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. 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, another 1999 remake of a similar film from 1963, based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House. Also worth noting, in comparison to the original, while William Castle's version leaves a degree of ambiguity as to the presence of ghosts in the building, the remake leaves no doubt whatsoever.

The film was followed by a sequel, Return to House on Haunted Hill, which was released in both rated and unrated editions on DVD in 2007.

Plot Synopsis

The film sets the action in an abandoned asylum, The Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane, where mass-murders were undertaken in the past. The head of the facility, Doctor Richard B. Vannacutt (Jeffrey Combs), performed grotesque experiments and medical procedures on the patients, killing many of them in the process. The hospital was shut down when many of the so-called "patients" escaped, killing almost the entire staff and burning the hospital. Vannacutt had rigged the building with numerous iron gates activated by cranks and levers to serve, for the most part, as barriers to keep patients from leaving the building, should they escape. Some of these barriers are subject to huge clock-like timers that would not open for twelve hours. During the fire, he released these gates keeping the inmates, employees and the fire itself contained. After several unexplained deaths during reconstruction on the house, mostly the owners of the house, it was dubbed The House on Haunted Hill.

The story centers around the disintegrating marriage of Evelyn (Famke Janssen), a spoiled trophy wife who epitomizes high-maintenance and Steven Price (Geoffrey Rush), an amusement park mogul with a wicked sense of humor, each of whom would cheerfully kill the other. Evelyn fancies spectacular parties, so Steven leases the house from the owner, Watson Pritchett (Chris Kattan) descendant of the house's owners, for his Halloween birthday bash. Steven was supposed to send out the invitations from the two-page list of names given him by Evelyn. However, invitations were sent to only five people - Jennifer Jenzen (aka Sara Wolfe) (Ali Larter), Eddie Baker (Taye Diggs), Melissa Margaret Marr (Bridgette Wilson), Dr. Donald Blackburn (Peter Gallagher), and Watson Pritchet (Chris Kattan). When the guests arrive, neither Evelyn nor Steven (seemingly) know who they are. Despite this, Price continues the party's theme, offering a million dollars to anyone who stays in the house and survives until morning, with any person not making it having his money added to the winners' pot.

Shortly after, the security gates are tripped, sealing itself shut and locking everyone inside, forcing them to remain there until the gates reopen in the morning. Initially this is a gimmick orchestrated by Carl Schecter (Max Perlich), a company employee who develops a series of harmless traps meant to scare the guests. Things swiftly become much worse than a few harmless scares. What follows is the slow, and often bloody, demise of several of the guests and hosts in various ways, courtesy of the evil spirits of the house. It is discovered that the spirits in the house created the party list to include the descendants of the five members of Vannacutt's staff that didn't die at the hospital when it burned. After Steven attempts to kill his wife Evelyn for orchestrating his murder plot, the two accidentally unleash the darkness of the house when he throws her through an ancient and decayed door. The Darkness is a dark shape shifting creature comprised of all the spirits in the house. This force comes after and tries to kill all the surviving guests to trap them in a permanent purgatory within the house.

It starts by assimilating Evelyn into itself (killing her) while Price watches in horror. He backs up and bumps into a glass case with Melissa Marr's dissected body on display. While this is happening, the Darkness creeps out of the hole in the door, and after Evelyn (now a part of the Darkness) reveals how the restless and evil souls that comprise the Darkness wants to feed on all those "who are responsible", it proceeds to try to assimilate him as well. Upstairs, Pritchet, Eddie, and Sara are trying to open one of the iron gates on the window when they hear Price's terrified screams at the door down the hall. Pritchet proceeds to go get it, while on the other side of the door, the Darkness catches up with Price. Price jumps out the way at the same time as when Pritchet opens the door and the Darkness surges forward. It then proceeds to seemingly assimilate Pritchet and flows away. Price runs through the hall while Sara and Eddie follow him, trying to figure out how he is alive when Sara supposedly shot him to death (he wore a bullet-proof vest). Price then turns to them and tells them that what Pritchet had been saying all along was true: the house was alive and had killed everyone (except Dr. Blackburn, who was murdered by Evelyn and had his head cut off to frame Price). He then figures that the only way to get out is to go to the attic and activate the pulleys that sealed off escape from the house. Price runs ahead of them to activate them while Sara and Eddie stay behind in disbelief at what is happening. This is quickly shattered when the Darkness seeps through the actual house and tries to use it to kill them. As they are running up the stairs to the attic Sara trips, and the Darkness uses Melissa's form to try to lure her to it (Melissa is really in torment, unlike the others that were assimilated, as seen when the Darkness corners Eddie). Price by then had activated a pulley that revealed an opening in the window of the attic. Eddie and Sara get there, while the Darkness seeps up the cracks of the wooden floor, and Sara lingers while Eddie goes to the opening. Eddie looks back from the window to find that the Darkness had arrived and was attempting to sever the rope that kept the iron gate open. While Eddie rushes back to get Sara, the Darkness tries to assimilate her and instead assimilates Price, who had sacrificed his life to get Sara out of the way. At the sound of this, Pritchet's ghost appears (separate from the Darkness) to pull the rope needed to open the iron gate, at which Sara pulls Eddie through as the Darkness goes to assimilate him. After he is pulled through, the gate shuts, Pritchet's ghost disappears and the Darkness disappears into nothingness. As Sara and Eddie sit in exhaustion over the night's events, they notice that an envelope has been pushed through the gate, containing five checks for $1 million each. After they laugh at their success, Sara asks "One more thing, how do we get down from here?" After the credits, a film is shown with the patients finally getting their revenge on the Prices.

6. The Haunting

The Haunting is a 1999 remake of the 1963 horror film of the same name. Both films are based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, published in 1959. The Haunting was directed by Jan de Bont and stars Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson and Lili Taylor. It was released in the United States on July 20, 1999.

