Your Favorite Ghost Story

Geist · Jun 21, 2007

What's the best ghost story you've ever read, heard or watched. My particular favorites are as follows:

The Others (a movie with Nicole Kiddman)

The Sixth Sense (a movie with Bruce Willis)

And by the way, do ghost stories fall into the horror genre or mystery/suspense, or what?

Ed

CatSlave · Jun 21, 2007

Geist said:
What's the best ghost story you've ever read, heard or watched. My particular favorites are as follows:

The Others (a movie with Nicole Kiddman)

The Sixth Sense (a movie with Bruce Willis)

And by the way, do ghost stories fall into the horror genre or mystery/suspense, or what?

Ed

No fair, you already picked the best two.

The House on Haunted Hill always gives me a chill.

JBI · Jun 21, 2007

Hamlet

Will Lavender · Jun 21, 2007

Straub's Ghost Story

alaskamatt17 · Jun 21, 2007

My favorite is The Sixth Sense.

rugcat · Jun 21, 2007

They can partake of many genres, anything from stories of psychological inner workings to outright horror.

I have a particular affection for the English literary tradition--M.R. James Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary is one of my all time favorite story collections. Casting The Runes and Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad are two famous and wonderful tales.

CatSlave · Jun 21, 2007

article by Washington Post book critic

Ghost Stories
The season of mellow fruitfulness is also fright time.

By Michael Dirda
Sunday, October 31, 2004

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7816-2004Oct28.html

alaskamatt17 · Jun 21, 2007

Oh, I really like A Christmas Carol, too!

Lyra Jean · Jun 21, 2007

The Sixth Sense
The Others
Casper (you didn't say it had to be scary)

I remember reading this one YA or MG novel. Can't remember the name of it but it had the ghost of a young woman waiting in an abandoned coal mine. Apparently back in the day the mine collapsed and her bethrothed died in the collapse and she died from grief waiting for him to be rescued. I remember it being really good. I just can't remember the name of it.

LisaHy · Jun 21, 2007

The one ghost story that's always given me the hebegeebes was an accounting of the Bell Witch that was in a big book of the supernatural my dad had (I have since stolen the book from him). I could read fiction stories, know they were unreal and not be moved, but reading and rereading this story of the Bell Witch never failed to creep me out.

The recent movie adaption (An American Haunting - I think) didn't do the story justice.

I'm trying put the chill I felt when reading that account into the story I'm writing at the moment, which has a malevolent ghost, but I don't think it's working...

Cheers, Lisa.

Inkdaub · Jun 21, 2007

The Haunting of Hill House and House of Leaves are both favorites of mine.

alaskamatt17 · Jun 21, 2007

rosemerry said:
Casper (you didn't say it had to be scary)

When I saw the first movie as a kid I cried so hard.

alaskamatt17 · Jun 21, 2007

I should clarify, the live-action one. I think there might have been cartoons based on the comics, but I don't remember watching any of those.

Sean D. Schaffer · Jun 22, 2007

-The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow
-A Christmas Carol
-Poltergeist

Geist · Jun 22, 2007

CatSlave said:
No fair, you already picked the best two.
The House on Haunted Hill always gives me a chill.

I agree. I think The Others and The Sixth Sense are probably the best, at least as suspense movies. Keep in mind that Ghost is a pretty good romance, and Poltergeist introduced a lot of the ideas of modern ghost stories. Also, Ghostbusters was a great comedy, so I guess it's all in the genre and what we expect out of a ghost story.

I think the modern movie version of Wuthering Heights with Ray Feins is quite good. Again, romance.

Geist · Jun 22, 2007

JBI said:
Hamlet

You know, I've never read or seen Hamlet. I know it's Shakespeare, but I've never studied Shakespeare at all. I didn't even know Hamlet was a ghost story. I guess I should look into it.

DeborahM · Jun 22, 2007

The Ghost of Flight 401 with Ernest Borgnine as the ghost was great! I'm reading the book now.

Geist · Jun 22, 2007

alaskamatt17 said:
Oh, I really like A Christmas Carol, too!

Oh yeah. That's one of my favorites. Definitely.

mscelina · Jun 22, 2007

LisaHy said:
The one ghost story that's always given me the hebegeebes was an accounting of the Bell Witch that was in a big book of the supernatural my dad had (I have since stolen the book from him). I could read fiction stories, know they were unreal and not be moved, but reading and rereading this story of the Bell Witch never failed to creep me out.

