slimer" by Ray. They capture this ghost successfully, using their nuclear accelerator "proton packs" to force it into a small holding trap for later transfer to a containment grid in the firehouse. Following their first successful endeavor, the Ghostbusters suddenly find themselves overwhelmed by calls from prospective clients, to the point that they hire one Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) as a fourth member. Zeddmore ultimately comes to believe that the increase of ghostly activity is building up toward a single terrifying event similar to the legendary Judgement Day, and is later proven to be correct.

Meanwhile, a woman named Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), who lives in an apartment at 55 Central Park West, asks the team to investigate a bizarre occurrence in her kitchen. Venkman, seeing in her request for help an opportunity to become romantically involved with her, decides to take charge of the case and visits her apartment. He learns from Barrett that a demonic figure speaking from within her refrigerator called her by the name "Zuul" — a fictional demigod worshipped in 6000 BC by the Hittites, Mesopotamians and Sumerians and a minion of the deity Gozer — and then offers to go on a date with her. On the night of the date, Barrett is abducted and put into demonic possession by a dog-like beast in her own apartment, whereinafter Venkman arrives to find her in a trance wherein her sole object is to locate another possessed person. At the same time, accountant Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), Barrett's neighbor, is chased down and possessed by a similar beast. He is caught by the police and brought to the Ghostbusters, of whom Spengler recognizes that the beings possessing Barrett and Tully, Zuul ("Gatekeeper") and Vinz Clortho ("Keymaster") respectively, are seeking each other, and the team agrees to keep them apart to prevent something disastrous from occurring.

As the ghost containment grid nears its maximum storage capacity, the Ghostbusters are visited by Walter Peck (William Atherton), a representative of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, who had previously questioned the business' safety only to be turned away by Venkman. Peck has obtained a court order by which to shut the system down; unable to stop him, the team flees the firehouse as the grid collapses and hundreds of freed ghosts flood the city. In the chaos, the possessed Tully roams free and makes his way to 55 Central Park West, while Peck has the Ghostbusters arrested. While they wait in jail, Stantz determines that the building located at 55 Central Park West was constructed specifically to summon Gozer, who would then destroy the world. The mayor (David Margulies) orders the release of the Ghostbusters from jail, overriding Peck's demands, and sends them to prevent the potential catastrophe.

Assisted by the police and Army, the Ghostbusters proceed to the top of 55 Central Park West. They are too late, however to prevent Barrett and Tully from meeting. Upon their contact, an interdimensional portal opens, allowing Gozer to enter the human world, while the two are transformed into the doglike shapes seen earlier. When Gozer (Slavitza Jovan) emerges in a female humanoid form, the Ghostbusters force her back into her dimension with their proton guns. Being led to believe that they are its prophesized adversaries, Gozer challenges them to choose a form for the world's destroyer to assume. When Zeddmore orders his teammates to think of nothing, Stantz is unable to avoid thinking of the most innocent being he could imagine: the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. At this, a gigantic version of this figure begins to lay waste to the city. Seeing this, Spengler realizes that their only hope is to cross their weapons' emitted energy streams, destroying Gozer's home dimension and everything that came from it, despite the fact that the Ghostbusters themselves may die of the act. As the giant creature reaches the top of the building, the team executes this plan, causing the gate to explode and reducing the Stay Puft Man to torrents of liquid marshmallow. Since they come from our dimension, the Ghostbusters survive, whereupon Venkman frees Tully and Barrett from their doglike forms, which have been carbonized. The Ghostbusters then return to their headquarters.

The film spawned a theme park special effects show at Universal Studios Florida. (The show closed some time in 1997 to make way for Twister: Ride it Out!) The Ghostbusters were also featured in a lip-synching dance show featuring Beetlejuice on the steps of the New York Public Library facade at the park after the attraction closed. The GBs were all new and "extreme" versions in the show, save for the Zeddemore character. Their Ecto-1 automobile was used to drive them around the park, and was often used in the park's annual "Macy's Holiday Parade". The show, Ecto-1, and all other Ghostbuster trademarks were discontinued in 2005 when Universal failed to renew the rights for theme park use. Currently, the Ghostbuster Firehouse can still be seen near Twister, without its GB logo and "Engine 89" ribbon. A "paranormal investigator" etching on a nearby doorway hints at the old show.