Plot Synopsis

When her invalid mother dies and her sister evicts her, Eleanor "Nell" Vance (Taylor) receives a phone call, telling her about an ad for an insomnia study run by Dr. David Marrow (Neeson) at Hill House - a secluded manor in Massachusetts. Upon arrival, Nell meets Mr. Dudley (Bruce Dern) and Mrs. Dudley (Marian Seldes), a strange pair of caretakers who don't stay on the property after dark, and then two other participants in the study, wild Theo (Zeta-Jones) and "bad sleeper" Luke Sanderson (Wilson).

Unknown to the participants, Dr. Marrow's true purpose is to study the psychological response to fear. Each night, the caretakers chain the gate outside Hill House, preventing anyone from getting in or out until morning, when the caretakers open the lock. There are no working telephones inside Hill House and cell phone service is available there. The house was chosen because of its isolation from the outside world.

On their first night at the mansion, Dr. Marrow relates the legend of Hugh Crane - an Industrial Revolution tycoon who built Hill House. According to Dr. Marrow's telling of the legend, Crane's wife killed herself before the house was finished, which drove Crane insane. As he tells the story, an accident causes Marrow's research assistants to leave the house, leaving the doctor alone with the study participants for the duration of the study.

The first night, Theo and Nell begin to experience strange phenomenon within the house, including strange noises, inexplicable temperature changes. Dr. Marrow placates Theo with explanations centered around the old house's plumbing, but Nell remains unconvinced. Her experiences intensify. Eventually, she sees apparitions, but everyone else in the house believes that she's making up stories for attention. Nell is confronted after the main hallway is vandalized with the words "Welcome Home, Eleanor", and becomes extremely distraught, setting out to prove that the house is haunted by the souls of those victimized by Crane's cruelty. She learns that Crane built his fortune by exploiting kidnapped children for slave labor and murdering them when they were of no more use to him. She also learns that Crane had a second wife named Carolyn, to whom Nell is distantly related, her great-great-granddaughter.

When Dr. Marrow reveals the dual nature of his study, Theo and Luke believe the pressures of being confined to the house are causing Nell to suffer a nervous breakdown. Dr. Marrow finally comes to his senses and decides they must leave. At that moment, a statue in a nearby fountain comes to life and attempts to drown him. After experiencing more terrifying phenomena, the four flee the house but are they trapped on the property. During that time, Nell asks Dr. Marrow how he knew the house wanted her (referring to phone call she received earlier). He doesn't know about any call and says the first time he spoke to Nell was at the house. When Luke tries to crash the gate with Nell's Gremlin, he fails and is trapped in the car. The car is leaking gasoline and Dr. Marrow and Theo free Luke from the car. While they are helping Luke, Nell goes back into the house, knowing that she can't leave the children to be hurt by Crane. Luke, Theo, and Dr. Marrow go in search of Nell. Once they find her, she reveals her relation to Carolyn and how she must stay and help the children. The other three try to run but Hugh Crane's evil spirit seals up the house, trapping them inside.

Theo, Luke and Dr. Marrow try to break windows to get out, but have no success and eventually, Dr. Marrow cuts his hand. While Nell and Theo tend to Marrow, Luke destroys a painting of Hugh Crane, out of frustration and against Nell's warnings. Crane's spirit, then, drags Luke to the fireplace where he's decapitated by a lion-headed flue.

Nell tells Dr. Marrow and Theo they have to hide. When Nell runs to try and hide, she realizes that she must avenge the souls of Crane's victims and invokes Crane's spirit to manifest and is able to lead him towards a huge iron door with the inscription "All Ye Who Stand Before These Doors Shall Be Judged" engraved on it. An avenging wind howls throughout the room and demons from the gates of hell pull Crane's spirit into it. Nell is thrown into the door and dies with her arms outstretched as a Christ figure, while her spirit floats from her body and rises up to heaven with the spirits of Crane's victims. After witnessing Nell's death, Theo and Dr. Marrow wait by the gate outside till the Dudleys come in the morning.

When Mr. Dudley asks Dr. Marrow if found what he wanted to know, Dr. Marrow doesn't give an answer. When the gate opens, he and Theo silently walk out and down the road, leaving Hill House behind them.

7. White Noise

White Noise is a 2005 drama/supernatural horror film, directed by Geoffrey Sax and produced by Brightlight Pictures. The title refers to electronic voice phenomena (EVP), where voices, which some believe to be from the "other side," can be heard on audio recordings. The film is not related to the postmodern novel White Noise by Don DeLillo.

Plot Synopsis

Jonathan Rivers (Michael Keaton) is a successful architect, and lives a peaceful life with his wife Anna (Chandra West), until her unexpected and violent death.

Eventually, he is contacted by Raymond Price (Ian McNeice), who claims that his son has also died, and that he has recorded messages from Anna through EVP. While Jonathan is initially dismissive, he begins to believe that the recorded voice is indeed that of his wife.

Jonathan becomes obsessed with trying to contact her himself, despite warnings from a psychic who tries to tell him how the recording can attract other, unwanted entities. A woman named Sarah Tate befriends Jonathan because she lost someone too.

Raymond is found dead. Jonathan discovers three shadowy figures, and finds that some of the messages he is coming across are from people who have not yet died but may soon do so, one of whom is a missing girl named Mary Freeman. Sarah later either tries to commit suicide or is thrown off the edge of a building by the three spirit figures.

Jonathan locates the site of his wife's death by following signs on recordings, and finds a construction worker from his company, holding Mary captive. The three ghosts torture Jonathan and cause him to fall to his death, but a SWAT team arrives and is able to save Mary.

At his funeral Sarah sits in her wheelchair, still disturbed by his death, the three ghosts shadows flash in the grass behind. Then she feels his spirit.

8. Scooby Doo

Scooby-Doo is a long-running American animated series produced for Saturday morning television in several different versions from 1969 to the present. The original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, was created for Hanna-Barbera Productions by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, CBS executive Fred Silverman, and character designer Iwao Takamoto. Hanna-Barbera produced numerous spin-offs and related works until being absorbed in 1997 into Warner Bros. Animation, which has handled production since then. Although the format of the show and the cast (and ages) of characters have varied significantly over the years, the most familiar versions of the show feature a talking dog named Scooby-Doo and four teenagers: Fred "Freddie" Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Norville "Shaggy" Rogers.

