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Hollywood loves a ghost movie. These are the best ones to watch this Halloween

A g-g-g- ghost!

That — spluttering and all — was the usual reaction to Casper, the Friendly Ghost. Ghosts scare people. Even if, like Casper in the old cartoons, they just want to be your friend.

Ghosts, as a matter of fact, often have more on their minds than just saying "boo!"

Sometimes, as in "Macbeth," "Julius Caesar," and "Hamlet," they come back to scold, warn, prod. Sometimes, as in "A Christmas Carol," they do interventions.

And sometimes — as in "Ghostbusters" — ghosts just wanna have fun.

At Halloween, our annual festival of fear, they'll always have a place of honor — if only because their costume is a gift to the lazy. White sheet, two holes, done. Coincidentally, ghosts are also among the simplest of Hollywood's special effects. Double exposure is as old as film itself.

Maybe that's why ghosts have haunted movie theaters for 120 years — ever since Georges Méliès made "The Apparition" in 1903. And Halloween is a great time to catch up with the best of them. Here are some of our favorites.

Never fear! There are over 100 scary Halloween things to do, read and see in North Jersey

With this caveat: Hollywood's ghosts, like all ghosts, have mixed motives. Not every ghost movie is meant to scare you.

Some movie ghosts are wistful. Or romantic. Or funny. Or even thought provoking.

But others? BEWARRRRRE!!!!!!

'A Ghost Story' (2017)

There are sad ghosts, just like there are sad clowns. Casey Affleck, for instance — killed in a crash, who comes back to his old home to haunt his grieving wife, Rooney Mara. Ludicrously, wistfully, he looks exactly like a trick-or-treat ghost — the sheet with two eyes. This minimalist meditation on time, grief and memory, from writer-director David Lowery, is slow, unsettling. Haunting, in a word. Vudu, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google, Apple.

'The Others' (2001)

The other whats? Not humans, for sure, in this moody tale of a woman (Nicole Kidman), her photo-sensitive children, and her servants, in an isolated house in the Channel Islands where — it turns out — they are not quite so alone after all. Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu.

'Sixth Sense' (1999)

"I see dead people." And there's a reason for that, in M. Night Shyamalan's much-discussed thriller featuring a psychologist (Bruce Willis), a disturbed and disturbing child (Haley Joel Osment), and a famous "shock" ending that we won't spoil — though you probably know it already. Peacock, Apple TV, Vudu, Amazon Prime.

'Ghost' (1990)

The ghost: Patrick Swayze. The widow: Demi Moore. The medium: Whoopi Goldberg. The revelation: pottery. Who knew it was sexy? This iconic '90s film may or may not be a classic of supernatural love. But it's certainly Hollywood's greatest advertisement for ceramics class. Max, Roku, Spectrum TV, Prime Video, Vudu, Apple TV, Redbox.

'Beetlejuice' (1988)

Leave it to Tim Burton to tell a ghost story from the ghost's point of view. In this case, about a ghostly couple (Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis) who hire an ectoplasmic exterminator (Michael Keaton) to rid their house of its human pests. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice! There, we've said it. Amazon Prime, Vudu, Apple TV.

'Ghostbusters' (1984)

Who could resist Slimer, Zuul, and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man? Apparently only Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd — which is why they had to be called in in the first place. This monster hit earned a place in comedy history, but — heretical opinion — we prefer "Ghostbusters II" (1989), with its demonic spirit Vigo (Norbert Grupe), a sort of ectoplasmic Vlad the Impaler, and his nutty enabler Dr Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol, borrowing the Polish accent of his "Sophie's Choice" co-star, Meryl Streep) who warns the heroes that to Vigo "you are like the buzzing of flies!" USA Network, OXYGEN, SYFY, Bravo, E!, Prime Video, ROW8, Apple TV, Vudu.

'Poltergeist' (1982)

This Tobe Hooper/Steven Spielberg shocker goes a bit over the top in the last act. But the early scenes, involving a nice suburban daddy (Craig T. Nelson), his nice normal family, and his sweet little daughter (Heather O'Rourke), who gets sucked into the TV set, are notably creepy, and Zelda Rubenstein is unforgettable as the medium with the happy message: "All are welcome in the light!" Max, Philo, Prime Video, Apple TV, Vudu or Redbox, or on TCM 12:30 a.m. Oct. 18.

'The Shining' (1980)

Just because you're dead, doesn't mean you don't have to earn a living. In "The Shining," Stanley Kubrick's epic rendering of the Stephen King novel, the ghosts include butler Grady (Philip Stone) and bartender Lloyd (Joe Turkel), who do their best to make homicidal Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) comfortable as he plots to murder his wife and child in an empty, snowbound hotel. Kubrick brought a new twist to ghost movies: all the scary stuff happens in broad daylight. Which makes it worse. Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, and Vudu.

'The Fog' (1980)

"It's not the fog. It's what's in the fog!" Carcinogens? No — it's the ghosts of an evil ship's crew lurking within the creepy mist that blankets Point Reyes, California. John Carpenter's flashlight-in-the-face ghost yarn, starring the inevitable Adrienne Barbeau and Jamie Lee Curtis, is good spooky fun. Prime Video, Apple TV or Vudu.

'The Haunting' (1963)

Even ghosts gotta live somewhere. Hence, the Haunted House — one of Hollywood's favorite pieces of real estate. This one is especially nasty, with its middle-of-the-night pounding, cold spots, and a memorably unstable spiral staircase. Naturally, the 1999 remake (both are based on Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House") upped the shocks — and naturally, no one talks about it. Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Apple TV, or on TCM 1:30 a.m. Oct. 21.

'Carnival of Souls' (1962)

This unique low-budget chiller, featuring a haunted amusement pier, has a twist that out-Shyamalans M. Night Shyamalan. Recommended. Amazon Video, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft Store, Apple TV.

'The Innocents' (1961)

Two sweet children. A spunky governess. But this isn't "The Sound of Music." Because these kids are haunted by evil spirits. Or else the governess is losing her mind. And either way, this gorgeously photographed, subtly spooky rendering of Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw" is probably the best ghost movie ever made. Deborah Kerr's performance is a tour de force. Netflix, Amazon, Vudu.

'The Ghost and Mrs. Muir' (1947)

Is a ghost your ideal mate? eHarmony might not think so. But Hollywood has occasionally thought otherwise. The best of all the otherworldly love stories is probably this one — about an independent-minded widow (Gene Tierney) circa 1900, who is romanced by the ghost of a cranky sea captain (Rex Harrison). It sounds trite — but the movie has a depth and melancholy that is hard to forget. A lot of it has to do with the seaside setting, and Bernard Herrmann's exquisite music. Prime Video, Apple TV or Vudu or TCM 8 p.m. Oct. 20.

'Dead of Night' (1945)

This omnibus film of the uncanny — a sort of dry run for "The Twilight Zone" — includes several ghost stories. Best of all is the convalescing patient, and the ghostly hearse driver who calls up to him: "Just room for one inside sir!" Guess who, a week later, is driving the bus to take him home from the hospital. iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu.

'The Uninvited' (1944)

It sounds like a problem for Miss Manners. But it's actually a problem for Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey, whose lovely seaside house on the Cornwall coast is plagued by ghostly sobbing, inexplicable cold drafts, and the scent of Mimosa that was associated with the murderess who lived there years before. Hollywood's first attempt at a "serious" ghost movie — though mild by today's standards — still holds up pretty well. TCM 11:45 p.m. Oct. 20.

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13 movies that define the spoopy canon

More silly skeletons than scary slashers

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With Halloween just around the corner, many are on the hunt for the perfect horror movie to usher in the spooky season. But as much as we like being scared, there’s another staple of the Halloween movie canon to consider: the Spoopy Movie.

Spoopy originated from a (now-defunct) Tumblr post from 2011, which aggregated an even older Flickr photo of a misspelled Halloween sign . Instead of the word “spooky,” skeleton bones spelled out “spoopy.” The goof blew up, with other users sharing their own spotted misspelled Halloween phrases. Eventually, the term became associated with Halloween, specifically the part of Halloween that indulges the fun and spooky, without ever being too scary.

The term captures the nostalgia-tinged Halloween of childhood, filled with trick-or-treating, buckets of candy, and movies that tickled that holiday itch (but were not traumatically scary). Spoopy movies embrace macabre aesthetics, without being too graphic, and tell scary stories, without being too traumatizing. They’re a cartoonishly giant skeleton instead of a rotting corpse, one with a smile and a quippy joke instead of an insatiable hunger for flesh.

Beyond celebrating the off-kilter Halloween aesthetic and presenting scary stories that kids can also enjoy, spoopy movies serve another vital purpose. Many of them also follow misfits — specifically outcast kids who struggle to find a place where they belong. And many of them end with said kids finding a community of their own, be it through other weirdos, supernatural beings, or realizing their own worth.

This list is far from comprehensive, but in the spooky spirit of Halloween, here are 13 quintessential spoopy movies that define this particular subgenre.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

Where to watch: Disney Plus

… specifically The Legend of Sleepy Hollow section. Sure, there are some autumnal scenes in the Wind in the Willows part, but Walt Disney Animation’s retelling of an iconic staple of American folklore is pretty legendary. Bing Crosby narrates this spooky tale, and the Hudson Valley setting is gorgeously rendered in swathes of autumnal color. It’s a great little entry into not just spoopy movies, but also the Headless Horseman lore. This version is actually one of the most faithful to Washington Irving’s original story!

Beetlejuice (1988)

Where to watch: Max

“I myself am strange and unusual,” proclaims Lydia Deetz, as played by Winona Ryder, in Tim Burton’s 1988 horror comedy. And it’s a sentiment that young goths, emo kids, and other alt-outcasts everywhere would cling to. Beetlejuice is equally about the misfit teenager making deals with the titular unhinged stripe-clad demon as it is about a couple (played by Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin) navigating the perils of the afterlife. Beetlejuice ’s bold, bright sets put a colorful and zany spin on the dark and dreary afterlife, but it’s Lydia fearlessly going head-to-head with Beetlejuice that makes the movie memorable. By the end, the demon is vanquished, but the weirdness remains, and Lydia feels more at home in this new town than she did before.