NECA released a line of action figures based on the first movie but only produced a series of ghost characters, as Bill Murray refused the rights to use his facial likeness. Their first and only series included Gozer, Slimer, the Terror Dogs (Vinz Clortho and Zuul), and a massive Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, contrasting the diminutive figure that was in the original figure line. Ertl released a die-cast 1/25 scale Ectomobile, also known as Ecto-1, the Ghostbusters' main transportation. iBooks published the novel Ghostbusters: The Return by Sholly Fisch and Rubies' Costumes has produced a Ghostbusters Halloween costume, consisting of a one-piece jumpsuit with logos and an inflatable Proton Pack.

Ghostbusters official site - http://www.sonypictures.com/cthe/ghostbusters/

2. The Shining

The Shining is a 1980 horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. Kubrick co-wrote the screenplay with novelist Diane Johnson. The film stars Jack Nicholson as tormented writer Jack Torrance, Shelley Duvall as his wife, Wendy, and Danny Lloyd as their son, Danny.

The film tells the story of a writer, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), who accepts the job of the winter caretaker at a hotel which always gets snowed in during the winter. While his family looks around the hotel during closing day, the psychic hotel cook discovers the psychic abilities of Jack's son Danny, and Danny's ability to detect ghostly presences in the hotel. In the cook's family, this ability is called "shining". When the hotel becomes snowbound, Jack Torrance is driven crazy by the ghosts in the hotel, and he tries to murder his wife and son.

Initial response to the film was mixed, and it did moderately well at the box office. Subsequent critical assessment of the film has been more favorable, and it is now seen as a classic of the horror genre.

The Shining opens with Jack Torrance driving to the Overlook Hotel for a job interview. Manager Stuart Ullmann warns that the previous caretaker got cabin fever and killed his family and himself during the long winter in which the hotel is entirely isolated. The hotel itself is built on the site of a huge massacre of Native Americans. Jack’s son Danny has had terrifying premonitions of tides of blood cascading out of the hotel elevators. His mother tells a doctor about Danny's propensity to see visions, about his imaginary friend, Tony, and the fact that Jack had given up drinking because he had physically abused Danny during a binge.

The family arrives at the hotel on closing day, and are given a tour. The elderly African-American cook, Dick Halloran, surprises Danny by speaking to him telepathically and inviting him for an ice cream. He explains to Danny that he and his grandmother shared the gift; because telepathically sent pictures seemed to glow, they called the communication "shining". Danny asks if there is anything to be afraid of in the hotel, particularly Room 237. Dick tells Danny that what he might see in the hotel are only a sort of picture, but to be on the safe side, stay out of the hotel rooms.

A month goes by as the family settles in. Jack is having trouble getting his novel started, Wendy is concerned about the malfunctioning CB radio, and Danny is having more frightening visions. Jack tells Danny that he genuinely loves and cares for him, and that he would like to stay in the hotel forever.

Danny’s curiosity about Room 237 finally gets the better of him when he sees the room has been opened. Meanwhile, Jack confesses that he's had a nightmare in which he killed her and Danny; immediately after this, Danny shows up visibly traumatized, with mysterious neck-wounds. Wendy thinks Jack has been abusing Danny again. Jack wanders into the hotel’s Gold Room where he meets a ghostly bartender who plies him with alcohol. Jack complains to the bartender about his difficulties in his relationship with Wendy. Wendy shows up and apologizes for accusing Jack, explaining that Danny told her a "crazy woman in Room 237" was responsible for his injuries.

In Florida, Dick Hallorann gets a premonition that something is wrong at the hotel. Jack investigates Room 237 and has an encounter with the ghost of a dead woman there, he tells Wendy that he saw nothing. Wendy and Jack argue violently about whether Danny should be removed from the hotel, and Jack returns to the hotel Gold Room, now filled with ghosts having a costume party. Here he meets the ghost of the previous caretaker, Delbert Grady, who tells Jack that he has to ‘discipline’ his wife and child.

