Pity the poor ghost. He has gotten little respect among the fellow members of Hollywood's supernatural fright fraternity. Where other kindred spirits score big on the scare meter, the ghost comes off as vaudevillian. More yuks than yecchs.
Ask yourself how many video stores put ghost movies in the horror section. Think ghost and you think Casper - the "friendly" ghost.How about the ghost as a romantic figure on the big screen? Oh, some films have made the attempt. "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" succeeded to a degree, but couldn't sustain the charm. "Always" tried, but was much too schmaltzy.
The ghost as an Oscar competitor? Get real. Sure, lots of name stars have appeared in spirited flicks: Cary Grant, Rex Harrison, Peter O'Toole, George C. Scott and John Gieglud, to name a handful. But so did Bob Hope, Abbott and Costello, and Sherman Hemsley.
Roles in ghost movies have tended to be on the thin side. Heck, you could see right through them.
And then along came "Ghost."
The blockbuster film, which hit the video stores in March, gave the genre credibility, a sex symbol in Patrick Swayze, and a shot at an Academy Award on Monday as best picture.
"Ghost" also made a lot of money. With worldwide box-office receipts surpassing $450 million, it is the biggest-grossing ghost movie ever.
The film's huge success was unexpected, director Jerry Zucker said in an interview. "A lot of people questioned my decision to do this picture," he said. "No one really thought the public wanted to see a movie about ghosts."
Unexpected at the outset, maybe, but in the end, Zucker was not surprised by the commercial and critical acclaim "Ghost" garnered. "When I was shooting it, I was very high on the movie, and I really thought it had a very good shot at being very big. This wasn't just a silly ghost movie. It was the first movie to take the spiritual world seriously."
At least the spiritual world of ghosts. Steven Spielberg's "Poltergeist" took a serious approach, but the spirits were frightful, demonic, and not the least bit sympathetic. And they weren't ghosts so much as monstrous apparitions.
Zucker attributed "Ghost's" popularity to a combination of elements: the attraction of the supernatural, the comedic overtones and the tear-jerker love story that drove the plot.
"It played like a roller coaster," he said. "You laughed, you cried, you got romantic, you got scared. It played on so many emotions."
A film as successful as "Ghost" often sparks a flood of imitators - and talk of a sequel. So far, the floodgates of ghost town have yet to open, although Zucker knows of a couple of similar films in development.
As for a Zucker-directed sequel?
Not a ghost of a chance, he said.
Just because a movie has "ghost" in its title, it's not necessarily a ghost movie. For example, "Ghostbusters" has nothing to do with ghosts but with malevolent spirits sent by the devil.
If you want films on video in which ghosts (or characters who come close) are central to the plot, check these out:
- Real ghost movies:
ALISON'S BIRTHDAY (1984). Joanne Samuel and Lou Brown. An Australian horror film about a young girl whose father's ghost warns her to leave home before her 19th birthday. But she returns shortly before the big day, and evil ensues.
ALWAYS (1990). Holly Hunter, Richard Dreyfuss, John Goodman. Firefighter pilot Dreyfuss goes ka-boom in his plane, but his spirit returns to help his former love and another young pilot.
THE AMAZING MR. BLUNDEN (1972). Lynne Frederick, Laurence Naismith, Diana Dors. A children's story about a 19th-century lawyer who returns in the 20th century to help two children right a wrong committed 100 years before.
BAD DREAMS (1988). Jennifer Rubin, Bruce Abbott, Richard Lynch. A horror film about a young woman awakened after a 13-year coma only to find herself haunted by the ghost of a lunatic leader of a hippie cult.
BEETLEJUICE (1988). Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton. Comedy: Baldwin and Davis drown accidentally and return as novice ghosts haunting their Connecticut farmhouse. When a new family moves in and wants to do the place over, the ghosts call on a bizarre spirit (Keaton) to help scare the family away.
BLACKBEARD'S GHOST (1968). Peter Ustinov, Dean Jones, Suzanne Pleshette. A Disney film about a pirate ghost who comes back to prevent his ancestral home from becoming a gambling casino.
BLOODBEAT (1985). Helen Benton, Terry Brown. A samurai ghost haunts backwoods U.S. outposts to repay an old war debt.
THE CANTERVILLE GHOST (1986). John Gielgud, Ted Wass, Andrea Marcovicci. A modern version of a comic Oscar Wilde short story about a ghost, played by Gielgud, condemned to haunt a castle until a descendant breaks a curse.
THE CHANGELING (1979). George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas. Scott plays a musician who finds a retreat in a house haunted by the spirit of a dead child.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1938). Reginald Owen, Kathleen Lockhart, Leo G. Carroll. Classic Dickens tale of three ghosts who make a Christmas believer out of Ebeneezer Scrooge.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1951). This remake features Alastair Sim as Scrooge. Jack Warner and Kathleen Harrison co-star.
DEATH SHIP (1980). George Kennedy, Sally Ann Howes, Richard Crenna. A World War II battleship, haunted by those who died on board, destroys any vessel in its path in its quest for new blood.
DONA FLOR AND HER TWO HUSBANDS (1978). Sonia Braga, Jose Wilker, Mauro Mendonca. A sexy Brazilian comedy about a widow who cavorts with the ghost of her first husband, who is less than thrilled about her pending remarriage. If it sounds a lot like "Kiss Me Goodbye," it's because it inspired the Sally Field film.
THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR (1947). Rex Harrison, Gene Tierney. The ghost of a sea captain befriends a lonely widow at her rented summer cottage.
THE GHOST BREAKERS (1940). Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, Richard Carlson. Hope goes to Cuba to help Goddard lay claim to a haunted mansion.
GHOSTS CAN'T DO IT (1990). Bo Derek, Anthony Quinn. Love-after-death comedy in which Quinn dies and comes back in the body of a young stud.
GHOST CHASE (1988). Jason Lively, Jill Whitlow. Comedy: Two fledgling filmmakers call on the ghost of a dead uncle's butler to help them find a hidden fortune so they can complete a movie.
GHOST DAD (1990). Bill Cosby, Denise Nicholas. Comedy: Cosby plays a ghost caught between here and the hereafter as he tries to close a business deal to help his family. This film came out about the same time as "Ghost" and got shut out of ghostly attentions.
GHOST FEVER (1985). Sherman Hemsley, Jennifer Rhodes, Luis Avalos. Comedy: Two Southern cops investigate a mansion haunted by the ghost of a great-great grandfather of the two owners.
THE GHOST GOES WEST (1935). Robert Donat, Jean Parker. Comedy: An American billionaire buys a Scottish castle and transports it stone by stone to the states - along with the ghost who haunts it.
GHOST IN THE NOONDAY SUN (1974). Peter Sellers, Anthony Franciosa, Peter Boyle. Pirates encounter a ghost while searching for a lost treasure.
GHOSTS OF BERKELEY SQUARE (1947). Robert Morley, Yvonne Arnaud, Wilfrid Hyde-White. Comedy: Two British officers accidentally kill themselves while plotting a murder, and wind up condemned to haunt an old mansion.
GHOSTRIDERS (1987). Bill Shaw and other unknowns star in a tale about a criminal who puts a curse on the preacher responsible for his hanging. A hundred years later, the bad guy and his gang of ghosts fulfill the curse on the preacher's descendants.
HIGH SPIRITS (1988). Peter O'Toole, Steve Guttenberg, Daryl Hannah. Comedy: O'Toole tries to make money by passing off his ancestral family castle as a haunted tourist stop. His ruse awakens some real ghosts.
HOLD THAT GHOST (1941). Abbott and Costello inherit a haunted mansion. Enough said.
KISS ME GOODBYE (1982). Sally Field, James Caan, Jeff Bridges. The American version of "Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands." Ghostly Caan visits his wife just before she remarries, and he's upset about the nuptials.
KWAIDAN (1963). Michiko Aratama, Keiko Kishi, Tatsuya Nakadai. A Japanese anthology of ghost stories adapted from the works of Lafcadio Hearn, an American writer who lived in Japan a century ago.
MIRROR OF DEATH (1987). Julie Merrill and other unknowns star in a story about an abused woman who takes up voodoo for therapy and conjures a vicious ghost.
NOMADS (1986). Pierce Brosnan, Lesley-Anne Down, Adam Ant. A French anthropologist discovers a society of malevolent ghosts living in Los Angeles. So what else is new?
ONE DARK NIGHT (1983). Meg Tilly, Adam West, Robin Evans. An energy-draining ghost menaces a young woman.
SCHOOL SPIRIT (1985). Larry Linville, Elizabeth Foxx, Tom Nolan. A young high school stud dies in an auto accident and returns as a ghost so he can see all the naked girls he wants.
SCROOGED (1988). Karen Allen, Bill Murray, Alfre Woodard. Comedy: A hip, modern-day version of "A Christmas Carol" with Murray as a cold-hearted television executive visited by the three ghosts. Carol Kane as the Ghost of Christmas Present makes the film worthwhile.
SOMEWHERE, TOMORROW (1986). Sarah Jessica Parker, Nancy Addison, Tom Shea. A girl falls in love with the ghost of a teen-age boy as a way to deal with her father's death. Must be some deep psychological message in a plot like that.
SYLVIA AND THE PHANTOM (1950). Odette Joyeux, Francois Perier, Julian Carrette. Comedy: A 16-year old fantasizes that her grandmother's lover haunts a castle.
13 GHOSTS (1960). Margaret Hamilton, Martin Milner, Rosemary DeCamp. A family inherits a haunted house run by a creepy housekeeper played by that ol' wicked witch from Oz, Hamilton.
TOPPER (1937). Cary Grant, Constance Bennett, Roland Young. Comedy: The first of a series that spawned a successful television show in the '50s. Grant and Bennett play suave socialites who become ghosts after their death in an auto accident.
TOPPER TAKES A TRIP (1939). Constance Bennett, Roland Young, Billie Burke. The first sequel, and Grant has departed. But Bennett returns to haunt Cosmo Topper (Young).