The Addams Family (1991) and The Addams Family Values (1993)

Where to watch: Paramount Plus

Every iteration of the creepy and kooky Addams family makes for a spoopy time, but the live-action movies of the early 1990s are particularly iconic. Part of it is the superb casting. Every actor just embodies their designated Addams family member. Christina Ricci’s Wednesday is so definitive that Netflix brought her back for the Wednesday TV show in a separate role. Anjelica Huston is the perfect macabre matriarch, and Raul Julia caputes Gomez like no other. Christopher Lloyd’s batty Uncle Fester is just the icing on this spoopy cake. The first sequel continues this trend, with Joan Cusack sliding in as a scheming Black Widow killer. As a franchise, The Addams Family celebrates the joy in being weird, and that’s one of the tenements of a good spoopy flick.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

When you think of spoopy movies — movies that embrace dark Halloween aesthetics without ever being too scary for children — you probably think of The Nightmare Before Christmas .

The stop-motion flick has been a hallmark of Halloween ever since the movie came out 30 years ago. And with its infectious music, enduring characters, and distinct visual style, it’s very easy to see why. Directed by Henry Selick — who would go on to direct James and the Giant Peach , Coraline (on this list), and Wendell & Wild (an honorary member of this list) — Nightmare Before Christmas was a beacon to budding counter-culture youths everywhere , misfits drawn to the dark aesthetic and who perhaps identified with wallflower outcast Sally or restless Jack Skellington.

There’s silly debate about whether it’s a Christmas movie or a Halloween movie, but considering by the end, Pumpkin King Jack Skellington realizes that he does love Halloween and wants to embrace it fully, I firmly believe it’s a perfect Halloween movie.

Hocus Pocus (1993)

… and this is the other movie you probably think of when you think of a spoopy movie. Apparently 1993 was the year in the spoopy canon! Hocus Pocus follows Max, an edgy teenager, freshly moved to Salem, Massachusetts from California, who thinks he’s too cool for Halloween. He reluctantly agrees to bring his little sister trick-or-treating, and then, in order to impress a popular pretty girl, he accidentally summons the Sanderson Sisters, three child-eating witches. Bette Milder, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker absolutely commit to the bit as three out-of-time witches bent on feasting on children in order to preserve their immortality. Seeing their wacky interactions with modern day (well, 1990s) life is hilarious. But Max’s evolution from Too-Cool-For-School to someone fiercely protective of his little sister is also sweet. Also! There’s a talking black cat! What more could you want?

Halloweentown Quartet: Halloweentown (1998), Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge (2001), Halloweentown High (2004), Return to Halloweentown (2006)

There are plenty of spoopy Disney Channel Original Movies , reliably providing few staples for every generation that grew up with the family-friendly network. (After all, by virtue of being on the Disney Channel, the movie will never be too scary.) But the Halloweentown Quartet reigns supreme. It wasn’t the first Halloween-themed DCOM, but it spanned four movies, right as the channel was coming into its own, and thus really solidified the general tone of DCOM spoopiness.

The movies take place in a world where witches, goblins, ghouls, and more live in a realm called Halloweentown. Misfit Marnie Piper has always felt a call towards all things dark and spooky, even though her mother doesn’t approve. But she discovers that her quirky grandmother (played by the legendary Debbie Reynolds), who only ever visits on Halloween, is actually a witch — and ends up learning about her own latent powers and the world of Halloweentown, which she saves time and time again across the four movies. It’s some very fun world-building, though time spent in the titular Halloweentown varies from film-to-film.

Casper (1995)

Where to watch: Netflix

Christina Ricci is truly the undisputed queen of 1990s Spoopy Fare.

In Casper, she plays Kat Harvey, the daughter of a quirky ghost therapist (who is… a psychiatrist who believes he can talk to ghosts). She and her father move into a dilapidated mansion in an effort to help the ghosts cross over, after the young lonely ghost who lives there (the titular Casper) watches a TV special about them and conspires to bring them to him, longing for a friend. While the older, bigger ghosts mess around with the ghost doctor, Casper and Kat start to bond, and try to figure out who Casper was before he died. Two kids trying to solve the mystery of how one of them died is pretty macabre fare, but it never gets overly scary or depressing.

If you prefere vampires over ghosts, The Little Vampire — starring 1990s It kid Jonathan Lipnicki — has a similar story of a misfit kid moving to an old haunted mansion and befriending a supernatural creature.

Scooby-Doo! and the Witch’s Ghost (1999)

Where to watch: VOD

Basically any Scooby-Doo movie is spoopy fare, since the whole premise involves a group of teenagers and their talking dog investigating rumors of supernatural creatures. The 2000s live-action films — where young actors from popular horror franchises play the main cast — are a particularly fantastic time, and there’s also a whole trove of direct-to-home-video animated movies, direct-to-TV live action flicks, and a 2020 CG animated film. But the spoopiest of them all is probably Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost. It is the most Halloween-y of all the Scooby-Doo movies, by virtue of centering around autumn festivities in a tiny New England town.

Witch’s Ghost introduced the iconic Hex Girls , the eco-goth musical trio whose pop culture legacy has eclipsed every other Scooby-Doo side character (they’ve since reappeared in multiple other Scooby-Doo animated movies). Like many spoopy movies, Witch’s Ghost follows a witch put to death in the not-exactly-Salem-but-still-a-town-in-New-England witch trials, and her haunting legacy as it affects said picturesque New England town.

Monster House (2006)

Where to watch: Hulu

Everyone goes off about Coraline being the scary animated film that first terrified them (more on that in a bit), but Monster House is up there in family-friendly scares that lean on allusion and metaphor to convey what could be graphic imagery!It’s literally about an anthropomorphic house that eats anyone who gets too close! The three main kid characters attempt to subdue the dilapidated house, so it can end its reign of terror on the neighborhood. They delve deeper into the creepy house, and learn more about how it came to be that way, a story that’s actually pretty chilling and heartbreaking. The house itself is a uniquely designed monster — architectural structures are body parts, like the jagged fence turned teeth and the lashing rug tongue.

Coraline (2009)

Coraline proves that you can have a spoopy movie without the fall atmosphere — so long as you completely commit to the sheer terror. Laika’s stop motion film is famously scary, without actually being explicit in the moment-to-moment frights. As my colleague Nicole Clark puts it in her reflection on Coraline , the filmmakers depict the terror through “insinuations of gore and dialed-up theatricality.” Based on Neil Gaiman’s book of the same name (which is just as scary, especially the original accompanying illustrations ), Coraline follows the titular heroine, who discovers a strange world that almost mirrors her own — save for the fact that everyone has buttons for eyes. Initially drawn into the vibrant other world, Coraline soon realizes that the Other Mother, the black button-eyed creature who took on the appearance of Coraline’s own mother, has sinister intentions. Coraline must save herself, her parents, and the souls of the other children that the Other Mother preyed on.

Paranorman (2012)

A recurring trope in many of these movies is a witch from colonial times who died in a trial coming back in some way shape or form. Paranorman, however, cleverly deconstructs this trope in the second half of the movie. The first half is played pretty straight, though it hits all the quintessential spoopy movie marks. Norman is a young boy who can see ghosts, which alienates him not just from his family but the whole town of Blithe Hollow — except for Neil, a fellow victim of the school bullies who takes a liking to Norman and decides to befriend him. Laika once again flexes its stop motion skills, rendering an impressive world with wonderfully tactile little details, like rotting zombie flesh and graffitied school lockers.

The House With A Clock in Its Walls (2018)

Jack Black adds a certain zest to spoopy projects. He played children’s horror author R.L. Stine in the 2015 Goosebumps movie, but it’s 2018’s The House With A Clock in Its Walls that snags the entry on this list. For one, Black and Cate Blanchett have excellent banter as neighboring warlocks. For another, it really pushes just how scary and unsettling a spoopy movie can be without actually being super duper scary and unsettling. Those clockwork puppet creatures! The animatronic baby Jack Black ! Also, much of this one hinges on the idea of Found Family, and the young boy at the center learning about his own powers and finding a place where he belongs. And that’s just the spoopy way.

Muppet Haunted Mansion (2021)

There should be a Haunted Mansion movie on this list, because the Haunted Mansion is one of the best — and certainly the spookiest — Disney attractions. However, I cannot in good faith put the 2003 movie or the 2023 movie on here, since they’re both fundamentally okay . (Nostalgia might fuel the Eddie Murphy movie , while the wacky cast mostly keeps the 2023 one afloat in a sea of mediocrity). Thank goodness that someone out there looked at the Haunted Mansion’s legacy and fully understood that the attraction would work best with the Muppets. Muppets Haunted Mansion sees Gonzo and Pepe journey to a haunted mansion, where they encounter the ride’s grim grinning ghosts — only this time, in Muppet form. It’s a perfect marriage of two goofy properties and celebrates both in spooktacular Halloween fashion.

The Halloween Countdown: 31 days of horror to watch

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16 spooky movies that won’t keep you up at night

Halloween movies that are just a little scary so you can still sleep at night.

Here are 16 spooky movies to enjoy this Halloween.

The Geffen Film Company

Scary movies are fun — until, that is, it’s time to go to bed and you are suddenly scared of the dark and must force yourself to watch your favorite comfort show until all fear has left you. Spooky movies, like “Hocus Pocus” offer the perfect balance of humor and scary scenes — but nothing scary enough to keep you up past bedtime.

1. ‘Ghostbusters’

After a trio of parapsychologists (Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray) lose their jobs at a New York City University, they decide to open a business as “Ghostbusters” — using their paranormal expertise to rid the city of ghosts.

Business is slow at first, but when the Ghostbusters accidentally unleash an army of supernatural beings, they receive more business than they bargained for. It is up to these ghost-fighting scientists to outwit the chaotic paranormal creatures and save New York City from complete destruction.

Rating: PG for some language and sexual material.

Where to watch: Peacock.

2. ‘Beetlejuice’

Newlyweds Barbara (Geena Davis) and Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin) are condemned to spending the afterlife haunting their countryside home. The couple is used to minding their own business until a family moves into the home and begins making significant renovations.

Desperate to have the home to themselves again, Barbara and Adam attempt to spook the new family out — but to no avail. Without any other options, they turn to Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), a rowdy ghost whose assistance suddenly escalates and becomes dangerous to the new family’s teenage daughter, Lydia (Winona Ryder).

Rating: PG for violence and frightening scenes and some language.

Where to watch: Max.

3. ‘The Sixth Sense’

Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) is haunted by a sixth sense — he can see ghosts. Unsettled spirits frequently visit Cole asking for help with unresolved issues. Cole lives in constant fear, keeping his unique ability a secret.

He eventually shares his tormenting ability with child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis), who is determined to find an explanation for Cole’s sixth sense.

Rating: PG-13 for intense thematic material and scary images.

Where to watch: Rent on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, YouTube TV.

4. ‘Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix’

Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is back. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) knows this. So does Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), but the majority of the wizarding world is convinced Harry is making it up.

Harry is haunted by his encounter with the Dark Wizard during his previous school year and the untimely death of his classmate, Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson).

Rating: PG-13 for fantasy violence and frightening images.

Where to watch: Max, Peacock.

5. ‘Practical Magic’

Sisters Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Nicole Kidman) come from a long line of witches. For generations, the Owens women have suffered from an ancient curse which dooms any many they fall in love with to a premature death.

When the curse takes another victim, Gillian turns to Sally for help hiding the body. The Owens sisters must use their magical abilities when handsome Police detective Gary Hallet (Aidan Quinn) comes sniffing for answers.

Rating: PG-13 for some violence and intense thematic events.

Where to watch: Hulu.

6. ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’

Typical teenager Buffy Summers (Kristy Swanson) has her true calling revealed to her by a mysterious man named Merrick (Donald Sutherland) — who has come to train her as the Slayer. Buffy quickly takes to vampire slaying but at the expense of normalcy. With help from fellow outcast Pike (Luke Perry), Buffy takes on the ruthless, ancient vampire, Lothos (Rutger Hauer), who is out to destroy Buffy at any cost.

Rating: PG-13 for comic violence and drug references.

7. ‘Edward Scissorhands’

For years, Edward Scissorhands (Johnny Depp) has lived isolated from his community. He is the unfinished creation of an eccentric inventor who died before he could make Edward proper hands. Despite his sweet demeanor and artistic capabilities, Edward’s scissor hands keep him hidden from others.

When a suburban family discovers Edward, he impresses the neighborhood with his artistic talents for trimming shrubs and even falls in love.

Rating: PG-13 for some violence, intense scenes and language.

Where to watch: Max, Disney+.

8. ‘Hocus Pocus’

Three centuries ago, the Sanderson sisters were condemned to death in Salem, Massachusetts, for practicing dark magic. Their nefarious spirits are awakened on Halloween night by teenager Max Dennison (Omri Katz), his younger sister Dani (Thora Birch) and their new friend Allison (Vinessa Shaw).

To save Salem from destruction, the kids must lure these diabolical witches back to their resting place.

Rating: PG for scary scenes and some language.

Where to watch: Disney+.

• ‘Hocus Pocus’ will return to theaters in honor of its 30th anniversary

9. ‘Goosebumps’

New kid in town Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) accidentally unleashes every monster from the “Goosebumps” book series. The mischievous beasts are prepared to take over the town and have no intentions of returning to their books.

Rating: PG for intense action and some rude humor.

Where to watch: Netflix.

10. ‘Scooby Doo’

It’s been two years since Scooby Doo and his sleuthing gang — Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and Velma (Linda Cardellini) — closed the doors on their detective business, Mystery Inc. The crew is reunited on Mystery Island to solve a puzzling paranormal mystery.

Rating: PG for some rude humor and scary action.

Where to watch: Max, Amazon Prime.

• The return of the blockbuster continues: 15 movies coming to theaters this fall

11. ‘The Addams Family’

The Addams family is thrilled when Gomez’s (Raul Julia) missing brother, Fester (Christopher Lloyd) shows up on their doorstep.

When Fester cannot remember key details from his own life, Morticia Addams (Anjelica Huston) becomes skeptical the man staying in their home is an imposter. Through a devious plan, the Fester-impersonator gets the Addams family kicked out of their home and hopes to steal their fortune.

Rating: PG-13 for some violence and gore.

Where to watch: Paramount+.

12. ‘Dark Shadows’

Two centuries ago, Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), was cursed, turned into a vampire and buried for eternity by a jealous witch (Eva Green). Now it is 1972 and Barnabas has returned with a vengeance, determined to restore his once-grand estate, get revenge on the woman who cursed him and make sense of the modern world.

Rating: PG-13 for comic violence, sexual content and some language.

Where to watch: Hulu, Max.

13. ‘Gremlins’

Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan) is gifted a peculiar, cuddly creature for Christmas. As long as he follows a simple set of rules, his new pet, Gizmo, will remain docile. When two of the three rules of violated, the sweet creature transforms into a living nightmare, threatening to annihilate the entire town with chaos.

Rating: PG for some violence and intense scenes.

Six guests are anonymously invited to a dinner party at an isolate estate. As the guest arrive at Hill House, they are each given a pseudonym and introduced to the host (Lee Ving) who gives them each a weapon. Once the guests have gathered, the lights go out and the host is murdered.

Everyone is a suspect. The guests must uncover the murderer and avoid becoming the killer’s next victim.

Rating: PG for mild violence.

Where to watch: Amazon Prime.

15. ‘So I Married an Axe Murderer’

Charlie (Mike Myers) suffers from a fear of commitment. He hasn’t experienced a lot of success in his dating life until he meets Harriet Michaels (Nancy Travis), a beautiful butcher he even introduces to his parents.

But as news spreads of a serial killer — “Mrs. X” — who has killed a series of men on their honeymoons, Charlie’s parents suspect Harriett might be the killer. Writing his parent’s theory off as crazy, Charlie proposes to Harriett.

Rating: PG-13 for language and some comic violence.

16. ‘Casper’

Hidden within Whipstaff Manor is a massive fortune, but Carrigan Crittenden (Cathy Moriarty) keeps being run out by ghost — particularly Casper (Devon Sawa), a misunderstood, lonely ghost who means no harm.

Desperate to rid the manor of ghosts and track down the hidden treasure, Carrigan hires afterlife therapist Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman) to clear the mansion of ghosts. James and his daughter, Kat (Christina Ricci) move in and take on the responsibility of assisting the ghosts in moving on to the afterlife.

Rating: PG for mild language and thematic scenes.

Things You Only Notice In Ghost After Watching It More Than Once

More than 30 years after its release, " Ghost " is one of those classic movies that's referenced so often it might  feel like you've seen it, even if you haven't. At the very least, the often-parodied pottery scene  is something you remember well. Although it's most well known for that steamy scene and the picturesque, tragic love story of main couple Sam (Patrick Swayze) and Molly (Demi Moore), "Ghost" is actually a thriller. After Sam is killed by a thug hired by his best friend Carl (Tony Goldwyn), the ins and outs of becoming a ghost mostly serve the plot as Sam uncovers the truth and tries to save Molly's life from beyond this mortal coil. 

In its straight-forwardness and blending of romantic and fantasy elements, it harkens back to classic Hollywood romances like "Heaven Can Wait," and the screenplay earned writer Bruce Joel Rubin a well-deserved Oscar . But its simplicity and one-note visualization in pop culture history belie a fascinating story, one that raises a lot of metaphysical questions in short order, full of characters it can be hard not to second guess. Here are the things you only notice in "Ghost" when you watch it more than once.

Who wears white clothes to do construction work?

At the very beginning of "Ghost," Sam, Molly, and best friend Carl are busy knocking down walls and fixtures in Sam and Molly's newly purchased loft ... wearing a rather confusing trio of coordinated outfits. If Sam is anything like Patrick Swayze's other film roles, then he and Carl likely bonded as friends over any excuse to go shirtless, so that makes a certain amount of sense. But where did they both get white jeans to match Molly's white overalls?

Moreover, why wear white if you'll be knocking down drywall and doing the generally dirty work of home renovation? Did they call Carl to let him know the dress code before he got there? "Hey Carl, just so you know, we're  nouveau riche so we bought brand new painters' whites to do demolition in even though we're not painting yet ... No, no need for a shirt." "Ghost" may have come out in 1990, but it really captured the dying spirit of the 1980s, which in many ways was a generally shirtless time.

Sam is kind of a jerk in life

Granted, we don't get to know Sam for very long before he's shot and killed, but if you think about it on a rewatch, he's kind of boorish to Molly. The most famous scene of the movie, rife with sexual chemistry though it may be, is Sam completely ruining a piece that Molly was throwing on the pottery wheel. In an earlier scene, he thinks it's funny to pretend to dangle her out of the window of their loft. Fun!

Later in the film, when Sam is trying to convince psychic Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg) to help him, he sings "I'm Henry the Eighth, I am" over and over at her until she relents —  annoying, but reasonable under life-and-death circumstances. But when Molly hears about it, she reveals that's  also how Sam got her to go out with him in the first place. And once they're in a committed relationship, he makes it a particular point to always say "ditto" instead of the more earnest and vulnerable "I love you too." Clearly Sam was just coasting through his (unfortunately short) life, content to rely on being as handsome as an in-his-prime Patrick Swayze to smooth the way for generally douche-y behavior.

How can Sam and Molly afford that loft?

No offense to Molly, but you have to assume that the income of a sculptor only goes so far in Manhattan real estate. And Sam may be a successful Wall Street investment banker, but he's clearly a new one that gets nervous before meeting with the proverbial Japanese investors, and an ethical one that's too naïve to realize what Carl's up to until it's too late. Granted, the '80s were an ethical haze of opulence, trickle-down economics, and cocaine, but re-watching "Ghost" after recognizing  other suspiciously large NYC apartments in film and television , it's impossible not to un-suspend your disbelief.