.Danny starts calling out the word “redrum” frantically, and scribbling it on walls. He goes into a trance, and withdraws; he now says that he is Tony, his own "imaginary friend". Jack sabotages the hotel radio, cutting off communication from the outside world, but Halloran has received Danny's telepathic cry for help and is on his way.

Wendy discovers the “novel” Jack has been typing consists of endless pages of manuscript repeating “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” formatted in various ways. Horrified, she confronts Jack, he threatens her and she knocks him unconscious with a baseball bat, locking him in a storage locker in the kitchen, but Grady opens it and lets Jack out.

Danny has written “Redrum” in lipstick on the door of Wendy’s bedroom. When she awakes and looks in the mirror, she sees that it is “Murder” spelled backwards. Jack attacks Wendy with an axe in their suite. She swipes at his hand with a butcher knife; Jack backs off and starts prowling around the hotel. Halloran enters, but Jack discovers him and kills him. He then chases Danny into the hedge maze. Danny manages to evade his father by walking backwards in his own tracks, an old Native American trick. Wendy and Danny escape in Hallorann's vehicle, while Jack freezes to death in the hedge maze. The final shot is of an old photograph taken at the hotel in 1921 in which Jack Torrance is clearly visible.

3. GHOST

Ghost is a 1990 romantic fantasy film starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Tony Goldwyn and Whoopi Goldberg, written by Bruce Joel Rubin and directed by Jerry Zucker. It was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning for Best Original Screenplay, as well as Best Supporting Actress for Whoopi Goldberg.

Plot Synopsis

Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) and Molly Jensen (Demi Moore) are a happy and loving couple living in New York City. The only problem in their relationship is Sam's apparent discomfort with saying "I love you" to his girlfriend, only responding to her saying it with "ditto." This bothers Molly, who feels she needs to hear him say "I love you" in return.

One night, while walking back to their new apartment after going to the theatre, they encounter a thief named Willy Lopez (Rick Aviles). He pulls a gun, and Sam is shot. Sam chases Willy, but loses him; when he returns to Molly, he sees her cradling his own corpse, and realizes that he is now a ghost, trapped between worlds. Lights descend to take him away, but he flees.

Sam realizes that the robbery was planned when Willy sneaks into the house and rifles through his belongings. Sam follows Willy home and learns that his close friend and co-worker, Carl Bruner (Tony Goldwyn), hired Willy to rob Sam in order to get his office computer password; Carl is involved in a money laundering deal at the bank where he and Sam worked. Sam had recently changed his computer password, locking Carl out of the phony accounts where Carl had stashed the money. Sam lashes out in frustration at his supposed best friend, but realizes that, as a ghost, he can do little.

Sam fears that Molly is in danger but is helpless, unable to communicate with her in his spiritual form. As fate has it, however, he encounters Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg), a con artist posing as a medium who ironically discovers (through hearing Sam say that her business is a "crock of shit") that she really does have her family's power to hear ghosts, though she cannot see them. Seeing her as his only hope of communicating with Molly, Sam endlessly pesters Oda Mae until she eventually gives in and agrees to help him.

Oda Mae reluctantly calls Molly and tells her she is communicating with Sam, but Molly is understandably skeptical. Molly is convinced only when Oda Mae tells her several private things that only Sam could know, most importantly Sam's use of the word "ditto."

Sam encounters a troubled ghost (Vincent Schiavelli) haunting the Subway, who teaches him how to touch and move objects by focusing his emotions on his intended target. He also learns that Oda Mae is now being plagued by ghosts coming from as far away as New Jersey to speak to their living relatives. One briefly possesses her, but it is seen that this greatly saps a ghost's energy. He promises that she will no longer be bothered if she helps him.

Meanwhile, Molly visits the police, having become quite skeptical of Oda Mae's claims. The desk sergeant assures her that she's right to be suspicious, as there's no file on any 'Willy Lopez' — but there is an amazingly large file on Oda Mae Brown, who is well-known to local police as a huckster and small-time fraud.

Sam and Oda Mae move to thwart Carl's plan. Carl had stolen $4 million and put it in a fraudulent account. Under Sam's instructions, Oda Mae poses as 'Rita Miller' — the name on the account - to withdraw the money, and grudgingly gives the large cheque to two nuns collecting for charity. Carl panics when he realises the account has been closed, and is tormented by Sam, who, invisible, behaves like a poltergeist and types the word "MURDERER" on his computer.

