hauntings

The Shining Poster

So far, we looked at everything from the very first horror film to silent ghosts, haunted houses, flying skeletons and funky glasses in our voyage through cinema’s greatest ever ghosts. Now we come to the 1980s, a decade that saw horror movies boom and flourish like never before. With the birth of the slasher genre and the huge amount of zombie flicks churned out after Dawn Of The Dead and Zombie Flesh Eaters made their mark, horror was at its golden age! Blood, tits and lots and lots of face melting!

Easing us into the decade of shoulder pads, is another classic ghost film. Stanley Kubrick s unmistakable The Shining. We all know the story. We all love it. From the very first shot to the very last, this movie oozes a unique, eerie atmosphere. The flying shots following the vehical seem ominous and evil for instance.

Jack Nicholson turns in a different performance compared to his other films in The Shining. Here, he plays a crazy madman. Oh, wait, he plays a crazy madman in every film he’s in! Well, this one tops them all when it comes to Nicholson-craziness. It’s an 11, even on his scale of 10!

Stephen King, notoriously hated this adaptation. Whilst it’s true that the film isn’t particularly loyal to the books (some of the best movie adaptations aren’t!), it still appears on possibly every list of the top horror films of all time. King decided he could do a much better job at directing than the king of cinema, so set about making a TV movie of The Shining himself. It turned out to be a complete disaster.

Whether this is a ghost film is open for debate and left for you to decide. Maybe Jack simply is going insane. Or maybe this is one of the single greatest ghost movies of all time? Spooky twins to a sinister butler and an evil old lady ghost, if this doesn’t send you screaming, nothing will. And the least said about that dog/bear, the better!

For a modern masterclass of ghostly tension and haunted house horror, be sure to watch The Pact!

Break-out horror movie smash of the year that has been electrifying hardened genre fans and non-horror fans alike, “The Pact” combines the supernatural terrors of “Paranormal Activity” with the tense atmospherics of a serial killer thriller to create a unique, modern-day take on the classic ghost story.

And it’s out on October 1st! Pre-order yours here.

Previous Parts:

Original Theatrical Poster

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I present you the daddy of all Haunted House movies, The Amityville Horror. Released only a year after the Lutz family’s terrifying ordeal was re-told in Jay Anson’s book of the same name, the film has gone down in movie history as one of the most terrifying ghost films of all time.

Based upon the evil that gripped the Lutz’s in one of the most famous houses in the world, 112 Ocean Avenue, the film was an instant smash hit. Audiences went crazy for the unbelievably true tale, leading it to become one of the most successful independent films of its time. It earned a whopping $86 million on its release, in the USA alone! The film was such a success that, surprise-surprise, a flurry of rip-offs and cash-ins burst quickly followed, plaguing and saturating cinemas. Officially, the film gave birth to 10 sequels (to date), each worse than the previous.

The film was recently remade and proved to be another blockbusting success story. Although, the remake takes artistic license to a whole new level, the film is nevertheless a modern masterpiece of thrills.

Was the house really possessed by evil entities? Or was it just an elaborate hoax? Perhaps it’s best to leave this unanswered, as solving a mystery as big as The Amityville Horror’s would be a surefire way to destroy one of the most intriguing tales of ghostly phenomena of modern times.

For a modern masterclass of ghostly tension and haunted house horror, be sure to watch The Pact!

Break-out horror movie smash of the year that has been electrifying hardened genre fans and non-horror fans alike, “The Pact” combines the supernatural terrors of “Paranormal Activity” with the tense atmospherics of a serial killer thriller to create a unique, modern-day take on the classic ghost story.

And it’s out on October 1st! Pre-order yours here.

Previous Parts:

A History Of Cinematic Ghosts: Part XI – The Shining

And it’s out on October 1st! Pre-order yours here.

A History Of Cinematic Ghosts: Part IX – The Amityville Horror

And it’s out on October 1st! Pre-order yours here.

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