It's not just a question of whether Sam and Molly can afford it, they renovate the entire thing from basically scratch after knocking all the fixtures and walls out at the beginning of "Ghost." Does one or both of them come from money? Are those absurd giant Roman columns they put in load-bearing? Even after Sam's death, other than going into the bank to sign some papers (life insurance?), Molly's financial situation is unaddressed moving forward. One presumes she had to move out of that cavernous, preposterous loft well before it was listed for $10.5 million  in 2015.

The famous pottery scene has a jarring continuity error

Even the one scene in "Ghost" that everyone remembers the best has a surprising, borderline-inexcusable continuity error in it. In by far the most famous pottery-related scene in all of cinema, Sam sits behind Molly late one night while The Righteous Brothers cover of "Unchained Melody" plays on their bespoke, vintage jukebox. The chemistry practically sparks through the air as they intertwine fingers, lean against one another, and get potter's clay all over themselves. 

But as soon as they get swept away by passion and move away from the wheel, all of the clay is magically  gone . Not even a smudge remains visible on their arms and hands. It's an ode to the undeniable chemistry of the stars that this isn't something you catch on the first watch, but it's a strange mistake that you can't un-see once you catch it on another viewing. It's jarring enough to wonder, in the moment, if it was intentional — maybe Moore and Swayze didn't mind getting clay on their arms, but drew the line at getting it everywhere else on their persons.

Ghost wouldn't work without Whoopi Goldberg

Somehow all of the most frequent elements of "Ghost" in our collective memory are about the two romantic leads — the pottery scene, "ditto." But when you watch it again, the clear MVP of the film is Whoopi Goldberg with her inimitable portrayal of psychic Oda Mae Brown. Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore both do excellent jobs, but they're largely crying on command or just looking strained and anxious about things. Tony Goldwyn hits a few more notes as the shifty, sniveling Carl — he played the bad guy so well he once got terrible service in a NYC restaurant as a result. 

But Goldberg, more than the rest of the cast, has to anchor the film with a performance that's tender-hearted, funny, impetuous, and undeniably her own. She convincingly plays trepidation and fear when she starts to hear the dead, tenderness when she consoles a heartbroken Molly at several points, and slapstick anxiety when Sam has her pull a con on the bank and steal the laundered drug money. Every few years, a comedic performance like Goldberg's will get a token Oscar nomination, but Whoopi actually  won the Oscar part of her career EGOT for her role. All due respect to Swayze, Moore, and Goldwyn, but it would be a lot easier to imagine other actors taking those roles and doing just as well; it's nearly impossible to picture someone else as Oda Mae.

The movie raises more questions about ghost-physics than it answers

According to  Film School Rejects , "Ghost" screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin mentioned on a commentary track for the film that people would often ask him why Sam can walk up stairs and take elevators when he passes through walls. His explanation?: "Your mind creates the world." And while that's a pithy response that summons up many interesting thoughts about the nature of perception, the soul, and the self, it doesn't really answer anything. Your mind creates the world, but only for the soles of your feet? If the mind (and whatever remains of the mind in "ghost" form) possesses this passive ability to interact with the physical realm when gravity is concerned, why does Sam have to summon up all of his emotions to kick a bottle cap or lift a penny? 

Generally, "Ghost" seems content to reveal new rules of ghost-ness every now and then, mostly for certain moments in the plot to come together. We learn midway through that ghosts can briefly "possess" Oda Mae, when a presumptuous ghost named Orlando wants to talk to his wife. But other than the fact that it weakens the ghost that does it, there's not much detail. Can only psychics with "the gift" be possessed? It leads to a touching scene, of course, when Sam possesses Oda Mae (with permission) and embraces Molly for a final time. But these questions make you wish for a sequel where Oda Mae and her numerous new ghost clients explore exactly what the rules of this universe are. 

Why does Oda Mae initially want nothing to do with Sam?

Look, no one is saying it wouldn't be unsettling to start hearing ghosts. Most people would and should be downright terrified. But Sam happens upon the shop of Oda Mae Brown, who specifically has been  pretending to commune with the dead for her entire life. Shouldn't she have some questions? Yet Oda Mae spends the first few scenes with Sam (who proceeds to hector her) imploring him to go away, and begs off of visiting Molly when she's gotten the basic message across. Eventually she comes around to helping Sam again, although a lot of that might have to do with her own life now being in danger.

Upon a re-watch, it's clear that her reluctance is sort of necessary to keep the movie from being over too soon. She tells Molly just enough details that only Sam could know how to get in the apartment, and then leaves before she's there long enough to really relay enough messages that Molly's sure of what's happening. Her criminal background and reluctance to get involved help Molly doubt the truth until the last act of the film. In retrospect, it's hard not to wonder why her professional and entrepreneurial sides don't give her more natural curiosity about hearing an  actual ghost . Luckily for Oda Mae, apparently word gets around quickly in the New York City ghost scene, as she's inundated with spirits not long after Sam shows up.  

Molly should have just not mentioned ghosts to the police

When you re-examine the plot of "Ghost" more than once, it's easy to imagine yourself in each character's situation and think about what you'd do differently. And while it doesn't feel great to second-guess the decisions of Molly in the midst of deep grief, it really seems like she should have known the police wouldn't be convinced that life exists after death in one sitting. A very skeptical police sergeant (played by a young Stephen Root !) patiently shows her Oda Mae's long criminal history, and then dismisses the information out of hand. We the audience watch helplessly as the police ignore being told the killer's name and address.

But given the gravity of, you know, the sudden and confirmed existence of the afterlife, it's not the most surprising result. If Molly believed that it was real information, maybe it would have been better to send an anonymous tip? Or, as a witness to the crime, she could have claimed to spot Willie Lopez on the crowded streets of New York City and merely followed him to his address.

How do ghosts' clothes work?

Here is a minor but persistent quirk of ghosts in "Ghost" that becomes a nagging question on re-watching: What's up with ghost clothes? As a rule, it seems, you're stuck in the outfit that you died in for your entire ghost-hood. Sam sports the '80s-puffy, maroon dress shirt he wore to that fateful performance of "Macbeth" for the rest of the film. But technically, in the very last moments of his life, that shirt would have sported a distinctive bullet hole, which fails to make the jump to the afterlife.

The same goes, eventually, for any scrapes and scuffs Willie Lopez gets when he gets hit by multiple cars, and the white dress shirt that Carl totally ruins by getting impaled on a giant shard of glass. One has to wonder what that means for piercings or tattoos? Ghosts may have to linger and deal with their unfinished business, but at least in "Ghost" they never have to go to the dry cleaner.

The Hell demons are hilariously low-fi

Despite its subject matter, "Ghost" has hardly any elements of horror — it's largely a thriller with supernatural elements. But when the bad guys, first hired hitman Willie Lopez and then back-stabbing friend Carl Bruner, both die during the movie, we're treated to a sequence where dark, howling demon creatures drag both of their spirits into the shadows, presumably to the "Ghost" version of Hell. Unfortunately these demons are unintentionally the funniest part of "Ghost" by a mile when you watch them closely.

When they come for Willie, the scene is dimly lit and somewhat spooky, despite the "ooooohs" from the demons sounding like a collage of outtakes from "Scooby-Doo." But when Carl's dragged away at the end of the film, their hands have a visibly hand-drawn look to them, which, when combined with the cartoonish voices, produces a distinctly silly effect. It's almost as if they forgot to animate these sequences, had no CGI budget, and got some elementary school kids to do it frame-by-frame at the last minute.

What will Molly and Oda Mae say to the police?

"Ghost" ends as happily as it can, with the bad guys dead, and Molly and Sam given one last chance to say goodbye. But after the iconic line about taking the love with you and the deep, meaningful looks, there are still a lot of questions to be answered. Specifically, the police are on their way to find Molly, Oda Mae, and the dead body of Carl, who's managed to " Final Destination " himself and get impaled on a huge fallen piece of broken window. Based on Molly coming into the see the police earlier (when they also pulled Oda Mae's file), it might be hard to answer their questions.

And if the police don't end up charging them with manslaughter, they might be in danger from the drug dealers that Sam essentially stole $4 million from. They'd likely suspect Carl of stealing it, and then probably have questions for Molly regarding his death in her apartment. Or if they have another person inside the bank, they might be able to trace Oda Mae to withdrawing their funds under a false name.  At the end of "Ghost," Sam moves on as the unfinished business of making sure Molly is safe has been achieved, but upon reflection, there's a lot more loose ends than you'd think he'd be comfortable with.

Ghost Movies That'll Convince You to Invest In a Night Light

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33 Best Ghost Movies That Seriously Deliver on the Thrills

Have the Ghostbusters on speed-dial.

Scroll through for some of the most unnerving supernatural films and thrillers on Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu and beyond. Catch up on the original Candyman before Nia DaCosta's highly anticipated remake arrives to terrify you, or bask in a slow-burn like The Others . Recent movies like Netflix's His House mix social issues with ghost stories. But, of course, the most haunting ghost movies of all are the ones supposedly based on true stories, like the classic paranormal movie Poltergeist . And, if you prefer your frights a little more PG, we have great movies for kids starring "nice" ghosts, like Casper, and some comedies for you, too.

The Changeling

A haunted house tale from the ‘80s, The Changeling doesn’t feel like it’s from the ‘80s. Sure, there is no high definition or modern A-list cast, but the film’s suspense transcends the decades and remains one of the spookiest specter films ever made. It’s about a composer who hunkers down in a sprawling rental to grieve the sudden loss of his wife and daughter. And—you guessed it—he’s not alone.

A Tale of Two Sisters

Not even a viewing in broad daylight can save you from the terror the film’s helmer, Jee-woon Kim, has in store. About a pair of siblings who are tormented by a long-haired shadow figure, A Tale of Two Sisters is a chilling Korean folk tale with tonal shifts and jumps scares so jarring you may just rethink the dark corners of your household. Should you prefer the American version, The Uninvited , starring Emily Brown and Arielle Kebbel, is based on the Korean original.

Under the Shadow

Under the Shadow is a brilliant film that came and went in 2016 with hardly a whisper. A critical and festival hit, British-Iranian filmmaker Babak Anvari’s supernatural thriller arms itself with traditional genre scares but also a social subtext that depicts war-torn Tehran in the 1980s. Narges Rashidi stars as Shideh, a mother dodging evil from all directions: missiles, enforcers, and a possibly malevolent spirit.

The Devil’s Backbone

You’ve probably seen The Shape of Water . And you may have heard of Pan’s Labyrinth . But before monster maestro Guillermo del Toro’s elevated fantasies grabbed the attention of the Academy Awards, he wrote and directed an incredible, mournful Spanish-language ghost tale set during the Spanish Civil War. At its backbone: a dead little boy named Santi who wanders a war-torn orphanage.

Candyman is a terrifying movie wrapped up in the United States's own gruesome history. Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) is researching urban legends, and there's none more potent than the serial killer Candyman, whose origin story has roots in slavery and racial injustice. Tony Todd plays an unforgettable villain who is set on repeating that which was done to him. Catch up on the original before watching Nia DaCosta's Candyman remake, out this year.

The Sixth Sense

Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment explore each other’s psyches in M. Night Shyamalan’s genre-blending film about an eight year old who sees dead people and the sullen child psychologist trying to help him understand why. A permanent fixture in pop culture, the film not only received six Oscar nominations, but it remains as one of the greatest twist-ending films of all time.

The Conjuring

Based on the actual paranormal investigations of real-life ghostbusters Ed and Lorraine Warren , The Conjuring is the first installment in The Conjuring Universe and also marks the introduction to that nefarious pigtailed doll over there. It stars Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as the famed occult inspectors, as they head to a Rhode Island farmhouse to help the Perron family rid their home of evil spirits.

Based on the Japanese horror original, Ringu , filmmaker Gore Verbinski’s psychological nightmare stars Naomi Watts as a reporter investigating a string of teen murders. On the surface, sure, it’s a movie about a videotape that kills those who watch it. In seven days. As we all know. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find it’s a truly unsettling odyssey through all the ways a mother’s love—and hate—can affect a child.

Ouija: Origina of Evil

An origin story to the 2014 film Ouija , Mike Flanagan’s prequel is a sneaky-good movie that stands on its own. Set in late-1960s Los Angeles, Ouija: Origin of Evil spies on a widowed mother (Elizabeth Reaser) who runs a faux séance business with her young daughters, and their latest stunt—conjuring spirits with the help of an occult lettered board—proves to be a B-I-G mistake.

Nicole Kidman carries this period ghost thriller about a family who are haunted by the uninvited on her perfectly postured shoulders. She plays Grace, a manic mother of two who may or may not be going mad. Its narrative can be nicked for being unoriginal, as it definitely borrows thrills from 1961’s The Innocents . But the directors’ atmospheric touches and Kidman’s spiraling performance set this one at the top of the genre heap.

Adapted from a Stephen King short story, 1408 , is an absorbing thriller starring a fantastic John Cusack as a paranormal cynic who makes a living debunking ghost stories and hauntings. His latest gig: proving the Dolphin Hotel is merely a place to rest one’s head and not the infamous hotbed for paranormal activity its reputation says it is. We’re sure you can guess how things work out for our non-believing protagonist.

Looking for a family-friendly ghost movie? Casper was designed for watching after a long trick-or-treating session. As the daughter of a "ghost therapist," someone who communes with spirits for a living, Kathleen 'Kat' Harvey (Christina Ricci) is used to things that go bump in the night. But she'd never had a ghostly friend—before Casper, that is.

The Shining

All work and no play gives Jack Torrance a crazy case of cabin fever. A Stanley Kubrick classic that tops every critic’s best-of horror list, The Shining is the story of one man’s methodical descent into madness as he and his family care for a secluded mountain resort that’s crawling with horrific and wrathful ghosts. If you’re looking to make it a double feature, queue up Room 237 , a conspiracy theorist’s dream documentary that analyzes each dark corner and blood-soaked hallway of the Overlook.

Fans of the Netflix spine-tingler The Haunting of Hill House will understand the kind of mental workout it takes to endure a Mike Flanagan production. They will also know just how rewarding the psychological marathon can be. In Oculus , one of Flanagan’s earlier projects, a sister attempts to clear her brother of murder by proving the crime was done by a phenomenon that comes in evil mirror form. We know, but just go with it; trust us, this effective bare-bones film is one you’ll want to reflect on (sorry).

So Patrick Swayze as the ghost of Sam Wheat isn’t really all that scary. But the way he was killed is. After date night, Sam and girlfriend Molly, played by Demi Moore , brave the New York City streets on foot, only to be met with the short barrel of a mugger’s pistol. It’s a film that cleaned up during the 1991 awards season , winning two Oscars—one of which went to Whoopi Goldberg as Oda Mae Brown, the psychic Sam enlists to help solve his own murder.

The Innocents

There are some pretty creepy things going down in this black-and-white haunted house film based on the Henry James 1898 Gothic ghost novella, The Turning of the Screw . Deborah Kerr takes the lead as Miss Giddens, a governess who slowly begins to believe the country estate where the children live is haunted by a pair of evil spirits: the former valet and the woman he seduced.

Beetlejuice

Tim Burton’s stylized cult classic from 1988 mixes comedy, fantasy, and the afterlife to achieve the perfect gateway film to the horror genre: It’s not too scary, but it still brings the thrills. Michael Keaton stars as the title “bio-exorcist” who’s hired by a ghost couple to remove a family from their home. And you can bet that by the time Halloween creeps into town, we'll have watched this movie more times than it takes to summon its title character.

One disembodied groan and we’re bolting. Which is exactly what the Lambert family should be doing. Alas, Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson who play Mom and Dad stick with their new mortgage while also trying to keep their young comatose son away from the clutches of the evil spirits inhabiting another dimension called The Further. Don’t underestimate the unnerving power of super-scary makeup and a wicked wig, in this film directed by Saw creator James Wan.

What Lies Beneath

Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford play a seemingly happy couple who live in a massive lakeside dream house in Vermont that’s haunted not only by the spirit of a former college student, but also by the sins of their past. An easy watch from the start, Robert Zemeckis’s slow-burning ode to Hitchcock conjures references to several of the master of suspense’s classics including Rear Window , Psycho , and Spellbound .

Tales of grief often lend themselves to the horror genre. You have Hereditary , a contemporary take on possession, as well as The Changeling , Don’t Look Now , and others on this very list. But Lake Mungo , which indeed uses the aftermath of tragedy as its springboard into terror, is different. Executed as a pseudo-documentary, this Australian fright film plays out over interviews with a family who are mourning the death of their 16-year-old daughter while also fearing the presence that has now taken up residence in her room. Um, chills.

DeAnna Janes is a freelance writer and editor for a number of sites, including Harper’s BAZAAR, Tasting Table, Fast Company and Brit + Co, and is a passionate supporter of animal causes, copy savant, movie dork and reckless connoisseur of all holidays. A native Texan living in NYC since 2005, Janes has a degree in journalism from Texas A&M and  got her start in media at US Weekly before moving on to O Magazine, and eventually becoming the entertainment editor of the once-loved, now-shuttered DailyCandy. She’s based on the Upper West Side.

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50 Best Ghost Movies Ever Made

From spine-chilling horror flicks to classic comedies, our ultimate list of ghost films has something for everyone.

Whether you're looking for something scary, funny — or yes — even romantic, our ultimate list of the top ghost movies has something for everyone. There are, of course, plenty of classic horror movies and bone-chilling psychological thrillers that will keep you up all night (and even get you in the spirit for Halloween !). But for those who can't handle their horror, there are also some lighter picks that feature poltergeists and phantoms — like comedy movies , supernatural dramas and even kid-friendly scary movies that keep the frights a little more PG. The good news is: Whichever ghost flick you pick, you'll be in for a truly great watch featuring all the best specters and spirits around.

The Shining (1980)

Often considered one of the greatest horror films of all time, Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's novel — about an aspiring writer named Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) who becomes the caretaker at an isolated hotel — delivers on all the psychological horror and ghostly terror.

RELATED: 20 Fascinating Facts About The Shining We Bet You Didn't Know

A Ghost Story (2017)

For those looking for a more offbeat, unconventional ghost tale, this acclaimed A24 film centers around a recently deceased man who returns as a ghost (yes, white sheet and all) to the house he shares with his widowed wife. It's a poignant film about loss, grief and time that you won't forget.

WATCH ON AMAZON

Poltergeist (1982)

Strange occurrences start to happen to a young family living in a California suburban home, as 5-year-old Carol Anne begins to communicate with ghosts through a television set. Be prepared for plenty of unnerving suspense from this Steven Spielberg horror-thriller.

WATCH ON HBO MAX

The Conjuring (2013)

What's more terrifying than a ghost story inspired by true events? Based on a real-life paranormal investigation, The Conjuring will certainly give you chills with a story about a family who moves into a secluded old farmhouse — only to discover it's haunted.

WATCH ON HBOMAX

RELATED: How to Watch The Conjuring Series in Order for the Scariest Movie Marathon Ever

Ghost (1990)

Because who doesn't love a ghost romance? If you haven't yet watched this '90s movie about the ghost of a murdered banker who teams up with a psychic to save his lover, you've probably at least seen that iconic scene with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore cozying up at the pottery wheel.

Ghostbusters (1984)

We couldn't forget a true classic! This iconic supernatural comedy about parapsychologists who start a ghost-hunting business in New York City started a huge franchise for a reason.

RELATED: 50 Movies From the '80s That You Totally Forgot About

Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)

Of course, after watching the original Ghostbusters, you'll also have to watch the 2016 reboot — a hilarious take on the classic — starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones as New York City's four ghost-hunters.

The Devil's Backbone (2001)

If you liked The Shape of Water and Pan's Labyrinth , try director Guillermo del Toro's gothic horror masterpiece from 2001. Set during the Spanish Civil War, this mournful Spanish-language film follows a boy who uncovers the secrets of a haunted orphanage.