Carl traces the missing money and ends up at Molly's door, asking about Oda Mae. Molly slips and reveals that Oda Mae was Rita Miller, and that she knows about the secret 'slush fund' that Carl has been frantically trying to access. Carl realizes that Sam's ghost is present and tells him he will be back to kill Molly if he doesn't get the money back. Sam runs off to warn Oda Mae, but Willy arrives soon after. Oda Mae and her sisters escape as Sam terrorizes Willy, prompting Willy to run out into the street in a panic. Willy is hit by a truck, but only realises he is dead when he sees his own corpse. As he does so, the shadows around him rise from the ground and take the shape of demons, which drag him into darkness as he screams for mercy.

Molly is still unsure about Oda Mae, but she is convinced after Oda Mae slides a penny under the door and Sam uses his powers to place the penny in Molly's hand (earlier, we see that Sam and Molly save pennies "for luck"). Sam then uses Oda Mae's body to share a passionate moment with Molly, but an outraged Carl storms in and threatens to kill Molly and Oda Mae if he does not get his money. Sam is forcefully ejected from Oda Mae's body and tries to stop Carl, but, as seen before, the possession has left him drained.

Molly and Oda Mae escape to a loft above the apartment, with Carl in pursuit. He tries desperately to catch up with the women and finally gets to Oda Mae, pulling out a gun. Molly comes to Oda Mae's defense, but Carl overpowers her and he takes her hostage instead. Sam's energy is restored and he forces Carl to throw the gun away, enabling Molly to escape unharmed. Fighting in vain to stop Sam's attacks, Carl foolishly swings a hanging hook at him. The hook passes through Sam's ghostly body, swings back and shatters an open window, which falls and kills Carl while he is trying to escape. Sam expresses regret as the demons take Carl's terrified spirit away.

When Sam returns to Oda Mae and Molly, Molly can see and hear him, as he has assumed a partly visible form. After saying a final goodbye to Oda Mae, he shares a final kiss with Molly and tells her he loves her, to which she responds with "ditto." Sam then walks off into the bright light.

4. Thirteen Ghost

(Thir13en Ghosts (also known simply as Thirteen Ghosts or 13 Ghosts)

Thir13en Ghosts (also known simply as Thirteen Ghosts or 13 Ghosts) is a 2001 horror film directed by Steve Beck. It is a remake of the 1960 film of the same name by William Castle. It follows the remake of another one of Castle's films, House on Haunted Hill.

Plot Synopsis

In the opening scene, ghost hunter Cyrus Kriticos (F. Murray Abraham) and his assistant Dennis Rafkin (Matthew Lillard) lead a team on a mission to capture a spirit, the Juggernaut, in a junkyard. Several of the men are killed during the ensuing fight, including Cyrus himself when his throat is slashed. However, the team is able to catch the ghost.

The focus shifts to the life of Cyrus' nephew Arthur (Tony Shalhoub), a mathematics teacher whose wife Jean died in a house fire six months earlier. He struggles to make ends meet for his children Kathy (Shannon Elizabeth) and Bobby (Alec Roberts), and nanny Maggie Bess (Rah Digga), but receives a stroke of luck when Ben Moss (J. R. Bourne), Cyrus' lawyer, pays a visit. Cyrus has left his mansion to Arthur in his will.

Dennis, disguised as a power company employee, is waiting for the family when they arrive and enters the mansion along with them. The building, made almost entirely of glass, proves to be filled with priceless artifacts as well as Latin phrases inscribed on the floors and movable walls. Arthur and his family are excited to own it, but Dennis sneaks down to the basement for a closer look. Upon finding several ghosts there, he rushes back upstairs and informs Arthur of Cyrus' ghost-hunting obsession. Twelve spirits have been imprisoned in the basement; the Latin inscriptions are spells to keep them penned in. Arthur initially scoffs at him, but quickly changes his mind when one of the spirits, the Jackal, attacks Kathy. Ben has come with them for a tour of the house, but when he tries to steal a valise full of cash, he trips a mechanism to seal the entrance and release the ghosts one by one. He later encounters one of them, the Angry Princess, and backs up into an open doorway, which snaps shut and slices him in half.

