To really miss traditional ghost story movies?

I recommend Dead of Night! It’s old, black and white. But SO scary. The black and white and the lighting really adds to the atmosphere.

Not a ghost story but here’s a recommendation OR a warning, depending on your temperament:

I love spookiness but I hate violence and gore - in fact I’m very squeamish. I was discussing this with a film buff friend and she told me that (the original, not the Hollywood remake) The Vanishing was the most traumatically terrifying film she’d ever seen but no violence is shown and there’s absolutely no blood or gore.

I watched it and I wish I hadn’t. You have been warned!😢😳🤫

Hill House is much scarier, but Bly Manor has a beautiful story. Both very watchable, got me back into horror when I hadn’t watched it for years.

I feel horror is having a bit of a moment, it’s always been the over looked genre, rarely recognised in awards ceremonies etc, but there’s some really great stuff coming out at the moment, which means better budgets and actors involved!

The Haunting (film, 1960) is superb. There's a couple of scenes that are absolutely bonechilling, but zero gore.
There are plenty of Tales of the Unexpected on YouTube, some are really good.

Yes I love thoses old gothic style ghost films. One I recently saw, a bit different is Good Boy. All told throught the eyes of a dog, all you know is what he knows. Wont give any spoilers but its about love and devotion. A few jump scares and creepy atmosphere.

As a child, I was traumatised by Nigel Kneale's 'Beasts' - the 'Baby' episode in particular - but I've got a soft spot for the 70's folk horror that was popular when I was growing up...

Other childhood shockers: 'Don't Be Afraid of the Dark' - pointy-headed goblins in the basement (watching it as an adult, it's ridiculous).

Also, something called 'Trilogy of Terror'... In one of three stories, a woman buys a Zuni doll that comes to life and chases her around the house... Again, it rather spoils the memories to see it again...

I get all mine on the Talking Pics channel. There’s some great old stuff on there.

As an aside, I loved the scenes in Ghosts (BBC) when the lead character was ‘seeing’ dead people - the NHS doctor and the WW2 pilots particularly. I do think the film/TV/publishing companies are missing a trick as so many people love ghost stores and the like. Look at the success of the play, 2:22. Instead we get endless twisty thrillers, which I do enjoy, but have been done to death (sorry!).

Classic ghost stories are much better than horror, although I am partial to Stephen King! @MrsFrumble, Bly Manor was good but Hill House messed with my mind and terrified me like nothing else. You have a treat to watch for Halloween.

I like The Others and The Sixth Sense and the BBC Woman in Black.

The Turn of the Screw is a good ghost story, there are a few adaptations, not sure which is the definitive. The Others isn’t an adaptation of it but has a lot of the same themes

Sorry, I go side-tracked when the earlier poster mentioned Ghost Watch! But I had originally planned to say that Halloween 2 is one of the scariest films I ever saw, as a teenager. No special effects or monsters, just Michael Myers walking around the neighbourhood gradually catching up with his victims, so matter where they tried to hide. The music really added to the suspense.

OMG I remember Ghost Watch! I'd been out to the pub with a few friends, and when I got home, it was the first thing Mum mentioned. Thankfully I had video-d it. I kept pressing pause at the dark shapes in the bedroom. There was public outcry after that!

Really enjoyed Black Phone (and the Joe Hill story) but just saw Black Phone 2 and it's absolutely terrible. Crap acting, rubbish story that sounds like they made it up as they were going along, and gore. Really disappointed.

Really enjoyed Black Phone (and the Joe Hill story) but just saw Black Phone 2 and it's absolutely terrible. Crap acting, rubbish story that sounds like they made it up as they were going along, and gore. Really disappointed.

Bless him I think he did! Slightly ruined by the fact we watched at Xmas but it’s summer here then. The atmosphere was lost on us! He loved it though.

Gatiss’ Ghost Stories for Xmas on BBC using MR James’ tales are awesome. Always look forward to them and I love the tradition of a Xmas ghost story!

Uncanny the TV version is great too, all on Iplayer and excellent Halloween viewing.. The podcast is especially great though. All 96 episodes! Especially Luibelt and The Evil in Room 611. The fact they are ‘real’ stories is the best bit. Much like the ‘woo’ threads on here.
Definitely listen in broad daylight though. NOT when you are in a premenopausal awakening at 3am and decide you need a podcast to listen to! I listen while cooking dinner and I kept a load for an ultra long distance flight for when the lights went out. I figured you can’t really get scared of ghosts on a dark A380 with 500 people somewhere over the Indian Ocean. It was very cosy listening to them snuggled under a blanket!

Danny Robins also did the Witch Farm podcast and the Battersea Poltergeist which I listened to on the trip back. A bit hammy but very listenable and proper old school ghost stories.

That's so annoying! I read Tom's Midnight Garden* to my kids and one of them guessed the ending. I'd found it really moving when I first read it.

• The best children's fiction ever.

I agree about Sixth Sense @Screamingabdabz - the twist was huge and unexpected at the time and I think people were less dicks about revealing it - but since then there have been copycats, and people trying to anticipate the twists, and people trying to be the first to tell you like it's some sort of competition... that's why 'spoilers!' has become a saying...

Isn't there an episode of IT Crowd where someone says 'I won't tell you the twist' and then Roy spends the whole episode trying to guess/avoid the twist? The German cooking episode, I think? Yeah, it's gone like that.

Your Dad oversold it... 😄 The atmosphere! The tension! The sense of approaching menace... And lovely Michael Hordern...

Mezzotint was good but I can't remember it clearly, whereas Whistle... is unforgettable to me...

Horses for courses, innit?

My Dad harped on about this for months and how terrifying it was so we found the original version from the 70’s. It was utterly dire!! Some geezer sitting on a sand dune looking at a man grumbling a lot. We were all 🫤

The new version of the Mezzotint (one of the Ghost Stories for Christmas by Mark Gatiss) was excellent though.

This is the problem with trying to give your kids a bit of the magic from your own youth - they’ve grown up differently…

I remember going to the cinema to watch Sixth Sense when it first came out and I know everyone likes to be cool and say they saw the ending but I was lucky, and didn’t. It hit me like a brick and was so brilliant.

That was groundbreaking at the time but it’s been done to death since then (forgive the pun) and “I see dead people” is now a line on t-shirts so I’m not surprised your son got the twist. These kids have grown up with a post modern pastiche so there is nothing new under the sun for them sadly.

Whistle and I'll Come to You.

😱

I know exactly where my love for ghost stories comes from - I was about ten when Ghostwatch aired on TV with Sarah Greene and Parky. I nearly wet myself but I loved the feeling of being scared!

I watched it all the way through to the end and it does get silly with the studio lights going off and stuff. I've never watched it since that first time it was on, not sure how it'd hold up, but at the time it was a great experience to watch it.

Found my people. More recently I watched Presence which was something different, not groundbreakingly good but different, you see things from the view of the ghost.