WATCH ON APPLE TV

A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)

This acclaimed Korean film blends psychological thriller, drama and horror into one truly gripping, eerie story about two sisters who return from a mental hospital to their country home, where strange incidents begin to occur.

RELATED: The 22 Best Korean Movies to Add to Your Watchlist

The Sixth Sense (1999)

Considered one of M. Night Shyamalan's greatest works (it even earned a Best Picture nomination, a rare occurrence for a horror film!), The Sixth Sense is a chilling thriller about a child psychologist (Bruce Willis) who discovers a young boy's dark secret: He can talk to the dead.

Beetlejuice (1988)

If you're looking for something more light-hearted, you can't go wrong with this '80s cult classic from Tim Burton. Centering around two ghosts who haunt their former home, Beetlejuice will definitely play up both the laughs and the scares.

RELATED: 60 Best Halloween Movies, From Old Classics to New Cult Favorites

Candyman (1992)

A horror film that also examines issues of race and social class, Candyman follows a Chicago graduate student researching the urban legend of a murderous ghost summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror. Plus, if you enjoy this one, you can also watch the 2021 sequel by Jordan Peele afterward.

Personal Shopper (2016)

If you're looking for a haunting ghost story that perfectly mixes horror with drama, try this critically acclaimed thriller which stars Kristen Stewart as a personal shopper in Paris who tries to communicate with her dead brother and starts to receive mysterious messages from an unknown source.

The Haunting (1963)

Craving an old classic? You'll love this 1963 horror film based on Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House , which follows a group of guests participating in a paranormal study in a haunted mansion.

RELATED: 20 Classic Movies on Netflix That'll Make You Feel Extra Nostalgic

Coco (2017)

Sure, it may not be what you immediately think of when you hear "ghost movie," but this popular Pixar movie does center around a boy who finds himself transported to the Land of the Dead, where he meets the spirits of his ancestors. Who says ghost stories can't be cute and heartwarming?

WATCH ON DISNEY+

The Changeling (1980)

In this terrifying psychological horror flick that's often considered one of the best horror films of all time, a composer who recently lost his wife and daughter to a tragic accident retires to a secluded mansion only to experience supernatural occurrences.

Paranormal Activity (2007)

Known for its found-footage horror scenes, the first of the Paranormal Activity franchise follows a couple who moves into a suburban home and sets up video cameras in the house after becoming disturbed by what appears to be a supernatural presence.

Field of Dreams (1989)

Ghosts and baseball, who knew? This Academy Award-nominated sports fantasy drama film is not your typical ghost story — it's about a farmer (Kevin Costner) who becomes convinced by a mysterious voice to build a baseball field, which attracts the ghosts of baseball legends.

The Others (2001)

Nicole Kidman stars in this gothic supernatural film set in the 1940s about a mother who moves with her two children to the English coast during World War II. She begins to suspect their secluded mansion is being occupied by mysterious “others."

The Frighteners (1996)

Be prepared for both laughs and scares in this supernatural comedy horror flick from director Peter Jackson, best known for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, that follows an architect (Michael J. Fox) with the ability to communicate with ghosts after his wife's death.

Hannah Jeon is an Associate Commerce Editor at Prevention, where she covers expert-driven commerce content for all things health, beauty, and wellness. Previously the Editorial Assistant at Good Housekeeping, she earned her bachelor’s degree in creative writing and psychology from Johns Hopkins University. When she’s not on the hunt for all the best products online, you can often find her trying out new food spots in New York City or clicking away behind a camera.

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How Ghost ’s Famous Pottery Scene Bumped an Actual Sex Scene from the Movie

By Margaret Heidenry

Back on July 13, 1990, just like today, the multiplexes were thick with sequels and action flicks. That day, Ghost , starring Patrick Swayze as Sam Wheat, a murdered banker who haunts lower Manhattan to protect his lover Molly Jensen, played by Demi Moore, began its ascent to surprise summer blockbuster. The two-hour supernatural romance, produced on a $22 million budget, grossed more than half a billion worldwide and dramatically out-performed both Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall ($261,317,921) and Bruce Willis’s Die Hard 2: Die Harder ($240,031,094). The sleeper hit even toppled the year’s box-office darling, Pretty Woman , by almost $50 million as it launched key players into Hollywood’s stratosphere.

An ethereal Moore—in addition to besting her then-husband Willis—soon became the highest-paid actress. Swayze, fresh off Dirty Dancing , further cemented his status as a go-to leading man. The movie’s five Academy Award nominations, including for best picture, netted two Oscars. Whoopi Goldberg’s best-supporting-actress win for her tart portrayal of con-artist psychic Oda Mae Brown ended a 50-year drought for African-American women in the category. (Hattie McDaniel had won for 1939’s Gone with the Wind .) Presenter Jodie Foster gave the film’s second statuette to Bruce Joel Rubin, Ghost ’s screenwriter, who defeated Woody Allen ( Alice ).

When the Los Angeles Times featured photos from the ceremony “there was Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, and my right arm,” says Rubin, whose other credits include Jacob’s Ladder and The Time Traveler’s Wife . “That’s what it is to be a writer in Hollywood.” We asked Rubin to share memories of making the beloved film to mark its silver anniversary.

How turning on, tuning in, and dropping out led to Tinseltown success.

Ghost ’s journey from idea to screen began in 1965 with “an LSD trip,” says Rubin. A roommate—who knew counter-culture guru Timothy Leary—gave Rubin a tablet of LSD that he secreted away and waited “for the right time to take.” When that moment finally arrived, “nothing happened.” This being the 60s, a visitor had just stowed a vial of pure Sandoz acid in Rubin’s refrigerator. “My roommate went to give me one drop,” says Rubin. “He went, ‘Whoops!’ The entire eyedropper went shooting down my throat and I began a journey that has never ended.” Rubin realized he wanted to tell an “entertaining and not pontifical” story from a ghost’s point of view. Two years of pitching around Hollywood culminated in one trippy week that saw five studios vying for the idea.

The CAMERA MOVES IN and for the first time we see them. MOLLY JENSEN, in her late 20’s, has a bandanna around her hair and a workman’s mask over her nose, but we can tell from her eyes and cheekbones that she is beautiful. SAM WHEAT, in his late 30’s, is also hidden behind a mask, but he has a strong forehead and handsome features. — Ghost screenplay

Demi’s pixie haircut and snagging Swayze.

After the project landed at Paramount, studio executive Lindsay Doran called Rubin to say she had found a director. “My heart was beating through my chest and I’m thinking, Spielberg, Scorsese, then she said, ‘ Jerry Zucker. ’” At the time, Zucker was known for wacky comedies like the cult hit Airplane! . “I thought [he] was probably the worst choice.” Still, Rubin agreed to a dinner where “a great friendship formed. [Zucker’s] one of the most extraordinarily wonderful people around.” A year of collaborating on somewhat painful re-writes of re-writes yielded a script that was “crisper.”

Next came the “delicious” casting process. “Demi was on the radar immediately. And she wanted to do it, which was wonderful,” says Rubin, who calls her “ballsy.” Moore was hired “as a long-haired actress,” but showed up on the first day of shooting with “a short haircut, which is kind of an in-your-face choice,” Rubin recalls. “It announced to us that she had her own ideas about who her character was.” In addition to Moore’s “stunning haircut,” Rubin praises the actress’s “depth of emotionality. She can literally produce tears from one eye or the other.”

For the part of Sam, the filmmakers “went to every major actor in Hollywood who was hot at the time.” So who turned the part down? “Everybody. Harrison Ford said, ‘I read this thing three times and I still don’t get it.’ Michael J. Fox, Paul Hogan, on and on, we kept getting turned down.” Rubin believes the actors “didn’t want to play dead men . . . they all saw it as a loss of vitality.” Zucker had faith the film would land somebody better after each pass but “finally there wasn’t anybody. . . . When Patrick said yes, he basically saved the movie.”

By Tara Ariano

By Chris Murphy

INT. MOLLY'S STUDIO — NIGHT Molly, dressed only in a T-shirt, is sitting at her potter’s wheel throwing a series of pots. Sam enters the studio. He is barefoot, shirtless, wearing jeans. — Ghost screenplay

Somewhere in the Paramount vault is an unseen Swayze-Moore sex scene.

Rubin’s wife is a potter, and it was Zucker’s idea to make Moore’s character one, too. The equal-parts hot and artsy scene between Moore and Swayze—where his hands envelop hers in wet clay as she spins a phallic pot between her legs—has become iconic in the annals of celluloid romance. Initially, though, the scene’s carnal nature “was not something that we were prepared for. In fact, we shot a lovemaking scene.” Yet as everyone watched the pottery-scene dailies—the screening of footage shot the previous day—“we just kind of looked at each other and started to understand that what we had was really amazing. The pottery scene proved to be so erotic that we didn’t need anything else.” And while the statistics on a presumed spike in pottery wheels is unknown, the song that accompanies the scene, 1965’s Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers, quickly reappeared on the Billboard charts.

The beginning of a beautiful GIF.

Zucker asked Rubin to create “a Casablanca line” and the two came up with Swayze’s final dialogue: “The love inside, you take it with you.” Yet the oft-quoted dialogue that has become an Internet GIF sensation occurs when Goldberg, acting as the medium between Swayze and Moore, warns, “Molly, you in danger, girl.” (Sam’s murderer, Carl Bruner, played by Tony Goldwyn, poses the danger in question.) Though Rubin cannot recall the remark’s exact providence, he guesses “it was Whoopi because she is unbelievably funny.” The TV smash Scandal , currently starring Goldwyn, appropriated the line for a tongue-in-cheek episode title .

Ghost also haunted the box office.

On opening weekend, 25 years ago, Zucker called Rubin and told him Ghost had “sold out everywhere.“ The movie continued to vie for the top slot at the box office through mid-September. ”And we were still playing in theaters six months later at Christmas,” Rubin says.

