3 Old ghost movies for a comfy Saturday night!
While for many of you, the ideal Saturday night consists of a dark building, a case of equipment and hopefully some ghosts, there is also nothing better than a comfy Saturday night on the couch. If you are still after your paranormal fix, here are some classic 'Ghost' movies!
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Who can go past the king of campy horror of Mr Vincent Price! This movie is a classic and may or may not have ghosts! It is also the origin of one of our favourite paranormal memes! I literally have a shrine to this movie in my office so it should be no surprise it is on the top of my list! It was remade in 1999 and released with Marylin Manson's version of Sweet Dreams becoming a paranormal investigator's theme song. It doesn't beat the original though. Directed by William Castle, the King of B Grade movie gimmicks, a skeleton by the name of Emergo would fly over the audience during a pivotal scene terrifying the gullible audience. While quite comical to us now to watch, these were different times and it certainly made it worth the trip to the movies. It is available to watch for free on YouTube (as well as Amazon Prime and possibly Tubi).
The Uninvited (1944)
This classic is considered to be one of the first significant ghost movies. It was one of the first of its kind to depict ghosts as real (and not faked like many of its predecessors). Some of the classic tropes we now see in haunting movies were on display with a ghost out for revenge and wanting to reveal the truth behind a scandal. Cold spots, phantom spells and weird noises helped to define what many now attribute to a classic haunting. It was quite different for its time and unknowingly set the path for the way many of our ghost movies are portrayed today. It was remade in 2009. You can watch this for free on archive.org
13 Ghosts (1960)
Director William Castle mentioned above directed this classic which was presented in a way where you had a choice to 'see' the ghosts wearing amazing glasses dubbed as illusion-O. The movie was presented mainly in black and white with everything filmed with a blue filter. The ghosts however had a red filter superimposed over the frame. Instead of having one eye red and the other blue, the Illusion-O glasses required viewers to look through a single colour with both eyes. Looking through the red filter intensified the images of the ghosts, while the blue filter "removed" the ghosts. The version we see now on TV has been edited of course so you can see the ghosts. It was remade in 2001 with the concept of the glasses adapted into the movie. You can watch this for free on archive.org (You could even make your own glasses out of cellophane!
Of course, there are so many more I could add to this list, but now it is over to you! What are your favourite old ghost movies?
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