Over 300 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of Underrated Ghost Story Movies That Make Us Want To Leave The Light On
Voting Rules
Vote up the ghost story movies that deserve more love.
Ghost movies often scare up big bucks at the box office, but even as films like The Conjuring and Paranormal Activity spawn sequels and “cinematic universes,” there have been plenty of ghost movies that are just as good that haven't necessarily gotten the attention they deserve.
Ghost stories have been with us for about as long as storytelling has existed, and ghostly movies date back to the earliest days of Hollywood. From black-and-white specters of the silver screen to the latest ghost flicks, below is a collection of some of the most underrated ghost movies ever to haunt our screens. Vote up the ghost movies that made you sleep with the lights on…
Guillermo del Toro produced and J.A. Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) directed this Spanish-language film about a woman who buys the orphanage where she grew up, with plans to reopen it as a home for children with disabilities. In the process, however, her young son goes missing, and it seems his disappearance might somehow be linked to the structure's ghostly history.
Rather than the jump scares that have become common in many 21st century ghost movies, The Orphanage relies on a creeping dread reminiscent of the supernatural horror films of the ‘70s, and builds to a tragic and heartrending conclusion. It doesn’t hurt that it features a creepy ghost kid in a sackcloth mask, either.
It goes without saying that Stephen King is a big name in horror, and over the years he's contributed some unforgettable ghost stories to the canon. While The Shining is probably the most famous ghost movie associated with King's name, it's far from the only one. Released in 2007 and adapted from the short story of the same name, 1408 retreads some of the elements that made The Shining a classic - especially the idea of a haunted hotel. Or, in this case, a single room.
When skeptical author Mike Enslin (John Cusack) agrees to spend the night in room 1408, he expects an uneventful night that he can parlay into a chapter in his next book. Instead, he finds himself trapped by the extraordinarily haunted room, which has reportedly claimed more than 50 lives. The film was a hit when it was first released, making more than five times its budget, but has since been somewhat forgotten amid a spate of newer Stephen King adaptations.
The first English-language movie to ever win Best Film at the Goyas, Spain's national film awards, this haunting picture by writer/director Alejandro Amenabar also nabbed a Golden Globe nomination for Nicole Kidman, who plays a grieving mother living with her two young children in a remote and spooky manor house in the immediate aftermath of the second World War.
The film enjoyed acclaim due to its subtle and suggestive nature, as well as a well-regarded twist ending that turns the tables of the ghost story plot up to that point, but in spite of box office success, it never quite won into the mainstream, in spite of a recent Criterion release that has helped to seal its position as an overlooked classic.
The first English-language movie to ever win Best Film at the Goyas, Spain's national film awards, this haunting picture by writer/director Alejandro Amenabar also nabbed a Golden Globe nomination for Nicole Kidman, who plays a grieving mother living with her two young children in a remote and spooky manor house in the immediate aftermath of the second World War.
The film enjoyed acclaim due to its subtle and suggestive nature, as well as a well-regarded twist ending that turns the tables of the ghost story plot up to that point, but in spite of box office success, it never quite won into the mainstream, in spite of a recent Criterion release that has helped to seal its position as an overlooked classic.
Based (extremely loosely) on mysterious events that allegedly took place in Denver's Cheesman Park neighborhood, The Changeling stars George C. Scott as a composer who rents a sprawling mansion after the tragic death of his wife and daughter. There, he becomes caught up in a ghostly mystery that may reach all the way to the highest seats of national power.
It's a bold and ambitious film that has become legendary for some of its set pieces - including an oft-homaged scene of a rubber ball bouncing down some stairs - even though the movie itself never attained the same mainstream success as some of its contemporaries.
These days, John Carpenter enjoys a well-deserved reputation as a master of horror. But that doesn't mean all of his films are as well-regarded (or well-remembered) as they ought to be. Among his early-career string of near-perfect masterpieces, The Fog often gets left out of the equation, thanks to its proximity to films like Halloween, The Thing, and Escape from New York, to name just a few.
That's a shame, though, as The Fog is both premium Carpenter and a pitch-perfect ghostly tale, with plenty of coastal charm. From an unforgettable opening as John Houseman tells the story that sets the tone of the film through the eerie goings-on throughout the sleepy town of Antonio Bay, The Fog forges an old-fashioned ghost story complete with a lighthouse and spectral mariners. What more could you ask for?
Guillermo del Toro's third film - and his second Spanish-language film - is set in an orphanage against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. The presence of the war looms large in the picture, in the form of a massive, unexploded bomb stuck in the dirt of the orphanage's courtyard, even while the film's plot is concerned with more banal acts of brutality and greed.
While one member of the orphanage's staff plots to steal gold that has been hidden there to help fight off Francisco Franco's forces, a ghostly figure seems to haunt the grounds - one that may be tied to a child who went missing on the night the bomb fell in the courtyard.