MOLLY I love you. I really love you. He smiles and strokes her cheek. SAM Ditto. — Ghost screenplay

Twenty-five years, a Japanese remake, and a Broadway musical later . . .

Rubin credits the secret of Ghost ’s success to the idea of a dead guy learning to say “I love you” to someone he failed to say it to when he was alive. “That you would fight back from the other side is a core wish of people. [The film] postulates a universe . . . where love goes on.” The writer says he used “a very simple line at the end” to convey this cosmic idea, one Moore says—as a tear wells in her right eye—after she and Swayze share a final kiss: ”See ya.“

Margaret Heidenry

By Savannah Walsh

By Jason Bailey

By Vanity Fair

By Rebecca Ford

By Julie Miller

By Richard Lawson

Staying in on Halloween? Here’s Everything You Need for a Spooky Night at Home

These are the best halloween essentials for a hauntingly good time in the comfort of your home..

We independently selected these deals and products because we love them, and we think you might like them at these prices. E! has affiliate relationships, so we may get a commission if you purchase something through our links. Items are sold by the retailer, not E!. Prices are accurate as of publish time .

With Halloween falling on a Tuesday this year, many of us will unfortunately (or fortunately for homebodies like us) be staying in on the spookiest night of the year. But that doesn't mean you can't have just as much fun as you would going out. For those who aren't going trick or treating this year with little ones, or must work the next day, a cozy night with friends and family (or on your lonesome) can be just as thrilling and spooktacular when you know how to set the right atmosphere and have the perfect Halloween essentials in place. We're talking an infinite number of sweets , light-hearted and gory movies, cozy blankets , Halloween decorations , and more.

So, if you're staying home on Halloween this year, we've got what you need to ring in the spooky season below. From magical floating candles to cozy blankets , these are the best Halloween essentials for a spine-chilling night-in that will haunt you forever.

Big Blanket Co Hideout Hoodie

If it's just you this Halloween, who needs a blanket when you have the Hideout Hoodie ? Not only does it have incredibly soft sherpa lining, it also has other spooktacular features such as a built-in eye mask, a zipper front pouch, and cuffed sleeves with thumb holes. What's not to like?

Reese’s Halloween Peanut Butter Pumpkin Cups

Halloween just wouldn't be the same without chocolate and candy—it's practically a sin not to have any! So, be sure to pick up your favorite spooky treats this year and indulge on the spookiest night of the year. Ours are the pumpkin-shaped Reese's … need we say more?

Operation Disney The Nightmare Before Christmas Board Game

Board games are another way to have fun right in the comfort of your own home, and we're definitely buying this spooky twist on the classic game: Operation . Featuring The Nightmare Before Christmas characters, operate on Oogie Boogie and free him from his plaguing Funatomy. Just don't let your trust tweezers touch the edges of his burlap sack or you'll set him off!

Leejec Floating Candles with Magic Wand Remote

Create a spooky ambiance with these floating candles , which are inspired by the decor in the great hall scenes from Harry Potter . They're easy to hang, and even come with a magic wand remote that controls them.

Halloween Kills Vinyl Record

Play the infamous Halloween Kills soundtrack on the spookiest night of the year to create even more of an eerie vibe. It's available on CD and Vinyl.

Big Blanket Co Original Stretch™ Extra Large Blanket

If you're hosting friends and family this Halloween, be sure to have this giant 100-square-foot blanket for everyone to cuddle up with. It's nearly double the size of a standard king-sized blanket, and its polyester and spandex blend makes it four times softer than any throw you already own. If you're not a fan of black, there are also 13 other colors and designs available to pick from.

Gold Halloween Posable Skeleton - Hyde & EEK! Boutique

Halloween wouldn't be complete without skeletons, and we're in love with this 24-inch posable one featuring a gold finish from Target. Place it anywhere in your home for an extra creepy touch on the big day.

Clue Conspiracy Board Game

Get away with murder with the Clue Conspiracy Game ! Best for groups of 4-10 players, in this spooky twist of the classic Clue board game play as Clue characters and take on secret roles on opposing teams: Friends vs. the Conspiracy. Friends try to keep Mr. Coral alive, while Conspiracy members secretly try to set up his murder.

Coffin Letter Board Black With Spooky Emojis

Set up this coffin letter board in any room to add a little Halloween magic. You can bet we'll be writing "Ghouls just wanna have fun" on ours!

Pottery Barn Gus the Ghost Pillow

Now you can literally chill with your boo this Halloween by having Gus the Ghost sitting right by your side on the couch. This friendly ghost may be pricey, but it'll endure countless cuddles and screams for Halloweens to come.

Dressing up for Halloween? Check out these Halloween-inspired outfits that are just as spooky and stylish as costumes . 

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20 Things You Didn't Know About 'Ghost', 32 Years Later

The Demi Moore romance-thriller first hit theaters 32 years ago this week

On paper, Ghost sounds like it should have been a niche movie. But combining the romance, thriller, ghost story and comedy genres into a single film turned out to be a formula for success when the film hit theaters 32 years ago on July 13, 1990.

The surprise summer hit raised the profiles of stars Demi Moore , Patrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg and had fans across the country humming “Unchained Melody.” (It could not be determined if the film also caused an uptick in enrollment in pottery classes, but would it surprise you if it did?)

In honor of the film’s silver anniversary, we’ve found 20 things you may not know about the classic hit – and that might make you love it even more.

(NSFW warning: Some of the scenes from the film feature language and violence.)

1. It was the highest-grossing film of 1990.

Worldwide, the film raked in a whopping $505.7 million, beating even that other 1990 hit, Home Alone, which made $476.6 million. Apparently, love can conquer not only death but also slapstick action comedies about little kids brutalizing burglars.

2. Moore wasn’t sure it would be a hit.

Speaking at a 2013 American Film Institute event honoring the film, Moore said she loved the script but wasn’t sure audiences would respond to it. “It’s a love story, and it’s a guy – a dead guy – trying to save his wife, and there is a comedy part, but really, really it’s a love story, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is really a recipe for disaster … It’s either going to be something really special, really amazing, or really an absolute bust.’ ”

3. Swayze called the pottery scene "the sweetest, sexiest love scene that I’ve ever been involved with."

Why? In this interview , he explained that it wasn’t about physical love as much as it was a deep personal connection. “We were very passionate about not having the love scene be about sucking face and jumping each other’s bones, but the connection between two human beings,” he explained.

4. Filming certain scenes gave Swayze flashbacks to the grief he felt over his father’s death eight years earlier.

Speaking to PEOPLE in 1990, Swayze said that seeing the plaster dummy representing his character’s body took him back to his father’s funeral, when he almost passed out from the shock of touching his father’s body as it lay in its coffin. “I had pushed that memory out of my life until that moment on location when it all came back, big time,” he said. “There were a few scenes where something happened to me that was very scary.”

5. Ghost revitalized Swayze’s career.

The downside of the success of Dirty Dancing was that Swayze had found himself typecast. That changed after Ghost , but director Jerry Zucker told PEOPLE that his roles in films such as Roadhouse made him reluctant to even consider Swayze as the male lead. However, Swayze’s reading of the film’s farewell scene changed Zucker’s mind. “We all had tears in our eyes, right there in the office – and we knew how it ends,” Zucker said. “I saw a side of Patrick that I never knew existed.”

6. Bruce Willis turned down the opportunity to play opposite his wife.

Calling himself a “knucklehead” for saying no, Willis told New York Times reporter David Sheff in 1996 that he didn’t think Ghost would work. “I just didn’t get it. I said, ‘Hey, the guy’s dead. How are you gonna have a romance?’ Famous last words.” He later played a thematically similar role in The Sixth Sense .

7. Whoopi Goldberg was initially told she wasn’t right for the part of Oda Mae.

In a 1990 Associated Press interview , Goldberg said she loved the part, but when she expressed interest in playing the psychic Oda Mae, she was told the producers wanted an unknown for the role. Six months later, producers circled back to her and offered her the role.

8. In 1990, Goldberg’s Best Supporting Actress win was an Oscars first.

Goldberg had previously been nominated in 1986 for Best Actress for her role in The Color Purple . She didn’t win, but she did become the first Black actress nominated for both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories. It also marked her first win toward her EGOT, which she completed in 2002 with her Tony Award for Thoroughly Modern Millie.

9. It’s one of the few supernatural-themed films nominated for Best Picture.

Traditionally, movies about ghosts and the like don’t get Oscar noms. Ghost is an exception, however, even if it lost to Dances with Wolves . Just one year earlier, there was another outlier: the fantasy baseball movie Field of Dreams . Other spooky movies nominated for Best Picture include The Exorcist and The Sixth Sense .

10. Tony Goldwyn got some hate for his role as the film’s villain.

The actor recalled to the A.V. Club in 2014 that his role as the conniving, murderous Carl prompted a waitress to refuse to serve him. He couldn’t figure out why she was shooting him death stares until she finally asked him if he was an actor. “She said, “I’m so sorry! I knew I hated you, but I didn’t know where from, and because I couldn’t place who you were,’ ” Goldwyn said.

11. There’s a surprising reason the film’s love theme is titled "Unchained Melody."

Have you ever wondered why the song is called “Unchained Melody”? It was actually written for the 1955 prison film Unchained . In that film, it’s sung by an inmate. That’s why the lyrics note how hard it is to wait for so long – because the narrator is serving time.

12. And 35 years before Ghost , "Unchained Melody" was nominated for Best Original Song.

However, it lost to “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing,” from the movie by the same name. But decades later, guess which one is considered one of the most moving love ballads of all time?

13. The Righteous Brothers’ cover of "Unchained Melody" didn’t come along until 10 years after the fact.

The song has been covered countless times, and the version used in Ghost , by the Righteous Brothers, is probably the best-known. However, their version only came about in 1965, a decade after the movie Unchained , and even then it was only a B-side to a different song.

14. But the success of Ghost made the song a hit again, three decades later.

Following the movie’s release, the song went to No. 1 in Australia and as high as No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100.

15. There was a stage adaptation of Ghost .

It kicked off in England in 2011 and hit Broadway in 2012. And yes, it features “Unchained Melody,” in addition to many new numbers.

