Connect with us

News

Why Ghost is the Scariest Movie I Have Ever Seen

Published

on

What is the scariest movie you have ever seen? It’s a question horror fans are all too familiar with being asked. The question is often used to gauge a person’s tolerance level to horror or to find a new gem they haven’t heard of yet. When asked the question, a horror fan can use it as an opportunity to show off their fanboy love, their extensive knowledge of really messed up or obscure titles, crack a joke and say a non-horror movie (The Polar Express), or to take a moment of honesty and deconstruct what terrified them and why it stuck with them. So what is the one movie that kept me waking up at night screaming in cold sweats for a few years in my childhood? Ghost, starring Patrick Fucking Swayze.

Clearly I must be joking around when I tell people Ghost was the movie that terrified me as a child. And yes, I often have this conversation when answering the question. So let us get that part of the conversation out of the way:

“How could you be serious? Ghost?!?! The one where a Batman/poltergeist Partick Swayze and short-haired Demi Moore make clay pottery together?”

“Yes, that’s the one.”

“But isn’t that just some cheesy romantic film with a supernatural premise that had an eyebrow-less Whoopi Goldberg kissing Demi Moore?”

“Wow, you remember that film very well. Also, yes.”

“How can you be scared of that movie?”

“One word: nuns.”

I was seven years old when I first watched Ghost with my parents. At this time I was enrolled in a private Catholic school that was tied to the local church. Here, in my early formative years, I learned my ABC’s, 123’s, and more importantly that I was going to burn in hell. It is the Catholic way. See my first grade teacher, Sister Monique, was a hardcore fire and brimstone lady of the cloth. Every day she would remind little troublemakers like myself what hell is and that if we didn’t stop being little monsters that’s where we would be heading; and those were the days I didn’t get caught committing any shenanigans. So by the time my parents thought it would be a good idea to watch Swayze and Moore’s endearing love story on family movie night, I had the idea that I was going to hell engraved in the back of my seven year old brain. I just didn’t have the visuals to go along with the ideas. Ghost fixed that problem.

Now I haven’t seen the film since this impressionable time in my life until today, but if there is one thing burned in my mind, it’s when a bad guy dies in the movie. Don’t remember? Let me refresh your memory then. See, when a good guy dies they get a big bright light shown on them, choirs sing, and they turn into beautiful astro balls as they go to heaven. But if you’ve been bad, shadows with no body of origin comes out from the darkness making incredible demonic screams and moans. They come out, surround and attack the bad guys, then these shadows drag them kicking and screaming into the darkness. Into hell. Suddenly little seven-year-old me had a visualization of something I had accepted as a reality but hadn’t fully grasped yet.

It didn’t take long for the nightmares to begin of these shadow demons coming out of various dark corners and dragging me into hell. Often times I would visualize them coming out of a portal in the building next door and then appearing in my room. Hearing the screams and moans as they come and surround me. Waking up screaming but not making any noise was a common occurrence. Looking back it’s kind of incredible what a young imagination can do with a little bit of motivation. This went on for a while and eventually, the dreams became less occurring until one day they stopped. Somewhere in that time, I discovered a love for horror movies and no matter how many horror films I watch none have matched the terror I felt from watching Ghost. Perhaps it’s because in most horror films you witness the monsters being defeated, whereas in this case I was experiencing an existential crisis where I was the monster and finally getting my upcomings. Or perhaps I was just a kid with an overactive imagination.

After writing most of this article I decided to watch the film for the first time in almost fifteen years. I was rather surprised how good the film is. It is an all around decent film. The plot is your basic comic book story line. Man dies, doesn’t cross over, figures out it was a premeditated murder, get trained by homeless ghost on how to use new ghost powers, acquires loud mouth sidekick, defeats evil, and says final goodbyes. The funny thing for me was that the only thing that is really dated, beside the fashion, was the shadows. Looking at them now they are very dated looking special effects and look kind of cheesy. The sound design on the other hand is still really good and effective, which helps soften the dated nature of the shadows.

So why tell all of this? Am I trying to make a critique on religion’s reliance on fear tactics? Am I critiquing my parents’ choice on movie nights? Am I using the power of writing to confront childhood fears? Or am I just trying to be funny? Honestly, I don’t know. I just thought it might have been an interesting story about influence and horror. Now that I’ve been honest: What are some non-horror movies or characters that scared you as a child?

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

News

‘Blink Twice’ Trailer Presents a Thrilling Mystery in Paradise

Published

on

A new trailer for the movie formerly known as Pussy Island just dropped and it has us intrigued. Now with the more restrained title, Blink Twice, this  Zoë Kravitz-directed black comedy is set to land in theaters on August 23.

The film is packed with stars including Channing Tatum, Naomi Ackie, Alia Shawkat, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Christian Slater, Kyle MacLachlan, and Geena Davis.

The trailer feels like a Benoit Blanc mystery; people are invited to a secluded location and disappear one by one, leaving one guest to figure out what is going on.

