I grew up inhaling as many horror films as I could as a teenager, running to the multiplex to see the latest Stephen King adaptation, renting every “Nightmare on Elm Street” – which meant that I grew up watching a lot of extremely terrible movies. A good horror film, however, does more than just scare you: It enlarges your perception, making the ordinary strange; such films are as much about wonder as they are about terror.
My personal preference is not for overly gory films, so you’ll find no torture porn or slasher films here; I prefer the slow boil, the tension that builds until you can’t stand it anymore, the moody set piece that stays with you long after the film ends. A good ghost story is always about what’s not seen, what’s left unknown, rather than what’s actually in the film. In the list that follows, I left off some of my favorites – “The Others,” “The Shining,” “The Ring,” along with more recent films like “The Babadook” and “It Follows” – so I could focus on some lesser-known gems. In an homage to William Castle’s “13 Ghosts,” perhaps, here are thirteen favorite cinematic ghost stories (or maybe I just couldn’t narrow this down to ten).
“The Phantom Carriage” (1921)
“The Phantom Carriage” is an early silent film from Sweden, retelling a folktale about the last person to die before New Years, condemned to take up the reigns of Death’s Carriage and gather up departing souls for the next year. Its special effects were innovative at the time, and with time they’ve become almost more haunting – the image of the carriage riding across the ocean’s waves is one that will stay with you.
“Lonesome Ghosts” (1937)
There’s something about these early Disney films – “Skeleton Dance” being another favorite of mine – that remain spooky to me: the muddy soundtrack, and slow, drawn-out gestures. The early template for “Ghostbusters,” this seems to hold up far better than many other Disney shorts from the era; perhaps because the exaggerated movements and timing are more sympathetic to the uncanny than to comedy.
“Ugetsu” (1953)
As much as Japanese horror imports have taken over America’s imagination in the past few decades, I’m always far more drawn to earlier films like “Ugetsu,” which rely less on shock and more on atmosphere (see also: “Kuroneko,” “Woman in the Dunes,” and “Onibaba”). “Ugetsu” starts off as though it might be one of Kurosawa’s samurai epics, but gradually turns eerie and strange, with some of the most unforgettable images of postwar Japanese cinema.
“13 Ghosts” (1960)
Not to be confused with the 2001 remake that earned a place on Roger Ebert’s “Most Hated” list, the original is one of the lesser-known wonders of William Castle, and like many of his other films came with a gimmick wherein viewers could choose whether or not to see the ghosts on the screen. More importantly, it’s one of the few films to make use of the Winchester Mystery House, in San Jose, California, for its exterior shots.
“Carnival of Souls” (1962)
A textbook example of how much you can accomplish with very little: shot on a shoestring budget by a director who up until then had only done industrial safety videos, every ounce of this movie’s reputation is well-deserved, and you can see its influence in everything from “Mulholland Drive” to “It Follows.” The director, Herk Harvey, got the idea for the film while driving past the abandoned Saltair Pavilion on the Great Salt Lake, which is a reminder of how important a single setting can be for a good ghost story.
“The Haunting” (1963)
If “Carnival of Souls” is a triumph of low-budget horror, “The Haunting” is one of those rare major studio productions that gets it right. It’s a classic, and for good reason. A faithful adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, one that manages to not touch the original novel, while still creating its own uncanny aura. (As with “13 Ghosts,” stay far, far away from its remake, which is insultingly bad.) This pairs nicely with “The Innocents” and “Rebecca,” if you want to make a triple feature of it.
“Kwaidan” (1964)
If the charm of “Ugetsu” comes from its sparse and eerie minimalism, “Kwaidan” is its opposite: lush and strange, using the full palate of Technicolor to make a terrifying dreamworld. Shot entirely on a soundstage, there’s no pretension to realism; in one sequence the sky is composed of eyes painted on a screen, watching a woodcutter trek through a blizzard. An adaptation of Lafcadio Hearn’s collection of folktales, which is one of the best collections of ghost stories I’ve ever encountered.
“Hausu” (1977)
This list perhaps already has too many examples from Japan, but there is nothing – and I mean nothing – that comes close to “Hausu.” Nobohiku Obayashi’s take on the haunted house film is one of the weirdest, most visually excessive films ever made, running the gamut from psychedelic musical to by-the-numbers slasher flick to – I don’t know what, exactly. With special effects that look like they were made in a junior high classroom, “Hausu” defies all belief – and despite its unhinged goofiness, it remains oddly effective as a ghost story.
“The Changeling” (1980)
“The Changeling” is perfect for fans of “The Others” and “The Ring.” As with those films, “The Changeling is one of those unassuming horror films that works extremely effectively; it helps that the narrative is built around the protagonist’s grief at the loss of his family, so even as things begin to get terrifying there’s a sense of pathos and emotion running through. It also boasts one of the truly great and terrifying séance sequences.
“Candyman” (1992)
“Candyman” starts out like so many other 1980s slasher flicks: with an urban legend in a suburban home. But almost immediately, the locale shifts to Chicago, and the film becomes a scathing allegory of gentrification and the racial politics of a divided city (as with “Carnival of Souls,” it depends a lot on its setting – in this case the Cabrini Green housing project). It employs a lot (and I mean a lot) of blood and gore, but it nonetheless remains one of the smarter horror films Hollywood has produced.
“Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me” (1992)
Considering the original Twin Peaks series was a quirky soap opera mixed with a detective procedural, most don’t immediately think of its companion film as a ghost story. But separate it from the series’ cult following, and at its heart “Fire Walk with Me” is the story of a haunted house: a dark secret in a suburban home, and a teenage girl struggling to stay sane as her world falls apart around her. Sheryl Lee’s performance is one for the ages.
“The Innkeepers” (2011)
I love Ti West’s films because they rely on a minimum of gore and jump scares, and instead build so gradually, so subtly, that you almost forget that you’re watching a horror film. As with his equally excellent “House of the Devil,” here you might almost forget you’re watching a horror movie – until the final reel, that is.
“Under the Shadow” (2016)
Another slow-burning exercise in claustrophobia, “Under the Shadow” works on you in ways similar to “The Babadook,” focusing on a young mother isolated with her child in an impossible situation. With an added layer of tension courtesy of the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, like “The Devil’s Backbone,” “Under the Shadow” features an eerie use of an exploded bomb.
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