16. There may yet be Ghost: The Series .

There hasn’t been much buzz about it lately, but in 2013 it was announced that Paramount was looking to adapt Ghost into a TV series . Hey, it’s better than Ghost Dad: The Series .

17. There was also a gender-flipped Japanese remake.

Released in 2010, Ghost: In Your Arms Again has the wife going all Casper and attempting to reunite with her husband from beyond. And yes, there’s a pottery scene.

18. A lot of other movies, TV shows and commercials have had pottery scenes too.

Leslie Nielsen and Priscilla Presley parodied the scene in the second Naked Gun movie – and in all honesty, it's probably how real-life re-creations of the scene probably turned out. But homages, parodies and callbacks have appeared in many works, perhaps most notably in 2014 in a scene starring Moore’s real-life ex, Ashton Kutcher .

19. There’s one bit of knowledge that will make those dark spirits even creepier.

In the film, the bad people go to a bad afterlife, and they’re taken there by creepy, inky shadow things. They’re scary enough to make anyone walk a more righteous path, but the ick factor increases when you know that the horrible noise they make is actually the noise of a baby crying – played slow and backwards, according to IMDb .

20. Ghost prompted Swayze to share some life lessons that seem all the more poignant since his passing.

Swayze died of pancreatic cancer in 2009 at age 57. Speaking to PEOPLE in 1990, Swayze shared what he felt was the message of the film, saying, “ Ghost was about living your life for the moment, because that’s all you’ve got … If you don’t communicate with the people you love, you set yourself up for incredible pain if you lose them.”

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Ranking the top 5 parodies of Ghost 's pottery wheel scene

Over the past two decades, it's been nearly impossible not to associate a pottery wheel with one of the sexiest scenes in cinematic history. Set to The Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody," Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze turned the once-innocent act of making ceramics into a steamy seduction in 1990's "Ghost." To celebrate the anniversary of Jerry Zucker's haunting love story, EW has compiled the top five pop culture parodies of the film's iconic pottery wheel scene.

To rank the spoofs, hit on the arrows on the left side of the video:

* What critics thought of 'Ghost' when it came out 25 years ago

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What song is playing in the famous pottery wheel scene in the movie Ghost?

The iconic love scene in Ghost is where Sam helps Molly on a potter's wheel and begins kissing her as " Unchained Melody " by The Righteous Brothers plays.

Unchained melody by the righteous brothers

"Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers

Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers

"Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers.

Add your answer:

What guitars are the Wonders playing in That Thing You Do?

In the first part of the movie (before they become famous), Jimmy is playing a Gibson Les Paul Junior and Lenny is playing a Silvertone Model 1457 (made by Danelectro).After they become famous Jimmy is playing a Rickenbacker 360 and Lenny is playing a Fender Jaguar. The bass player (who went to the army) is playing a Danelectro bass. And the wolfman (who replaces Ethan Embry) plays a Fender bass.Hope this helps. Frettin' Freddie

What movie did gene autry sing ghost riders in the sky?

Riders in the Sky (1949)

What movies was Justin bieber in before he was famous?

He was never in any movie before he was famous.

What elton john song figured in the movie almost famous?

Tina Dancer was the song figured that played in Almost Famous. This is a well known movie.

When did they stop playing the national anthem in movie theaters before the movie?

Who is the artist that created the pottery in movie ghost.

The artist that created the pottery used in the movie The Ghost name is Mark Bischoff. Mark created all of the pottery single handedly and chose to let it be displayed during the, very popular movie, The Ghost.

Was the famous pottery love scene of the movie Ghost before or after Sam dies?

It takes place after. It's not really a 'love' scene persay, more an 'erotic' one. Demi Moore's character is using a pottery wheel, and Patrick Swayze as a ghost guides her hands from behind. >> It actually takes part before Sam dies, at the begining of the movie. It's after he dies that he entered the Mediums body and we saw them kiss.

Which movie released in 1990 featured a touching pottery scene?

Ghost, starring Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg.

Will slenderman be made into a movie?

That is not a possiblity.

Are there any films that were set in 1980?

Star 8o also the famous movie Ghost busters

What famous Pixar movie has Hello Dolly playing in the moive?

What year was the movie ghost made.

The movie Ghost was released in 5 October 1990. Starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Tony Goldwyn, and Directed by the famous Jerry Zucker. it was also written by Bruce Joel Rubin.

What makes movie viewers scared?

Come on. When you watch Ghost movie or Adventure movie or Killing movie, you will fear a lot. Especially you watch Ghost video, you can not sleep alone. And will really scary. But please note that almost Ghost movies are not real. Almost ghost director are want to make people to scary, fear and afraid. After they made a very scary ghost movie, they get money from people. So they are happy and they make a ghost movie again and again.Do not worry about Ghost movie.

What was the giant ghost made of in the movie ghost busters?

Marshmallow

Who played the subway ghost in the movie ghost?

Vincent schiavelli

What will the 3rd ghost rider movie be about?

The 3rd ghost rider movie will be about the person who will act as Nicholas Cage

Who was the ghost dog?

ghost dog ws a movie and who play ghost dog is forest whitaker

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Channing Tatum plans to remake ‘Ghost’ and take on the Patrick Swayze role himself

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Channing Tatum’s production company owns the rights to the seductive 1990 romantic drama “Ghost” and is planning to remake it.

“We actually have the rights,” the “Magic Mike XXL” star-producer let slip in a Vanity Fair interview published Tuesday. The actor was being interviewed while throwing clay with the interviewer, as one does.

The “Bullet Train” actor and “Dog” star and director, 42, added that he could potentially play the late Patrick Swayze’s role in the supernatural thriller , which was written by Bruce Joel Rubin and directed by Jerry Zucker.

NAMES IN THE NEWS : Swayze Gives It Up in ‘Ghost’

Patrick Swayze says his new double-hanky tear-jerker “Ghost” was his heaviest role ever.

July 11, 1990

Swayze, who died in 2009 , played New York investment banker Sam Wheat, who is killed and returns as a ghost to solve his own murder. In his afterlife, he tries to more fully express his love for his girlfriend, played by Demi Moore, through a reluctant medium, played by Whoopi Goldberg in an Oscar-winning turn.

The summer release solidified Swayze as both an actor and a heartthrob and forever associated a sensual clay-throwing scene with the art of pottery. The runaway hit grossed nearly $218 million at the domestic box office and $288 million internationally, placing it among the highest-grossing films of 1990.

According to Vanity Fair, Tatum’s production company, Free Association, is trying to put together the remake and will make changes to move away from some problematic stereotypes associated with the original film. (In 2020, Goldberg suggested that racism and perhaps an unenthusiastic response to the film’s mixed-race cast prevented the classic film from yielding spin-offs and additional adaptations.)

MOVIE REVIEW : An Afterlife Love Story

In our increasingly fragile and unpredictable world, “Ghost”(citywide) might well strike a seductive chord: a lover from the afterlife hovering over his beloved to keep her from harm, trying to communicate the love he couldn’t express to her in life.

July 13, 1990

“[W]e’re going to do something different,” Tatum said, “I think it needs to change a little bit and have our…”

But the actor never finished his thought — because he was very distracted by the “very, very sexual” pottery he was making.

Representatives for Tatum and Free Association did not immediately respond Tuesday to The Times’ requests for comment.

The actor will be onscreen next in the Feb. 10 release “Magic Mike’s Last Dance,” re-teaming with “Magic Mike” director Steven Soderbergh for the last installment of the stripper saga that was based on Tatum’s early career as an exotic dancer. The film has also spawned a live show in Las Vegas and an HBO Max reality show.

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Nardine Saad covers breaking entertainment news, trending culture topics, celebrities and their kin for the Los Angeles Times. She joined The Times in 2010 as a MetPro trainee and has reported from homicide scenes, flooded canyons, red carpet premieres and award shows.

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'Ghost' turns 25: 5 reasons why the movie still gets to us

It's hard to believe it's been 25 years since Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze made movie magic (and pottery!) together in "Ghost." But it's true.

On July 13, 1990, the romantic drama made up of equal parts thriller and ghost story hit theaters and drew audiences into the tragic love story of Sam and Molly.

It also launched a cinematic love for viewers that still survives today. And it's easy to understand why!

1. The chemistry

Bringing a big-screen romance to life when the leading man dies early in the story seems like a nearly impossible task, and maybe it would have been with any other stars in the main roles. But Moore and Swayze made it work.

They established their chemistry from the first playful scenes of Sam and Molly setting up home in their SoHo loft, and they maintained it all the way to their final good-bye.

Of course, in between those moments, they also managed to deliver one of the most memorable love scenes in modern movies.

2. The music

When you think back on the film, there's one thing that stands out every bit as much as that glowy movie poster or the pottery wheel scene — it's the music.

Listening to the Righteous Brothers' version of "Unchained Melody" immediately puts any "Ghost" fan right back into the world of Sam and Molly.

3. The story

Sure, "Ghost" managed to mesh crime, action, death and afterlife with love, but that's not all the drama delivered.

One of the key elements that made all of those disparate angles work was comedy. In between swoons and tears, there were plenty of laughs, most of which came courtesy of co-star Whoopi Goldberg.

4. The lines

Goldberg didn't just bring her comedic timing along to the role of psychic Oda Mae Brown, she brought all the best lines.

From her rant after handing over $4 million to a couple of nuns:

"I don't want to go to heaven, I want to go to the bank and cash a goddamn check!"

... to the most quoted line from the whole film:

"Molly, you in danger, girl!"

Goldberg said it all — well, almost all.

Moore and Swayze got a couple of good "dittos" in, too.

5. The talent

The stars are what made the film great in 1990, and they're what make it great 25 years later.

Watching it now, Moore's portrayal of grief is still painful to witness. And Swayze's seemingly effortless charm in the film makes us feel the grief right along with her.

Of course, since the actor's death six years ago, there's an added aspect to that grief, as well as an added poignancy to the film's final scenes.

"The love inside, you take it with you!"

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