In the film, a billionaire named Slater King (Channing Tatum) invites a waitress named Frida (Naomi Ackie) to his private island, “It’s paradise. Wild nights blend into sun-soaked days and everyone’s having a great time. No one wants this trip to end, but as strange things start to happen, Frida begins to question her reality. There is something wrong with this place. She’ll have to uncover the truth if she wants to make it out of this party alive.”

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

Movies

Melissa Barrera Says ‘Scary Movie VI’ Would Be “Fun To Do”

Published

on

Melissa Barrera might literally get the last laugh on Spyglass thanks to a possible Scary Movie sequel. Paramount and Miramax are seeing the right opportunity to bring the satirical franchise back into the fold and announced last week one might be in production as early as this fall.

The last chapter of the Scary Movie franchise was almost a decade ago and since the series lampoons thematic horror movies and pop culture trends, it would seem they have a lot of content to draw ideas from, including the recent reboot of slasher series Scream.

Barerra, who starred as final girl Samantha in those movies was abruptly fired from the latest chapter, Scream VII, for expressing what Spyglass interpreted as “antisemitism,” after the actress came out in support of Palestine on social media.

Even though the drama wasn’t a laughing matter, Barrera might get her chance to parody Sam in Scary Movie VI. That is if the opportunity arises. In an interview with Inverse, the 33-year-old actress was asked about Scary Movie VI, and her reply was intriguing.

“I always loved those movies,” the actress told Inverse. “When I saw it announced, I was like, ‘Oh, that would be fun. That would be so fun to do.’”

That “fun to do” part could be construed as a passive pitch to Paramount, but that’s open to interpretation.

Just like in her franchise, Scary Movie also has a legacy cast including Anna Faris and Regina Hall. There is no word yet on if either of those actors will appear in the reboot. With or without them, Barrera is still a fan of the comedies. “They have the iconic cast that did it, so we’ll see what goes on with that. I’m just excited to see a new one,” she told the publication.

Barrera is currently celebrating the box office success of her latest horror movie Abigail.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

Lists

Thrills and Chills: Ranking ‘Radio Silence’ Films from Bloody Brilliant to Just Bloody

Published

on

Radio Silence Films

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella are all filmmakers under the collective label called Radio Silence. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett are the primary directors under that moniker while Villella produces.

They have gained popularity over the past 13 years and their films have become known as having a certain Radio Silence “signature.” They are bloody, usually contain monsters, and have breakneck action sequences. Their recent film Abigail exemplifies that signature and is perhaps their best film yet. They are currently working on a reboot of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York.

We thought we would go through the list of projects they have directed and rank them from high to low. None of the movies and shorts on this list are bad, they all have their merits. These rankings from top to bottom are just ones we felt showcased their talents the best.

We didn’t include movies they produced but didn’t direct.

#1. Abigail

An update to the second film on this list, Abagail is the natural progression of Radio Silence’s love of lockdown horror. It follows in pretty much the same footsteps of Ready or Not, but manages to go one better — make it about vampires.

Abigail

#2. Ready or Not

This film put Radio Silence on the map. While not as successful at the box office as some of their other films, Ready or Not proved that the team could step outside their limited anthology space and create a fun, thrilling, and bloody adventure-length film.

Ready or Not

#3. Scream (2022)

While Scream will always be a polarizing franchise, this prequel, sequel, reboot — however you want to label it showed just how much Radio Silence knew the source material. It wasn’t lazy or cash-grabby, just a good time with legendary characters we love and new ones who grew on us.

Scream (2022)

#4 Southbound (The Way Out)

Radio Silence tosses their found footage modus operandi for this anthology film. Responsible for the bookend stories, they create a terrifying world in their segment titled The Way Out, which involves strange floating beings and some sort of time loop. It’s kind of the first time we see their work without a shaky cam. If we were to rank this entire film, it would remain at this position on the list.

Southbound

#5. V/H/S (10/31/98)

The film that started it all for Radio Silence. Or should we say the segment that started it all. Even though this isn’t feature-length what they managed to do with the time they had was very good. Their chapter was titled 10/31/98, a found-footage short involving a group of friends who crash what they think is a staged exorcism only to learn not to assume things on Halloween night.

V/H/S

#6. Scream VI

Cranking up the action, moving to the big city and letting Ghostface use a shotgun, Scream VI turned the franchise on its head. Like their first one, this film played with canon and managed to win over a lot of fans in its direction, but alienated others for coloring too far outside the lines of Wes Craven’s beloved series. If any sequel was showing how the trope was going stale it was Scream VI, but it managed to squeeze some fresh blood out of this nearly three-decade mainstay.

Scream VI

#7. Devil’s Due

Fairly underrated, this, Radio Silence’s first feature-length film, is a sampler of things they took from V/H/S. It was filmed in an omnipresent found footage style, showcasing a form of possession, and features clueless men. Since this was their first bonafide major studio job it’s a wonderful touchstone to see how far they have come with their storytelling.

Devil’s Due

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading