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 love a good ghost story. No extreme violence or horror please. I do watch crime series but I'm getting fed up of beautiful-woman-gets-killed-by-male-psychopath. Most of my faves have been mentioned already.

The Others and Sixth Sense are hard to beat.

Woman in Black - spoiled for me somewhat by watching it in the cinema behind a shrieky girl who yelled just before every fright, which she spotted a fraction of a second before I did!

What Lies Beneath - excellent.

The Haunting of Hill House - OK. The Haunting of Bly Manor - I gave up after one episode when I realised it was based of The Turn of the Screw, which I've read and hated. I've sworn off Henry James, his writing style is as subtle as a brick.

Sleepy Hollow was good.

The Terror (TV series) - some gore but I liked this one.

Crimson Peak, yes!

Afterlife - really good

There must be more, but I'm struggling to think of them.

There’s a ghost story for Christmas most years. Often Mark Gatiss, often MR James. Real classics

I’m glad this tradition has been revived and I have a lot of respect for Mark Gatiss, but … I have to admit I’ve been disappointed by his adaptations. I think it’s partly because the BBC only allow half an hour and that’s just not enough to develop the atmosphere or tension in a ghost story. I’ve found the recent offerings very unspooky.

The old BBC adaptations of M R James were good - the best by far is The Stalls of Barchester. There’s also at least one of Whistle and I’ll Come to You and a very good version of The Three Crowns.

Shalcken the Painter (Sheridan le Fanu) was also dramatised well in the distant

For my money the best TV adaptation of a ghost story is Afterwards (Edith Wharton). I think it’s on YouTube - a masterpiece.

Also on YouTube, The Strawberry Tree by Ruth Randell. Not exactly a ghost story but absolutely terrifying and haunting.

I’ve got a collection of the older Ghost Stories For Christmas, I think Christopher Lee reads some (all) of them and I’ve got the original Whistle and I’ll Come To You with Michael Hordern which is well worth tracking down. Plus some of the more recent ones, there have been a lot but I could only find one on iPlayer yesterday. I didn’t look very hard though

One of my absolute favourites is The Signal-Man which was made into a film in 1976. Genuinely spooky.

Oh gosh yes, I had totally forgotten about this. Unsettling is the word.

Yes - that’s great. I just think it’s nigh on impossible to do a spooky TV film in less than an hour. The point is to gradually build the suspense and dread and you can’t do it I’m less time than that. The BBC should realise this!

The baby monitor one gave me sleepless nights and I'm a hardened horror fan.
I don't know why the series doesn't get talked about more

The Living and the Dead was enjoyable, pity it wasn't renewed after one short season.

My first thought when I real this thread title, was, you have to watch The Changeling.

I was going to say the baby monitor episode too! Put me off baby monitors for life 😂

I completely agree about the Dead of Night.
The Ventriloquist story is the best and most famous. It frightened the life out of me. I always hated ventriloquist dummies after seeing that.
Also the one where the girl meets the little boy who's crying because his sister was hurting him. Sad and very spooky.

The original of The Haunting (1963) terrified me when I saw it as a teenager. It was repeated on (I think) BBC 2 or 4 last night.

Also, The Lost Hearts, which was one of the BBC Christmas Ghost Stories.

I saw these in the 1970's before all the gore fest films came out.

It's good that Mark Gatiss is reviving the Christmas Ghost Story but I do agree that they need to be a bit longer to ramp up the suspense.

I agree. I still think that Poltergeist is one of the best ghost films ever!

I've watched Sixth Sense & The Others with dd1 & she guessed the twists right away. And the same twist in Last Christmas (though not a horror). I'd been to see Sixth Sense at the cinema when it first came out & loved the twist, didn't see it coming. You think I'd have guessed the twist in The Others a few years later, but no! The Others is one of my all time favourite films

We loved the Christmas Ghost stories on BBC (maybe called “a ghost story for Christmas”?)

we said they same in that the felt more like a traditional ghost story

Speaking on the BBC Christmas ghost stories, does anyone remember Lost Hearts? It was another M R James story, and absolutely terrified me when I saw it as a teenager. “Oh Whistle” seems to get all the plaudits, but Lost Hearts is every bit as atmospheric and scarier still.

CuddlesKovinsky · Yesterday 09:23
Whistle and I'll Come to You.
😱

The story terrified me but I’ve only seen one tv adaptation and that was with John Hurt.
It changed a bit from the story for example the hotel being empty, and I enjoyed it but it wasn’t as terrifying as the book version

Stir of Echoes - good ghost story but a little bit of violence

The Awakening - nice period ghost story, not very scary at all but the setting was good

The baby monitor episode of Afterlife has stayed with me for years. Terrifying.

A movie I enjoyed even though it got some poor reviews was Gothika.

One of my favourite films is Night of the Demon (sometimes Curse if USA version). There’s always Tales of the Unexpected on TalkingPicsTV, well worth a look

I watched that a few months ago to finally see what all the fuss was about. Afterwards I texted my 25 year old DC2.
Me: "I've just watched"Paranormal Activity. It's shit, isn't it?"
DC2: "Yeah."

Sums it up. 😅

I loved "Ghost Stories " and "The Canal". Also "Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark", "Shepherd", "It Follows" etc. I love scary films but don't like too much gore. Most films I watch tend to be rated 15, rarely 18. The're no less frightening, just less blood and guts.

Paranormal activity in the cinema 20ish years ago was brilliant, the audience clapped at the end of the showing I went to! Watched it recently again with my son and he enjoyed it, enjoyed the first few of the series actually but they tail off as they tend to!

I agree...the scene where the young boy is idly coming down the stairs strumming the guitar with his long talony fingers...arghhhh

It’s truly terrifying!

Ventriloquist dummies are creepy to start with!