Arthur and Dennis, equipped with special glasses that enable them to see the ghosts, attempt to rescue Kathy and Bobby, who have both mysteriously disappeared. They come across Kalina Oretzia (Embeth Davidtz), a spirit liberator who claims to have entered the house through an opening when it shifted. She saves Arthur, Maggie, and Dennis from the Jackal and explains Cyrus' plans involving the house. It is, she says, a giant machine built for the sole purpose of opening a portal to the "Ocularis Infernum" (Eye of Hell), a demonic device that allows its user to see into the future. It requires the twelve ghosts to do so, one of whom is Arthur's dead wife, Jean. However, if a thirteenth ghost is created through a sacrifice for the sake of pure love, it can act as a fail safe and shut the system down. Arthur realizes that he must become that ghost by dying to save his children.

Cyrus is revealed to be alive, having faked his death in order to lure Arthur to the house, and Kalina turns out to be his secret partner and lover when she knocks Maggie unconscious. He has orchestrated these events, including the abduction of Kathy and Bobby, so that Arthur will become the thirteenth ghost--not to stop the machine as Kalina claimed, but to trigger it. Cyrus then betrays Kalina and crushes her between two glass walls. Arthur and Dennis make another attempt to save Kathy and Bobby with the help of a detached wall. Facing down the Hammer, Dennis pushes Arthur into a corner where he is then protected by the wall, stating, "I've been looking for a reason to like myself for a long time." After a few dodges, Dennis finds himself cornered by the Hammer and the newly released Juggernaut; he takes a brutal beating and dies when the Juggernaut breaks his back.

As Arthur stares at Jean through the glass, all the ghosts disappear from the basement, responding to a tape-recorded summons played by Cyrus. Kathy and Bobby have been placed at the center of a set of whirling, razor-sharp rings, and Arthur is confronted by Cyrus, who tries to force him at knife-point to jump into them. Before he can do so, Maggie discovers the house's control center and destroys the tape, leading to a complete mechanical breakdown. All the ghosts except Jean turn against Cyrus and throw him into the rings, chopping him to pieces. Encouraged by the sudden appearance of Dennis' ghost, Arthur makes a perfectly timed leap over the blades to save his children.

The house's glass walls shatter, releasing the spirits from captivity; Jean lingers briefly to say goodbye to her family, then departs with the others. A fed-up Maggie announces her emphatic resignation in the movie's final line: "This is it for me. I am on the first fuckin' plane back to Newark. Uh-uh. I am sorry, family, Kathy, Bobby, uncle, ghosts. I am sick of this nanny shit. I've had it. This was not in the job description. I QUIT!"

The Ghosts

The twelve ghosts which make up the Black Zodiac all have their own unique back story. Although these stories were not described in the film, on the DVD the production and make-up teams explain their guidelines. All the ghosts were contained in glass prisons. Dennis' psychic abilities and Cyrus' resources are used to catch them. Cyrus narrates each ghost's back story.

1. The First Born Son (played by Mikhael Speidel)

The First Born Son is the ghost of Billy Michaels, a boy who was a fan of cowboy films. One day, a neighbor found a real steel arrow in his parents' closet. He challenged Billy to a duel, with Billy using a toy gun. However, his plaything was no match for the arrow, and he died when the neighbor shot it through the back of his head. In death, Billy is in his cowboy suit and holding a tomahawk, with the arrow still protruding from his head.

2. The Torso (played by Daniel Wesley)

The Torso is the ghost of a gambler called Jimmy "The Gambler" Gambino. When he bet heavily on a boxing match and lost, he tried to welch on his bet and slip out of town. The mob and the winning boxer, to whom he owed money, caught up with Gambino and cut him into several pieces, wrapping them in cellophane and dumping the corpse into the ocean. His ghost is just his torso, trying to walk around on its hands, while his head lies nearby screaming within the cellophane.

3. The Bound Woman (played by Laura Mennell)

The Bound Woman was a cheerleader named Susan LeGrow, who was born privileged and had a penchant for seducing men and tossing them away. This left a long trail of broken hearts. When her boyfriend found her cheating on him before the prom, he strangled her and killed the other boy as well. He buried her body at the 50-yard line of the local football field. The boyfriend was convicted and sentenced to death; before his execution, he was quoted as saying, "The bitch broke my heart, so I broke her neck." Her ghost is in her prom dress, hanging suspended by the strangling implements with her arms tied behind her back.