Scooby-Doo is a 2002 live-action film, based on the popular Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo. The film was directed by Raja Gosnell and written by James Gunn and Craig Titley. It was produced by Charles Roven and Richard Suckle for Warner Bros. Pictures and starred Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, I Know What You Did Last Summer's Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne and Freddie Prinze, Jr., as Fred, Linda Cardellini as Velma, Neil Fanning as the voice of Scooby-Doo (who was created on screen using computer-generated imagery) and Rowan Atkinson as Emile Mondavarious. Pamela Anderson made an uncredited appearance at the beginning of the movie.

In 2004, this film was followed by a sequel titled Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.

Plot Synopsis

After solving the case of the Luna Ghost, an unco-operative Mystery Inc., consisting of Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, splits apart. Two years later, the gang are surprisingly reunited when they are all summoned to Spooky Island, a monster-based theme park on a remote island. In the year that has passed, Velma has been an advisor at NASA, Fred has become a popular celebrity, Daphne has become a skilled martial artist, and Shaggy and Scooby continued investigating mysteries. While Shaggy and Scooby wish to work together as team, the others are not as enthusiastic. On Spooky Island, the gang meet Emile Mondavarious, the eccentric owner of the island. He explains that visitors to the island come but leave as emotionless and almost inhuman (as demonstrated when a girl picks up an older man and throws him away with one arm).

The gang split up to search for clues, although Fred, Daphne and Velma all compete with each other. Velma witnesses a creepy dance in which a man named N'Goo Tauna and his servant, Zarkos (A.K.A. The Masked Luchador wrestler) explain that demons once ruled the island until Mondavarious built the theme park on it, enraging the demons. Velma is unafraid of N'Goo's threats of vengeance. Daphne meets Voodoo Maestro who quite clearly warns her not to go the Spooky Island Castle attraction, but she believes he is setting a trap for her there and goes to spring the trap. Shaggy falls in love with a girl named Mary Jane, who likes Scooby Snacks and is allergic to dogs. The gang meet up at the castle and split up to search for clues as group. Fred and Velma discover a strange classroom with a training programme describing how to act like a human. Daphne finds a strange triangular artefact called the Daemonritus. The group escape the castle when an alarm is triggered by a hidden minion of N'Goo.

The island demons attack the hotel, capturing Fred, Velma, Mondavarious and many other guests. Shaggy, Scooby, Daphne and Mary Jane are the only ones to escape. However, the next day, everything seems normal and the hotel is clean and tidy. Shaggy and Scooby locate Fred but discover he and all the other guests are being controlled by the demons. Daphne is captured by Zarkos and loses the Daemonritus. Shaggy and Scooby find Mary Jane and they escape from the demons on quadbikes, Scooby discovering Mary Jane is also controlled. Scooby falls down a hole, Shaggy following, but he discovers a pool of ectoplasmic heads. He releases Velma, Daphne and Fred, who return to their bodies, exposing the demons to sunlight and destroying them. The four find Voodoo Maestro trying to perform a protective ritual, where he explains that if the demons sacrifice a purely good soul to the Daemonritus, they could rule the Earth for 10,000 Years. The purely good soul belongs to Scooby-Doo, the mastermind behind this plot being Mondovarious.

The gang form a trap to destroy the monsters - planning to open the island's main ventiliation system to spray sunlight over the demons and destroy them. However, Mondovarious and N'Goo enter with all the possessed guests, beginning the ritual to sacrifice Scooby. Fred and Velma get captured while Daphne fights Zarkos on top of the island. Shaggy saves Scooby, injuring Mondovarious in the process while he absorbs the ectoplasmic heads into the Daemonritus. Fred and Velma discover he is a robot, controlled by noneother than Scrappy-Doo, who seeks revenge after being thrown out of the gang. Due to his large absorption of power, Scrappy transforms into a monstrous demonic dog and tries to kill Scooby. Daphne manages to kick Zarkos through the ventilation system, destroying the demons with sunlight, saving all the guests including Mary Jane. Shaggy manages to remove the Daemonritus from Scrappy, transforming Scrappy back to his normal self. Scrappy tries to fight still, but an exasperated Scooby just knocks him into a wall with a flick of his paw, knocking him out. Fred and Daphne kiss as a victory, while Shaggy finds the real Mondavarious who explains that he was trapped in a hole by Scrappy. Scrappy, N'Goo, Zarkos and the other minions are arrested and Mystery Inc. head off for their next case.

8. Poltergeist

The Poltergeist movies are a trilogy of horror films produced in the 1980s. Steven Spielberg co-wrote and co-produced the first Poltergeist, with Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) as the director. Brian Gibson directed Poltergeist II: The Other Side, while Poltergeist III was directed, co-written, co-produced and storyboarded by Gary Sherman. oltergeist is the first and most successful Poltergeist film, released on June 4, 1982 and nominated for three Oscars. The film was directed by Tobe Hooper and was co-produced, and co-written by Steven Spielberg along with Michael Grais and Mark Victor, his first major success as a producer. The plot revolves around the haunting of a suburban family home that is suspected to be the work of poltergeists.

The film is often referred to as cursed because of the murder of Dominique Dunne and early death of Heather O'Rourke, as well as the fact that actress JoBeth Williams has pointed out in television interviews that she was actually told that the skeletons used in the well-known swimming pool scene in the first Poltergeist film were real. This has been the focus of an E! True Hollywood Story on the Poltergeist Curse.

This film was ranked as #80 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

Plot Synopsis

A group of seemingly benign ghosts begin communicating with five-year-old Carol Anne Freeling (Heather O'Rourke) in her parents' suburban California home via static on the television. Eventually they use the TV as their path into the house itself.

First, there are a few signs that the ghosts have arrived: Carol Anne's pet bird dies; an earthquake occurs that only the Freelings feel; Carol Anne announces, "They're here." The next morning, glasses break at breakfast, forks bend by themselves, and when the mother, Diane (JoBeth Williams), asks Carol Anne, "What did you mean? Who's here?" she answers, "The TV people." At first the ghosts play harmless tricks and amuse the mother, including moving and stacking the kitchen table chairs. Of course, Diane must convince Steven (Craig T. Nelson) that night by showing him. He then announces that "Nobody goes into the kitchen until I know what's going on." Carol Anne's elder sister Dana (Dominique Dunne) leaves to stay with friends.

During a terrible thunderstorm, the ghosts distract the family with a tree coming to life and grabbing Robbie (Oliver Robins), Carol Anne's brother, through a window, and then getting what they really came after. Like a wind tunnel, they take Carol Anne through her bedroom closet into their dimension. With Robbie rescued, and the belief that the tornado caused the trouble, the family can't find Carol Anne. They search the entire house including the new swimming pool until Robbie hears Carol Anne through the T.V.

Steven reluctantly calls on a group of parapsychologists from UC Irvine: Dr. Lesh (Beatrice Straight), Ryan (Richard Lawson), and Marty (Martin Casella), who are awestruck by the manifestations they witness. With the parapsychologists present, the Freelings show them things they've never before seen. They open the door to the children's room to reveal toys and other objects flying around by themselves and disembodied laughing voices. Previously, one of the parapsychologists described a Matchbox car taking seven hours to move seven feet, calling it "fantastic. Of course, this would never register on the naked eye." After they see the Freelings' house, they are all humbled.

Over coffee (and a coffee urn that moves by itself), the parapsychologists explain to the Freelings the difference between a poltergeist and a haunting. They determine that indeed, it is a poltergeist they are experiencing.

It turns out that the spirits have left this life but have not gone into the "Light." They are stuck in between dimensions, watching their loved ones grow up, but feeling alone. Carol Anne—born in the house and only 5 years old—gives off her own life force that is as bright as the Light. It distracts and confuses the spirits, who think Carol Anne is their salvation. Hence, they take her. (A different explanation was given in the second film).

What is also in the other dimension is a malevolent spirit, what the parapsychologists call "The Beast". It likes that the spirits are confused and lost, and uses Carol Anne as a distraction so they cannot move on into the Light. After witnessing a paranormal episode where they hear Carol Anne talking to Diane through the TV, see spirits, and hear the pounding footsteps of the spirit, the parapsychologists leave, admitting they need more help. When they return, they bring a spiritual medium, Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein), who informs Diane that her daughter is "alive and in this house." She also explains the malevolent spirit in the house to Diane, saying "it lies to her and tells her things only a child can understand. To her, it simply is another child. To us, it is the Beast."

They realize the entrance to the other dimension is through the children's bedroom closet. By tying a rope around a live person who can enter, and presumably exit the other side, with enough time to grab Carol Anne, they could bring her back. Diane is the only choice to go. What happens next is a terrifying sequence where Diane gets Carol Anne and Tangina coaxes the agonized spirits away from Carol Anne to the real Light (during this, Steve panics and pulls on the rope, causing the Beast to appear right in front of him). Diane comes through the living room ceiling clutching Carol Anne and bearing new streaks of grey hair, presumably from fright, both Diane and Carol Anne are also covered in ectoplasm. Tangina pronounces that "this house is clean."

Unfortunately, though the spirits have seemingly moved on, the Beast hasn't, and wants revenge. On their final night in the house, when they are almost packed up and ready to go, the Beast returns to reclaim what he believes is his: Carol Anne. This time, the Beast does his own dirty work and comes after Carol Anne personally.

While Robbie and Carol Anne are getting ready for bed, Robbie's clown doll comes to life and pulls him under the bed. Diane, in the other room hears her son's screaming voice and tries to investigate but is pulled against the wall and ceiling by an unknown force. Robbie manages to defeat the clown doll but a strange, mouth-like portal appears in Carol Anne's closet and attempts to suck the children in.

Diane tries to get to her son and daughter but runs into the Beast himself, in the form of a snarling, skeletal demon. He blocks Carol Anne's and Robbie's door and lunges at her, causing her to fall down the stairs. Trying to find another way into her childrens' room, Diane runs to the backyard and slips into the new pool which is infested by skeletons. Two neighbors who have sneaked into the backyard to see what is all the commotion help Diane out and she runs back into the house to get Robbie and Carol Anne.

Through skill and luck, the Freelings finally escape the house, but not before the anger of the Beast reveals the reason for the spirits being there in the first place—coffins and bodies begin exploding out of the ground throughout the neighborhood. When the neighborhood was first built the real estate developer Steven worked for moved a cemetery that was on the location, but in reality in order to save money they moved the cemetery headstones but left the bodies, building houses right on top of them. As the Freelings flee down the street in their car, the Beast is so angry that the house implodes into the other dimension as stunned neighbors look on. The movie ends with the family checking into a Holiday Inn for the night, pushing the television set outside their room.

Michael Grais and Mark Victor co-wrote the first film with Spielberg, wrote the second film on their own and also co-produced it. Brian Taggert and an uncredited Steve Feke co-wrote the third film.

Spielberg's long-time friends (and then-married couple) Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy co-produced the first film. Freddie Fields and Lynn Arost co-produced the second film, and the third film was co-produced by Barry Bernardi.

The scores of the first two films were composed by Jerry Goldsmith. H.R. Giger did conceptual designs for the second film.

(1982)
In the first and most successful film (released on June 4 1982), a group of seemingly benign ghosts begin communicating with five-year-old Carol Anne Freeling in her parents' suburban California home via static on the television. Eventually they use the TV as their path into the house itself. They kidnap Carol Anne, and most of the film involves the family's efforts to rescue her. Eventually they do, but then the spirits, led by a demon known only as The Beast, go on a rampage.

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)
This sequel exists to explain in much greater detail why Carol Anne was targeted in the first film. As it turns out, the Freelings' house in the first movie was built over a massive underground cavern that was the final resting place of a utopian cult that died there in the early 1800s. This cavern was even below the graveyard that wasn't relocated in the first film. The cult was led by Rev. Henry Kane, who did not have the best intentions. He was power hungry, and anxious to control the souls of his followers in both life and death. This film also elaborates that the females in the family have measures of psychic powers, making them a target for the spirits.

Poltergeist III (1988)
Apparently, between the second and third films, the Freeling family has had quite enough of all supernatural activity, and have decided to cut it off at the source: Carol Anne is now living with her aunt Pat (whom Carol Anne insists on calling Trish, a common nickname for Patricia; this is important later in the film as a way of identifying an impostor Carol Anne) and uncle Bruce Gardner in the John Hancock Center where Bruce also works in downtown Chicago.

Poltergeist IV: In The Shadows (2009/2010)
Announced November 2007 is a fourth movie in the series. No details have yet been given regarding this latest installment. It has been 19 years since the third movie was released. It will be between being a remake and being a continuation.

9. The Sixth Sense

The Sixth Sense is a 1999 psychological horror film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It tells the story of Cole Sear, a troubled, isolated boy (Haley Joel Osment) who claims to be able to see and talk to the dead (with the famous line, "I see dead people"), and an equally troubled child psychologist (Bruce Willis) who tries to help him. The film established Shyamalan as a writer and director, and introduced the cinema public to his signatures: his appearance in cameo roles and his affinity for twist endings. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Plot Synopsis

As the film opens, Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) a prominent child psychologist, returns home one night with his wife, Anna Crowe (Olivia Williams), from an event in which he was honored for his efforts with children. The two discover they are not alone - Vincent Gray (Donnie Wahlberg), a former patient of Crowe's, appears naked in the doorway of their bathroom brandishing a gun saying, "I don't want to be afraid anymore." Vincent is upset that Crowe could not help him, and Crowe recognizes Vincent as a former patient whom he once treated as a child for his hallucinations. He condemns Malcolm for his inability to help him and shoots him in the stomach, and seconds later turns the gun on himself. The scene fades away with Malcolm's wife by his side.

The next fall Malcolm is shown working with another frightened boy, nine year-old Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), with a condition similar to Vincent's. Malcolm becomes dedicated to this patient, though he is haunted by doubts over his ability to help him after his failure with Vincent. Meanwhile, he apparently begins to neglect his wife, with whom his relationship is falling apart.

Malcolm earns Cole's trust and Cole eventually confides in him that he can "see dead people." Though Malcolm is skeptical at first, he eventually comes to believe that Cole is telling the truth and that Vincent may have had the same ability as Cole. He realizes this one night as he is listening to one of his old tapes, recorded while he was treating Vincent, and hears the pleading voices of dead people in the background. He suggests to Cole that he try to find a purpose for his gift by communicating with the ghosts, perhaps to aid them in their unfinished business on Earth. Cole at first does not want to heed this advice, as the ghosts terrify him, but he soon decides to try it.

Cole finally talks to one of the ghosts, a girl who appears in his bedroom very sick. He finds out where the girl — Kyra Collins (Mischa Barton) — lived and goes to her house during her funeral reception. Kyra's ghost appears and shows Cole the location of a box, which is opened to reveal a videotape. When Cole gives it to Kyra's father, the tape reveals that while Kyra was bedridden with illness, her mother (or stepmother) was poisoning her food, and this in fact was what led to Kyra's death (this behavior has been suggested as Munchausen syndrome by proxy or factitious disorder- a form of child abuse). Now believing in his ability to use his gift to positive effect, Cole confesses his secret to his mother, Lynn (Toni Collette). Although his mother at first does not believe him, Cole soon tells Lynn that her own mother (Cole's grandmother) once went to see her perform in a dance recital one night when she was a child, and that Lynn was not aware of this because her mother stayed in the back of the audience where she could not be seen. He also tells her the answer to a question she asked when alone at her mother's grave. Lynn tearfully accepts this as the truth.

His faith in himself now restored as a result of his success with Cole, Malcolm returns to his home, where he finds his wife asleep on the couch with the couple's wedding video on in the background, not for the first time. As she sleeps, Anna's hand releases Malcolm's wedding ring, (which he suddenly discovers he has not been wearing), revealing the twist ending of the film: Malcolm himself is unwittingly one of Cole's ghosts, having been killed by his ex-patient in the opening scene. Due to Cole's efforts, Malcolm's unfinished business—rectifying his failure to understand Vincent—is finally complete. Recalling Cole's advice about talking to his wife while she's asleep so that she'll have to listen, Malcolm fulfills the second reason he returned, and speaks to her saying she was "never second," and that he loved her. Releasing her to move on with her own life, he is free to leave behind the world of the living. The film ends on a short clip of their wedding tape that dissolves into white.

Ghosts
Man In Closet- suffocation
Kitchen Woman- had been abused by her husband, so had slashed her wrists
Gunshot Wound boy- shot in the back of the head
Kyra Collins- poisoned to death by her mother
Hanging bodies in schoolhouse- people lynched a long time ago
Backstage woman- died in a school fire
Bike rider- hit by a car
Malcolm Crowe- the protagonist played by Bruce Willis; he was shot at the film's beginning in the stomach, and died from his wound, but this was left out until the film's end

10. 1408

1408 is a 2007 horror film based on the Stephen King short story of the same name directed by Swedish film director Mikael Håfström. The cast includes John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, and Mary McCormack. The film was released in the U.S. on June 22, 2007 although July 13th is mentioned as the release date in the trailer posted on the website. The film has been rated PG-13 in the U.S. for thematic material including disturbing sequences of violence and terror, and frightening images.

The film follows Mike Enslin (Cusack), an author who specializes in the horror ("paranormal") genre. Enslin's career is essentially based on investigating allegedly haunted houses, although his repeatedly unfruitful studies have left him disillusioned and pessimistic. Through an anonymous recommendation (via postcard), Enslin eventually learns of the Dolphin Hotel in New York City, which houses the infamous "Room 1408." Interested yet skeptical, Enslin decides to spend one night in the hotel although manager Mr. Olin (Jackson) warns him strongly against it. Enslin encounters a series of bizarre experiences in the room.

Plot Synopsis

Mike Enslin (Cusack) is a skeptic author who debunks supernatural occurrences after the untimely death of his daughter Katie. Before this event, he used to write fiction, and a woman at a book signing asks him to sign a copy of his first book, a novel called "The Long Road Home". After finishing his latest successful book, he receives an anonymous postcard of the Dolphin Hotel in New York City bearing the message "don't enter 1408." Viewing this as a challenge, Enslin attempts to book a reservation for room 1408, but the hotel will not rent him the room. However, after being informed by Enslin's agent Sam Farrell (Shalhoub) that the Fair Housing Act requires hotels to rent unoccupied rooms, the Dolphin reluctantly reserves room 1408 for Enslin.

Arriving at the Dolphin, Enslin is pulled aside by the hotel's manager Gerald Olin (Jackson), who warns him that no one has lasted more than an hour in 1408. Olin tries to be friendly with Enslin, complimenting him on "The Long Road Home", offers Enslin an upgrade to the penthouse suite,an $800 bottle of cognac,access to documents regarding the deaths in 1408 if Enslin abandons his plan to stay in 1408. When Enslin inisists Olin begins resiting the docet of carnage that includes 7 jumpers ,4 overdoses ,5 hangings ,3 mutilations ,2 stranglings ,1 drowning and 22 natural deaths (strokes ,heart attacks ect) in room 1408. Enslin accepts the documents and the cognac but insists on staying in the room, frustrating Olin.

Once inside the room, Enslin pulls out his Mini Cassette recorder and dictates on the unremarkability of room 1408. As he examines the room, the clock radio suddenly starts blaring "We've Only Just Begun" by The Carpenters; he is startled, but dismisses it as a gag cooked up by Olin. When he calls for room service, the hotel operator agrees to requests Enslin didn't make, like ordering a sandwich or tickets to the Metropolitan Opera. Later, Enslin is startled again as the clock radio begins to play the same song, and the display scrambles and then displays 60:00, then starts counting down from 60 minutes. When he rips the clock's electrical cord from the wall, it continues to tick down. Suddenly, Enslin is unable to hear anything, apart from a tinnitus-like ringing in his ears, and opens the window to check his hearing. The window slams down, cutting a large gash in the top of his hand. His hearing quickly returns and he goes to the bathroom to clean his hand, but is burned by the hot water blasting out of the faucet under incredible pressure. He then bandages his hand using a bandanna from his bag. Wishing to go to a hospital, Enslin attempts to leave the room; however his key breaks off in the door and gets sucked out of the keyhole. The doorknob subsequently breaks off in his hand, trapping him inside 1408. Trying to find a way out, he sees a man in an apartment looking at him. Relieved, Enslin waves to the him. The man waves back. Enslin motions calling the police; the man motions as if in confirmation. Enslin, noticing that the man mimics his actions exactly, picks up a lamp. The man does as well. Just as Enslin realizes it was a trick conjured up by the room, a woman creeps up behind the man across the street, picks up a stick, and lifts it over her head, preparing to attack the man. Enslin whips around to face an old, seemingly deranged man brandishing a club. Then, just as suddenly he appeared, the man disappears.

Enslin begins to see and hear things, including visions of his daughter's time in the hospital shortly before her death, but he initially dismisses them as hallucinations, possibly due to a drug in the cognac. He makes several attempts to free himself from the room, such as trying to crawl outside on the ledge to the next room or crawling through the air vents, but logic-defying events (such as all other windows on the hotel's exterior disappearing, and a desiccated corpse chasing him through the ventilation shafts) prevent him from succeeding, all the while being assaulted by horrifying illusionary apparitions of 1408's former victims. Several times, he has illusions about his past traumas: he encounters his late, invalid father in a hospital room (whom he may have alluded to when he described a plot element of "The Long Road Home"), sees a memory of his family when Katie was still alive, and re-witnesses Katie's death. Finally, he is literally trapped inside 1408 when the door and one of the windows are blocked by brick walls and the other window disappears. He manages to contact his estranged wife Lily (Mary McCormack) via video chat, but the conversation ends abruptly when the sprinkler system shorts out his laptop. All the while the room temperature drops, eventually to subzero temperatures. However, his laptop starts working again and he hears Lily calling out to him via video chat, but a doppelgänger of him hijacks the conversation, urging Lily to come to the hotel immediately and enter room 1408. As Enslin desperately tries to tell his wife not to come, the room begins to shake violently, and water explodes and floods out of a painting of a schooner lost at sea, pulling Enslin under the surface.

Enslin wakes up on the beach, the result of a surfing accident depicted earlier in the film. He soon finds Lily at his bedside in a hospital near his home in L.A.; she tells him that he was hospitalized after sustaining a concussion, leading him to conclude 1408 was just a dream. This reprieve is short-lived, however, when at the post office to mail a manuscript of his latest book (with a story about 1408) to his agent, a construction crew made up of hotel staff and guests begin to destroy the interior, revealing the walls and floor of 1408 underneath, now severely fire-damaged. He is still trapped inside 1408. Enslin then encounters his dead daughter, but as he emotionally embraces her she dies in his arms, then crumbles to dust as the clock radio's countdown approaches zero. Enraged, Enslin lashes out against what remains of the room until he falls to the floor, exhausted. When the clock radio finally reaches zero the room changes back to its original, undamaged appearance.

The clock radio resets for another 60 minutes and the phone rings; when Enslin answers, the friendly female voice of the hotel operator informs him that he can relive the hour "again and again" or choose to take advantage of their "express checkout system." A noose appears in the bedroom and Enslin has a vision of him hanging himself; he tells the operator that he will not be checking out that way. The phone rings again, and the operator reminds him that his wife will be arriving in 5 minutes and will be sent right up to his room. He responds he is done arguing and is going to end the experience. When he puts down the phone, it starts to melt and a grave sounding voice starts reciting numbers and tries to dishearten Enslin.

Using a torn bit of his bandana to turn the cognac into a Molotov Cocktail, Enslin sets the room on fire, causing the hotel to be evacuated. Lily arrives just seconds afterwards and is stopped from entering the hotel, but tells the firefighters that Enslin is in 1408. Meanwhile, as the room tries to extinguish the fire, Enslin breaks a window with an ashtray, causing a huge backdraft that engulfs 1408. The firefighters force entry into the room and rescue Enslin as he curls under the coffee-table, delighted that the room is dying. Enslin recovers in a New York hospital, Lily at his bedside. He swears that he saw Katie, but Lily refuses to believe him. After his recovery Enslin moves back in with Lily, beginning work on a new novel that has nothing to do with his previous cheap haunted sites series. While sorting through a box of items from his night in 1408, Enslin comes across his mini cassette recorder. After some difficulty he manages to get the tape to play; it begins with Enslin's dictation of 1408's appearance, but cuts in with audio from his interaction with the apparition of his daughter. Lily freezes in shock as she hears her dead daughter's voice coming from the tape recorder, and the film closes on Enslin meeting her shocked stare with one of grim vindication.

Alternative ending

Director Mikael Håfström has stated that the ending for 1408 was reshot because test audiences felt that the original ending was too much of a "downer". The original ending, available exclusively on the Director's Cut edition, sees the backdraft engulfing the room as Enslin hides under the coffee table, happy to see the room destroyed as he dies. Olin later approaches Lily and Enslin's agent at his funeral, where he unsuccessfully attempts to give back a box of Enslin's possessions, telling her, relieved, that Enslin did not die in vain. Olin listens to the recording in his car, hearing Katie's voice on the tape; he jumps in surprise as he catches a quick glimpse of the now horribly burnt Enslin in his rear view mirror. Enslin now bears resemblance to a ghostly man that appeared in several other scenes, including the window/mirror scene and in the painting of the schooner. The scene then changes to an outside view of the gutted 1408, with an apparition of Enslin disappearing after being called away by the voice of his daughter and the sound of a closing door.

The UK and Irish rental DVD is branded as the "Director's Cut" and therefore includes the original ending. The director's commentary on both the DVD and the special features on the DVD contained no references or hints towards the ending in which Enslin lives or any explanation as to why the ending has been changed. Most, if not all, theatres originally showed the film with the ending in which he does live.

In the Blockbuster version of the DVD, there are 2 other alternate endings, in one of them, Michael Enslin ends up dying in room 1408, as his publisher and widow are cleaning his apartment in California, the publisher expresses his sorrow and leaves to New York. As the Publisher is entering his office he gets the mail from his secretary, as he looks through all his mail he notices the last envelope, which is from Michael Enslin, the same envelope he tried to send in his supposed awakening in the middle of the movie, the envelope contained a finished novel of his experience titled "1408".

The next version is mostly the same as the original ending except Michael's wife does not hear the recording of Katie as she is in the kitchen cleaning, leaving Michael to experience the moment by himself.

When played on The Movie Network and on Super Écran, the director's cut is shown, instead of the theatrical version.

Honrable Mention

The Haunted Mansion

The Haunted Mansion is a 2003 fantasy film based on the ride of the same name, directed by Rob Minkoff and starring Eddie Murphy, Terence Stamp, Jennifer Tilly, Marsha Thomason and Nathaniel Parker. It was released on November 26, 2003.

The Haunted Mansion grossed approximately $35,000,000 on its opening weekend in the United States. Its final U.S. gross was $75,847,266, barely a quarter of the earnings of its theme-ride predecessor Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. The film did marginally better in foreign markets, with a world-wide total of $106,443,000.

A Christmas Carol

A novella by Charles Dickens. Since its first publication in 1843, it has been adapted for theatre, film, television, radio, and opera numerous times. The various adaptations have included straightforward retellings, modernizations, parodies and sequels.

Film

* Scrooge; or Marley's Ghost (1901), a short British film that was the first screen adaptation.
* A Christmas Carol (1908), with Thomas Ricketts as Scrooge.
* A Christmas Carol (1910) is a 15-minute silent version of the film starring Marc McDermott as Scrooge and Charles Ogle as Cratchit.
* Scrooge (1913), starring Seymour Hicks and retitled Old Scrooge for its U.S. release in 1926.
* The Right to Be Happy (1916), the first feature-length adaptation, directed by and starring Rupert Julian as Scrooge.
* A Christmas Carol (1923), produced in the U.K. and starring Russell Thorndike, Nina Vanna, Jack Denton, and Forbes Dawson.
* Scrooge (1935), a British movie starring Sir Seymour Hicks as Scrooge.[1]
* A Christmas Carol (1938), starring Reginald Owen as Scrooge and Gene Lockhart and Kathleen Lockhart as the Cratchits.
* Scrooge (1951), starring Alastair Sim as Scrooge and Mervyn Johns and Hermione Baddeley as the Cratchits.
* Scrooge (1970), a musical film adaptation starring Albert Finney as Scrooge and Alec Guinness as Marley's Ghost.
* A Christmas Carol (1971), an Oscar-winning animated short film by Richard Williams, with Alastair Sim reprising the role of Scrooge.
* Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983), an animated short film featuring the various Walt Disney characters (including characters from Wind in the Willows, Robin Hood and The Three Little Pigs), with Scrooge McDuck fittingly playing the role of Ebenezer Scrooge. This version was based on the 1972 audio musical entitled Disney's A Christmas Carol. Most of the cast remained unchanged; however, in the audio version, Merlin (from The Sword in the Stone) and the Queen (from Snow White, in her hag guise) portrayed the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Future, respectively (the Ghost of Christmas Present was portrayed by Willie the Giant, as in the film version), whereas in the movie they were played by Jiminy Cricket and Pete.
* Scrooged (1988), a remake in a contemporary setting with Bill Murray being a misanthropic TV producer who is haunted by the ghosts of Christmas. Directed by Richard Donner.
* The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), featuring the various Muppet characters, with Michael Caine as Scrooge. This adaption also adds a character named Robert Marley, who is Jacob's brother and was a second partner in Scrooge's business. He appears with Jacob as a ghost. Also with Gonzo as Charles Dickens, with Rizzo the Rat tagging along, being "just here for the food."
* A Christmas Carol (1997), an animated production featuring the voice of Tim Curry as Scrooge as well as the voices of Whoopi Goldberg, Michael York and Ed Asner.
* Christmas Carol: The Movie (2001), an animated version produced by Illuminated Films (Christmas Carol), Ltd/The Film Consortium/MBP; screenplay by Robert Llewellyn & Piet Kroon; with the voices of Simon Callow, Kate Winslet, Nicolas Cage, Jane Horrocks, Rhys Ifans, Michael Gambon, and Juliet Stevenson.
* A Christmas Carol (2006), a computer animated adaptation featuring anthropomorphic animals in the lead roles.

