Ghosts may not really exist, but cinema and audience’s fascination with ghost stories is legendary. Ghost films have been around since the advent of cinema, but they are often regarded as guilty pleasures, and not quality cinema. That may be true to an extent, but there are some ghost films, which have transcended genres, and have garnered critical as well as commercial success. This edition, we list the best ghost films you must watch
The Sixth Sense is a benchmark film in so many ways. It signalled the arrival of Indian American director M Night Shyamalan, who was hailed as the next Steven Spielberg after the phenomenal success of the movie. The Sixth Sense is a psychological thriller film about a boy who insists he sees dead people and a psychologist who tries to help him. The movie has been unanimously praised for its tense atmosphere and iconic twist ending which is yet to be matched till today. Apart from being a major commercial success, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Shyamalan, Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor for Joel Osment, and Best Supporting Actress for Toni Collette.
The Shining is one of the greatest horror films ever made. Based on the bestselling Stephen King novel of the same name, the movie is about a family, which heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future. Apart from being a very effective horror movie, this film tackles many serious issues like alcoholism and depression, and viewers will learn something new every time they rewatch this film. The Shining has inspired countless tropes in ghost stories since its release in 1980, and remains one of the most revered horror movies of all time even today.
When it comes to Bollywood movies, there aren’t many, which aren’t inspired from Hollywood movies, or else are too over the top to be considered scary. Ram Gopal Varma’s Bhoot is an exception. Released in 2003, this film is about a stock analyst and his wife who are in search for a flat in Mumbai, and select one which is apparently haunted. What is unique about the movie is it’s modern urban setting, (one of the first in an Indian horror movie), having no songs in the movie, and its use of sound as a medium to scare, rather that the overused horror movie tropes. Bhoot went on to become a huge commercial hit, and Urmila Matondkar went on to receive several accolades for her performance. Bhoot still remains one of the few Indian horror films to receive critical praise along with commercial success, although by now the formula has been repeated countless times by other Bollywood horror films.
The Others is a movie about a woman who lives in a darkened old house with her two photosensitive children and who becomes convinced that her family home is haunted. Nicole Kidman, who plays the lead, turns in a marvellous performance, which led the film to be nominated for eight Goya awards and two BAFTA awards, a rarity for a horror movie. This movie is a testament that you don’t need expensive special effects or prosthetics to make a scary film. Sometimes excellent direction and acting is far more effective.
By Neeraj Varty