4. The Withered Lover (played by Kathryn Anderson)

The Withered Lover is Jean Kriticos, Arthur's wife. She was burned severely saving her family from a devastating house fire and later died of her wounds in the hospital. Her ghost initially appears in a hospital gown, hooked up to an IV pole and showing severe burns on her face. Unlike the other ghosts, she is not a vengeful spirit, electing to help her family rather than show malevolence. At the end of the movie, she appears fully healed and in her normal clothing.

5. The Torn Prince (played by Craig Olejnik)

The Torn Prince is the ghost of Royce Clayton,Born in 1940 who was a gifted baseball star in high school, albeit with attitude issues and a superiority complex.in 1957 He challenged a greaser named Johnny to a drag race, but was killed as his car spun out of control and flipped over; the cause of the accident was a cut brake line. He was buried in a plot of earth that overlooked the baseball diamond. His ghost carries a baseball bat, and in the background in his cube his wrecked car can be seen. Half of his body is torn to shreds from when he was dragged under the car.

6. The Angry Princess (played by Shawna Loyer)

The Angry Princess is Dana Newman, who did not believe in her own natural beauty. Abusive boyfriends fueled her low self-esteem, which led to much unneeded plastic surgery for imagined defects. Eventually she got a job working for a plastic surgeon, getting paid in treatments rather than cash. Alone at the clinic one night, she tried to perform surgery on herself, but wound up blinding herself in one eye and permanently mutilating herself beyond saving. She committed suicide in the bathtub by slashing her body repeatedly with a butcher knife. When she was found, people noted that she was as beautiful in death as she had been in life. Her ghost is naked, still carrying the knife she killed herself with and showing all the wounds, and the inside walls of her cube are splattered with her blood. In the edited version shown on T.V., her breasts are shown clear, with the nipples edited out.

In her bathroom scene, the phrase "I'm sorry" is visible on the floor in blood; subtitles also reveal that the blurred, hissing speech that announces her arrival is her whispering "I'm sorry." This was written on her suicide note. When her cube opens, she advances toward Ben Moss, who backs up into an open doorway to get away from her and is killed when it snaps shut on him.

7. The Pilgrimess (played by Xantha Radley)

The Pilgrimess is the ghost of Isabella Smith, an Englishwoman who traveled across the Atlantic and settled in New England during colonial times. She was an outsider to the town she moved into, and this isolated her from the other townsfolk. She was found guilty of witchcraft after livestock began to die mysteriously; when she emerged from a burning barn completely unharmed, she was sentenced to the stocks (pillory) with no food or drink until she died. As a ghost, she is still locked into her stocks.

8. & 9. The Great Child and The Dire Mother (played by C. Ernst Harth and Laurie Soper)

The Dire Mother is the ghost of Margaret Shelburne, who was an attraction in a carnival due to her being only three feet tall. She was raped by the "Tall Man," another carnival freak. Her son Harold (the Great Child) was born as a result of that rape; he eventually weighed over 300 pounds (136 kg).

Harold, spoiled, was raised as his mother's protector and kept a child-like mindset, to the point that he wore diapers his entire life. One day some of the carnival freaks decided to play a little practical joke on Harold, and kidnapped his mother. Enraged, he set out to look for her, but when he caught up with the culprits, he found that his mother had accidentally suffocated to death in the bag that she was kept in. Harold killed the kidnappers with an ax, keeping their remains and displaying them for paying customers. Later, when the owner of the carnival found out what Harold had done, he ordered a mob of people to tear Harold apart. Their ghosts are always together, and Harold still wields the ax and wears a bib stained with food that his mother has spoon-fed to him.

An alternate version of the story is told in the DVD commentary. It was said that his death was caused by him rolling over on her in sleep and him suffocating her, then him starving to death.