Hold That Ghost

Hold That Ghost is a 1941 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. On August 1, 1941, Abbott and Costello performed a live version of the film for radio audiences on Louella Parsons' Hollywood Premiere.

The Ghost Breakers

The Ghost Breakers is a 1940 comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. The movie was adapted by Walter DeLeon from the play The Ghost Breaker by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard. The Dickey and Goddard play The Ghost Breaker was filmed twice previously by Paramount. It was first made in 1914 by Cecil B. DeMille, with stars H. B. Warner and Rita Stanwood, and again in 1922 by director Alfred E. Green, with Wallace Reid and Lila Lee starring. Both these silent films are presumed lost.

George Marshall, director of the 1940 version, remade The Ghost Breakers in 1953 as Scared Stiff, featuring Martin and Lewis (Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis). The remake featured cameos not only from Hope, but also from Bing Crosby. A year before Scared Stiff, Martin and Lewis appeared in the Crosby/Hope film Road to Bali.

The film was adapted for radio on Screen Director's Playhouse on April 4, 1949 with Bob Hope re-creating his film role and Shirley Mitchell as Mary.

Blithe Spirit

The film Blithe Spirit is a 1945 British comedy film of the popular Noel Coward play. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Noel Coward. The screenplay was by Noel Coward based on his play and adapted for the screen by Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean and Ronald Neame. The music score was by Richard Addinsell and the cinematography by Ronald Neame.

This was the second of three Noel Coward adaptations made by Lean's new company, Cineguild.

The film stars Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, Kay Hammond and Margaret Rutherford with Joyce Carey and Noel Coward as narrator. Unusually for the time, the film is in full colour.

Seeking material for his exposé about psychics, author Charles Condomine (Harrison) hires a medium named Madame Arcati (Rutherford) to his home to perform a séance. As Condomine, his wife (Cummings) and their guests restrain their laughter, the eccentric Arcati forges ahead with peculiar rituals and a propensity for clichés. Upon conclusion, Arcati is obviously concerned about a twist the séance had taken, although the author and his guests are dubious about anything extraordinary having occurred.

However, during the seance, the spirit of Condomine’s first wife, Elvira (played by Kay Hammond), has been accidentally summoned, and enters the house. The author, who is the only person capable of seeing Elvira, becomes both dismayed and amused at her sudden and unexpected presence. More complications ensue once Condomine’s current wife becomes aware of the ghost. Eventually, the author’s fascination wanes – especially when he learns that Elvira has been plotting his demise. But the spirit miscalculates and ends up dispatching Mrs. Condomine instead, after which the author is haunted by both of his deceased wives.

Arcati is contacted to rid his household of both spirits. Although she appears successful at first, it becomes obvious that one or more spirits have remained invisible in the house, and the plot to bring Charles Condomine into the spirit realm remains. He quickly decides to get out of the household for safety reasons, but his escape ultimately fails.

Due to a delayed release in the U.S., Blithe Spirit won its Oscar for Best Effects/Special Effects in 1947. It was nominated for a Hugo award in 1946 for Best Dramatic Presentation, although the film is thoroughly comedic.

As with most of Coward’s work, Blithe Spirit is renowned for its dialogue. The following comment comes from Charles Condomine when arguing with his wife during a breakfast scene: “If you're trying to compile an inventory of my sex life, I feel it only fair to warn you that you've omitted several episodes. I shall consult my diary and give you a complete list after lunch.” This line, considered extremely risqué by censors of the time, was deleted from U.S. showings of the film.

Topper

Topper (1937) is a comedy film which tells the story of a stuffy, stuck-in-his-ways man who is haunted by the ghosts of a fun-loving married couple. It was adapted by Eric Hatch, Jack Jevne and Eddie Moran from the novel by Thorne Smith. The film was directed by Norman Z. McLeod, produced by Hal Roach, and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The movie stars Constance Bennett, Cary Grant, Roland Young, and Billie Burke. Topper was a huge hit with movie audiences in the summer of 1937 and Cary Grant had a percentage deal on the film. He made quite a bit of money on the successful film.

It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Young) and Best Sound, Recording.

Topper was followed by the sequels Topper Takes a Trip (1939) and Topper Returns (1941). There was a television series of the same name, which aired from 1953 to 1956, starring Leo G. Carroll and Anne Jeffreys.[1] A TV movie featuring Kate Jackson, Jack Warden and Andrew Stevens was made in 1979

In 1985, Topper was one of the first films to be re-released in color using a controversial process known as film colorization.

Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice is a 1988 comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton. The film stars Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones and Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice. The plot revolves around a recently deceased couple who seek the help of obnoxious "bio-exorcist" Beetlejuice in order to remove the new owners of their quaint New England house, a family of metropolitan yuppies from New York City.

After the success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Burton was sent scripts and became disheartened by their lack of imagination and originality. With only one million out of Beetlejuice's budget of $13 million given over to visual effects work, it was Burton's intention to make them similar to the B movies he grew up with as a child. Beetlejuice was a financial and critical success, garnering an animated television series and an unproduced sequel titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian.

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Also read: Is It Really Paranormal? Questioning The Unknown Side Of Ghosts And Demonic Possession - With tales of being raped or beaten by ghosts, to stories of even a ghost giving a person a loan of some cash. I ask myself do these things really happen? -- Ginalanier.com