What are your favorite ghost movies?
#26
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Re: What are your favorite ghost movies?
That last one...what movie?
China has interesting restriction on ghosts.
via THR:
China has interesting restriction on ghosts.
via THR:
Censors prohibit films that "promote cults or superstition," which might pose an otherworldly problem for the supernatural romance.
After Crimson Peak's tepid $13.1 million North American debut, producer Legendary Pictures probably is hoping for a big recoup in China, as happened in 2013 when director Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim grossed $113 million there, salvaging its underwhelming stateside performance.
Both del Toro’s track record in China and recent buzz around Crimson Peak on Mtime and Douban, two of China’s most popular movie discussion sites, indeed suggest the film might do well there.
But the gothic romance, which hasn't secured a China release, could run into problems because of supernatural elements that might violate one of the China Film Bureau's more bizarre dictates — what one might call a "no-ghost protocol."
Stemming from the Communist Party's secular ideology, China's official censorship guidelines prohibit films that "promote cults or superstition." China censors have used the provision as rationale for banning or demanding cuts to films that present ghosts or supernatural beings in semi-realistic fashion (exceptions are made for stories based on Chinese mythology).
In 2006, Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was banned because of scenes involving ghosts and cannibalism (the next Pirates squeaked through after cuts were made). Crimson's entire premise — a young bride (Mia Wasikowska) who can commune with the dead seeks to learn more about the ghosts that haunt her husband's home — would seem to violate China's guidelines. But by that standard, so might next summer's Ghostbusters.
Chinese filmmakers have been known to employ inventive, if inadvertently amusing, plot devices to work around the no-ghost policy — deus ex machina as censorship dodge. Consider local horror hit The House That Never Dies, which grossed $65 million last year. Inspired by a well-known, purportedly haunted, house in the Chinese capital, the film follows a woman tormented by ghosts in her historic Beijing mansion — so far, unprecedented for modern Chinese cinemas. But then a final act reveals that all of the foregoing ghostly encounters have simply been hallucinations, because the heroine was secretly dosed with LSD. Other Chinese genre directors have used curtain-closing revelations of mental illnesses, bad dreams or hypnosis to skirt the rules.
Legendary is in the unenviable — but increasingly familiar — position of having to play wait and see what China decides. Ghostbusters director Paul Feig, meanwhile, might be writing an alternate Chinese ending where Bill Murray wakes up from a weird dream in which he was Kristen Wiig.
After Crimson Peak's tepid $13.1 million North American debut, producer Legendary Pictures probably is hoping for a big recoup in China, as happened in 2013 when director Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim grossed $113 million there, salvaging its underwhelming stateside performance.
Both del Toro’s track record in China and recent buzz around Crimson Peak on Mtime and Douban, two of China’s most popular movie discussion sites, indeed suggest the film might do well there.
But the gothic romance, which hasn't secured a China release, could run into problems because of supernatural elements that might violate one of the China Film Bureau's more bizarre dictates — what one might call a "no-ghost protocol."
Stemming from the Communist Party's secular ideology, China's official censorship guidelines prohibit films that "promote cults or superstition." China censors have used the provision as rationale for banning or demanding cuts to films that present ghosts or supernatural beings in semi-realistic fashion (exceptions are made for stories based on Chinese mythology).
In 2006, Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was banned because of scenes involving ghosts and cannibalism (the next Pirates squeaked through after cuts were made). Crimson's entire premise — a young bride (Mia Wasikowska) who can commune with the dead seeks to learn more about the ghosts that haunt her husband's home — would seem to violate China's guidelines. But by that standard, so might next summer's Ghostbusters.
Chinese filmmakers have been known to employ inventive, if inadvertently amusing, plot devices to work around the no-ghost policy — deus ex machina as censorship dodge. Consider local horror hit The House That Never Dies, which grossed $65 million last year. Inspired by a well-known, purportedly haunted, house in the Chinese capital, the film follows a woman tormented by ghosts in her historic Beijing mansion — so far, unprecedented for modern Chinese cinemas. But then a final act reveals that all of the foregoing ghostly encounters have simply been hallucinations, because the heroine was secretly dosed with LSD. Other Chinese genre directors have used curtain-closing revelations of mental illnesses, bad dreams or hypnosis to skirt the rules.
Legendary is in the unenviable — but increasingly familiar — position of having to play wait and see what China decides. Ghostbusters director Paul Feig, meanwhile, might be writing an alternate Chinese ending where Bill Murray wakes up from a weird dream in which he was Kristen Wiig.
#27
#31
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Re: What are your favorite ghost movies?
#32
Senior Member
Re: What are your favorite ghost movies?
All originals.
Carnival of Souls
The Legend of Hell House
Kaïro
The Haunting
Blacker than the Night
Ghostwatch
The Stick
Stir of Echoes
Lake Mungo
Even the Wind is Afraid
The Shining
The Entity
Noroi, the Curse
The Innocents
Dark Water
Carnival of Souls
The Legend of Hell House
Kaïro
The Haunting
Blacker than the Night
Ghostwatch
The Stick
Stir of Echoes
Lake Mungo
Even the Wind is Afraid
The Shining
The Entity
Noroi, the Curse
The Innocents
Dark Water
#36
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
#37
Re: What are your favorite ghost movies?
The Haunting (1963) - still the best horror movie ever made, IMO
The Uninvited (1944)
Ghostbusters
Hold That Ghost (Or really, any of the spooky fun Abbott and Costello movies)
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (No real ghosts in it, but still one of my favorites)
Poltergeist (1982)
The Frighteners
Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice.
The Corpse Bride
The Uninvited (1944)
Ghostbusters
Hold That Ghost (Or really, any of the spooky fun Abbott and Costello movies)
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (No real ghosts in it, but still one of my favorites)
Poltergeist (1982)
The Frighteners
Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice.
The Corpse Bride
The Changling
Ghost
Poltergeist
#38
Re: What are your favorite ghost movies?
I forgot that ghost stories are real and have a set of rules.
Just wanted to add that Kairo is one of the greatest and scariest horror films ever made. Much deeper than just a "ghost movie".
Then they belong in RomComs.
Just wanted to add that Kairo is one of the greatest and scariest horror films ever made. Much deeper than just a "ghost movie".
Then they belong in RomComs.
#39
DVD Talk Legend
Re: What are your favorite ghost movies?
#41
DVD Talk Legend
Re: What are your favorite ghost movies?
Hello Ghost, a Korean movie from 2010. A suicidal young man finds himself burdened with a handful of ghosts with rather bizarre requests. He complies, assuming that once he fulfills their requests they'll leave him alone.
A friend of mine left the theater completely crippled in tears due to the reveal of the ending.
Spoiler:
#43
DVD Talk Legend
Re: What are your favorite ghost movies?
Not a fan of Horror or ghost movies but for suspense or horror, The Changeling was the one that was truly scary to me. I did like Ghost. How can you not like a movie that got you laid afterward?
#46
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Re: What are your favorite ghost movies?
Saw Crimson Peak earlier is week. Not an out and out horror film (as commercials would have you think) but a damn good ghost story.
#48
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Re: What are your favorite ghost movies?