Ghost story movies
A ghost story is an argument with the past. Something happened in this house, or to this person, and it has not finished happening. The threat is rarely physical: what a ghost mostly does is refuse to leave, and the horror is in working out why it cannot.
The form is older than cinema and arrived more or less intact. The Innocents filmed a stage adaptation of Henry James and left it open whether the figures the governess sees are in the house or in her, and The Haunting never shows a ghost at all, building its dread from sound, suggestion and a house whose angles are all very slightly off true.
Its biggest modern shift came from Japan. Ring and the run of films after it swapped the drafty manor for a videotape and an apartment, and traded the slow reveal for something that simply arrives. The Others and The Devil's Backbone came at it from the older direction within a few years of it, which makes the turn of the 2000s a dense stretch for the subgenre.
Notable ghost story movies
If you only ever watch a handful of these, make it these.
New ghost story movies
The house, the tape, the family that should have moved out already. The furniture changes and the shape does not.
Upcoming ghost story movies
A few ghost story movies on the way. Dates can still move, especially for the ones furthest down the schedule.
You can find these and every other ghost story movie in our database. And if you want to keep track of the ones you have seen and the ones you are saving for later, start a profile and log them as you go.