To really miss traditional ghost story movies?

[Dockerty]

Im a fan of horror but to me, the best films don’t rely on OTT monsters, demons, explosions and special effects - they rely on a good story and clever writing.

Why don’t they do proper ghost stories anymore? Horror films these days are shite - the conjuring etc 😴 all the same.

Give me The Sixth Sense or The Others any day.

AIBU to think the horror genre is missing clever writing? No special effects needed if you can actually tell a good spooky story

I'm always on the lookout for good scary films. I agree The Others and the Sixth Sense are both top tier. That young lad in Sixth Sense is just awesome in it. (Edited to add - and his mum, that scene in the car when he sees the dead cyclist and she talks to him about it, God damn that's just brilliant stuff from her and him).

And I agree the old ones are the best.

Have you seen The Changeling from 1980? That's probably my favourite though I love Exorcist 3 too (fab film all the way through but also has the first and still best ever jump scare). I haven't watched The Omen for years but that's another favourite of mine. Rosemary's Baby, just brilliant.

I agree OP. I love a simple ghost story in a film.

The innocents is a good old one

Try some of the Korean horror on Netflix. They make some excellent horror without all the in your face gore. Plenty of atmospheric ghost stories

Agree. I'd like to rewatch The Others as I've only seen it once, but couldn't find it anywhere.

Some of my favourites have to be Rosemary's Baby, Changeling, Original Ring, The Shining, Carrie, and The Wicker Man, I named my daughter after the girl who goes missing.

It’s the suspense that is so unnerving. The BBC Women In Black adaptation (only shown once and spoilt everyone who watched it Christmas that year) is really good

In the Sixth Sense the scene when the little boy gets up to go for a wee, you see the thermostat drop drastically and you know something is going to happen. All that happens is a lady in a dressing gown (could have been his mum) walks past but we just know it isn’t her. I can remember people screaming at the scene it’s so clever

Try Lady In White. Lukas Hass and Katharine Helmond are in it

I love my creepy stuff, my favourite is The Mothman Prophecy based on a true story - so unsettling and stays with you for ages after.

@Doingtheboxerbeat oh my God, that film is absolutely brilliant! I read the book as well.

Oh god, I didn't know there was a book.

Have you seen The Haunting of Hill House? It’s a tv series rather than a film but is one of the scariest (but also most beautiful, well written and acted) things I’ve ever seen.

Mile Flanagan (director and writer) is a genius.

I've put YABU just because I think it's been a wonderful time for horror recently. Like you I dislike monsters and ott cgi. But I've seen some amazing innovative horror the last decade.. to name a few
Weapons
Longlegs
Barbarian
Kill List
Late Night with the Devil
The Witch
Hereditary
Bring Her Back
Harvest
A Dark Song
Ghost Stories (British film)
The Canal
Wake Wood
Starve Acre
The Relic (Australian film)
Hagazussa
February/blackcoats daughter
It Follows
Heretic
Oddity
In Fabric

I also really loved and highly recommend the tv show "Requiem"
I also loved the older tv show "Afterlife" from 2005 with Andrew Lincoln and Lesley Sharp.. really creeped me out

I love everything he has ever done but I don't find them particularly scary, but that one was perhaps the scariest out of the all anthologies.

We still have a red wine stain on our sofa from one particular jump scare 😂.

Im a big scaredy cat so it terrified me, but in the best way. I also was infinitely more emotionally engaged with the characters and their stories because of the series format, which made it so much more impactful.

Jump remembering the jump scares now you mention them - the boat scene in Midnight Mass, the jester in House of Usher and loads of others 🥺

Yes to Woman in Black and The Others. I love a period, English set ghost story. I also really liked The Little Stranger and The Awakening.

I also loved the haunting of Hill house

I'm not going to do any spoilers but just to say, oh my God - BNL! That was an absolute piece of genius. Actually there were loads of bits of genius in there especially visually in the last few episodes.

Ghost movies are my favorite kind of scary movie. I loved how in “The Sixth Sense,” most of the ghosts had less than a minute onscreen, but they each make a huge impression. To me, the scariest ghost is the one we never see who’s in the cupboard and shouting, “I didn’t steal the master’s horse!” Oh, just gives me chills.

For Halloween decorations, I have wooden tombstones outside my house that I painted to be the tombstones of famous ghosts, and one of them is for…a particularly famous ghost from that movie. (Not specifying just in case there’s someone here who hasn’t seen it and doesn’t want spoilers!)

Yes love a good old fashioned British ghost story. I used to enjoy the Christmas ones on the BBC based on MR James stories but the last couple have been a bit crap.

Liked Ghost Stories with the Martin Freeman and Paul Whitehouse… that was good. Also Requiem as pp mentioned.

Ghost Stories is on Iplayer right now. Watched it last week and was really good.

It’s years since I watched The Sixth Sense and even now scenes from it pop into my head and give me a cold feeling. For some reason, the scene at the start when Cole gets shut in the cupboard at the party scared me so much, even though we didn’t see the ghost. It was worse to just imagine what was in there!

I haven’t seen Hill House, but The Haunting of Blye Manor by the same team was very good. Not terrifying (although I was crap at spotting the background ghosts) but eerie and quite moving. The feeling of dread and despair in the episode where the housekeeper realises what’s going on particularly got under my skin.

Other ghost story films I’ve enjoyed are The Orphanage and The Devil’s Backbone. Both Spanish and featuring creepy ghost children.

Watching because I love creepy and hate gory. El Orphanato is one of my all time favourite movies ever.

I have begun listening to recordings of old radio dramas from the 30s-50s. Really clever, well-written and classy yet scary stories.

Another vote for Haunting of Hill House - fantastic! My favourite film wise is the original Poltergeist or Paranormal Activity but I would agree that a lot of ghost stories just aren’t hitting.