10. The Hammer (played by Herbert Duncanson)

The Hammer is the ghost of an African-American blacksmith, George Markley, who lived in a small town in the 1890s. He was wrongfully accused of stealing by a white man from his town, and when threatened with exile, refused to leave town. A gang led by his accuser hung his wife and children and burned their bodies; in revenge, George used his sledgehammer to beat the culprits to death. He was then subjected to a cruel form of frontier justice by the townsfolk, being chained to a tree and executed by having railroad spikes driven into his body with his own sledgehammer. As a final touch, his hand was cut off and the weapon--handle and all--was attached to the stump. His ghost is seen with the railroad spikes protruding from his body and a sledgehammer for a left hand.

11. The Jackal (played by Shayne Wyler)

The Jackal is the ghost of Ryan Kuhn, who was born in 1887 to a prostitute. Ryan had an insatiable lust for women, rape, and murdering prostitutes. Wanting to be cured, he committed himself to Borehamwood Asylum, but after attacking a nurse, he was put in a straitjacket and thrown in a padded room. After years of this imprisonment he went completely insane, scratching at the walls so violently that his fingernails were torn completely off. The doctors kept him permanently bound in his straitjacket, tying it tighter when he acted out, causing his limbs to contort horribly. Still fighting to free himself, Ryan gnawed through the jacket until the doctors finally locked his head in a metal cage and sealed him away in the dark basement cell. There, he grew to hate any kind of human contact, screaming madly and cowering whenever approached. When a fire broke out in the asylum, everyone but Ryan escaped. He chose to stay behind and face the fire. As a ghost, his arms are free from his jacket, and the bars of his cage are ripped outwards, showing that he may have escaped his bindings again sometime before the fire started and that his cage may have heated up enough to where he could have ripped it open before the fire consumed him.

12. The Juggernaut (played by John DeSantis)

The Juggernaut is the ghost of a serial killer named Horace "Breaker" Mahoney. Standing seven feet tall, he was of such grotesque height and appearance that everyone ostracized him as a child. His mother abandoned him at birth, so his father raised him - putting him to work in the junkyard crushing old cars. After his father died, Horace was left on his own, and soon went mad. He would pick up female hitchhikers and drive them back to his junkyard, then tear them apart with his bare hands and feed them to his dogs. One day he picked up an undercover female police officer, who called for backup to surround the junkyard. Since close combat was impossible, the police instead struck the yard in force and brought Horace down in a hail of bullets. When he finally went down, they shot an extra magazine into him, just to be safe. His ghost still shows bullet holes all over his clothing, and the wound that finished him. This is the ghost that Cyrus and his team capture in the opening scene.

13. Willing Sacrifice

As a willing human sacrifice (the sacrifice of the broken heart), this is the only ghost to be created out of an act of pure love. Arthur Kriticos prepares himself to become that ghost by giving up his life to save his children. He has been led by Kalina Oretzia to believe that doing so will stop the Eye of Hell from opening, when in fact the thirteenth ghost is needed as the final trigger to start it. Before Cyrus can force Arthur to go through with the plan, Maggie causes a breakdown in the house's control mechanism and all the other ghosts (except for Jean) kill Cyrus.

5. House on Haunted Hill

House on Haunted Hill (1959) is a horror film directed by William Castle, written by Robb White, and starring Vincent Price as eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren. He and his fourth wife, Annabelle, have invited five people to the house for a "Haunted House" party. Whoever stays in the house for one night will earn ten thousand dollars. As the night progresses, all the guests are trapped inside the house with ghosts, murderers, and other terrors.

House on Haunted Hill is the tale of five people invited to stay the night in a haunted house, with the stipulation that all doors will be locked at midnight, allowing no accessible escape. Anyone who stays in the house for the entire night given that they are still alive, will receive $10,000. It seems like a piece of cake, at least, until the ghosts arrive.

House on Haunted Hill is a 1999 horror film, directed by William Malone and starring Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, and Ali Larter. Produced by Robert Zemeckis and Joel Silver, it is a remake of the 1959 film of the same name directed by William Castle, borrowing elements from the 1973 classic Don't Look in the Basement. House on Haunted Hill marks the producing debut of Dark Castle Entertainment, a production company that went on to produce Thir13en Ghosts and House of Wax, two films which were also remakes of William Castle's films.

The film is often compared with The Haunting, anoth