Cheers, Lisa.

I grew up less than ten miles from the Bell land in Adams, Tennessee. Everything about the Bell property is still messed up.Trust me. I spent most of my adolescence breaking into the Bell cemetary and hking cross-country to where the REAL family cemetary is. *shivers* I actually was there about five months ago and in broad daylight somehow the remote was ripped off my keychain while it was in my hand.

If you like the Bell Witch story you have to read the family account written by Charles Bailey Bell. Talk about chillling!

At any rate, my favorite ghost story that's fictional? The Shining. Definitely. If possible, the book is even scarier than the movie IMHO, and I can't watch the movie.

Geist · Jun 22, 2007

rosemerry said:
The Sixth Sense
The Others
Casper (you didn't say it had to be scary)

I remember reading this one YA or MG novel. Can't remember the name of it but it had the ghost of a young woman waiting in an abandoned coal mine. Apparently back in the day the mine collapsed and her bethrothed died in the collapse and she died from grief waiting for him to be rescued. I remember it being really good. I just can't remember the name of it.

It's like the one I read about a writer who goes to Ireland and rents a house that's haunted. I really liked it, too, and I can't remember the name of it.

LisaHy said:
The one ghost story that's always given me the hebegeebes was an accounting of the Bell Witch that was in a big book of the supernatural my dad had (I have since stolen the book from him). I could read fiction stories, know they were unreal and not be moved, but reading and rereading this story of the Bell Witch never failed to creep me out.

The recent movie adaption (An American Haunting - I think) didn't do the story justice.

I'm trying put the chill I felt when reading that account into the story I'm writing at the moment, which has a malevolent ghost, but I don't think it's working...

Cheers, Lisa.

If you're a fellow ghost story writer, we should swap e-mails and keep in touch. Who knows, down the road we may be competitors for the NY Times bestseller list.

My email is [email protected]

alaskamatt17 said:
When I saw the first movie as a kid I cried so hard.

You're talking about Casper, I think, and now that you mention it, I really want to see that again. The one with Christina Ricci, I believe. I'll have to see if I can rent it.

DeborahM said:
The Ghost of Flight 401 with Ernest Borgnine as the ghost was great! I'm reading the book now.

Is it a good book, so far?

Geist · Jun 22, 2007

mscelina said:
At any rate, my favorite ghost story that's fictional? The Shining. Definitely. If possible, the book is even scarier than the movie IMHO, and I can't watch the movie.

I totally forgot about that one. The Shining is King's best ghost story for sure. Actually, I don't even know if he's ever written more than that one.

Geist · Jun 22, 2007

Question: Is the Blair Witch Project a ghost story?

EriRae · Jun 22, 2007

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Any time those boys from Supernatural deal with ghosts...
Beetlejuice & Ghostbusters...I'm a sucker for comedy
What about Pascow in Pet Semetary?

Geist · Jun 22, 2007

Erinmiller77 said:
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Any time those boys from Supernatural deal with ghosts...
Beetlejuice & Ghostbusters...I'm a sucker for comedy
What about Pascow in Pet Semetary?

I don't quite remember who Pascow was. Was that the college student or the cat? At any rate, I don't think there were any real ghosts in Pet Semetary. I mean a ghost is by definition the spirit of a dead person, not the body, right? Or is it?

EriRae · Jun 22, 2007

Pascow=College Student, the one on the bike who got run over...he didn't get buried in the Semetary, so he was either a ghost or just a figment of Mr. Creed's imagination. And he was creepy, in the book AND in the movie.

Your Favorite Ghost Story

Geist

CatSlave

Mah tale iz draggin.

JBI

Will Lavender

Everything is what it seems.

alaskamatt17

rugcat

Lost in the Fog

CatSlave

Mah tale iz draggin.

alaskamatt17

Lyra Jean

Two years old now.

LisaHy

It's probably a tumour

Inkdaub

wrapped in plastic

alaskamatt17

alaskamatt17

Sean D. Schaffer

Geist

Geist

DeborahM

I need espresso & chocolate!

Geist

mscelina

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you

Geist

Geist

Geist

EriRae

:P

Geist

EriRae

:P