Skip to main content
Games Radar Newsarama Total Film Edge Retro Gamer SFX
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The smarter take on movies
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • More
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series X
    • Nintendo Switch
    • Nintendo Switch 2
    • PC
    • Platforms
    • Tabletop Gaming
    • Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsletters
    • About us
    • Features
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
Subscribe now
Trending
  • Best Netflix Movies
  • Best movies on Disney Plus
  • Movie Release Dates
  • Best Netflix Shows
Don't miss these
The 30 best horror movies of all time: pictures from The Wicker Man, The Shining, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Hereditary.
Horror Movies The 30 best horror movies that will haunt you long after the credits roll
talk to me
Horror Movies The 25 best Netflix horror movies to watch right now
Rachel Sennott in Shiva Baby
Movies The 32 greatest movies under 90 minutes
Eddie Murphy as Russell and Pete Davidson as Travis in The Pickup.
Amazon Prime Video The 25 best movies on Amazon Prime to watch right now
Helen Mirren as Elizabeth Best in The Thursday Murder Club.
Movies The 25 best movies on Netflix to watch this week
David Howard Thornton as Art the Clown in Terrifier.
Amazon Prime Video The 10 best Amazon Prime horror movies to watch right now
Hell House LLC's possessed clown in the Hell House LLC: Lineage theatrical promo
Horror Movies Final instalment in beloved found footage horror franchise Hell House LLC confirms release date with clown-tastic creepy teaser
Indy the dog in supernatural horror movie Good Boy
Horror Movies It's pooch vs poltergeist in the first trailer for unique new horror movie Good Boy – and it's already clear why the film has a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score
Tatiana Maslany in Keeper
Horror Movies The creepy first trailer for new haunted cabin horror movie from Longlegs has arrived – 5 months after it was shown at select screenings of The Monkey
Embalmed hand from Bring Her Back (2025) website blackangeltapes.net net to the embalmed hand from Talk To Me (2023)
Horror Movies New horror movie Bring Her Back launches in-universe black market website all but confirming Talk To Me connection, and its contents will terrify you
Scary Movie
Comedy Movies Horror fans are placing their bets on which movies they think will be parodied in Scary Movie 6, and many suggest Midsommar and Hereditary
Bring Her Back
Horror Movies After looking through Bring Her Back's viral black market website, I need Danny and Michael Philippou to make a V/H/S-style found footage movie about its creepy, cursed objects
Phasmophobia
Horror Movies Phasmophobia movie in the works from Paranormal Activity and The Conjuring studio Blumhouse: "We never could've imagined the incredible heights this game would reach"
Adam Scott in Damian McCarthy's Hokum
Horror Movies Severance's Adam Scott looks like he's had better days in curious first look at Oddity director's new horror movie
C.J. Graham as Jason Vorhees in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.
Streaming Services 6 scary movies to watch this Friday the 13th on Netflix, Apple TV Plus, Shudder, and more
  1. Entertainment
  2. Movies
  3. Action Movies
  4. a christmas carol

10 Useful Movie Ghosts

Features
By James White published 30 December 2009

Cinema's helpful hauntings...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Scrooged (1988)

Scrooged (1988)

The Ghost: Ghost Of Christmas Past (David Johansen)

Helpful How? The Bill Murray comedy updates a lot about the story - the miser in need of spiritual redemption is snarky TV executive Frank Cross, not a grumbly old man, for example.

But while the ghost is an uproarious, cigar-chomping dead New York Taxi driver (with a time-traveling vehicle), he still manages to get a tear or two our of Cross as he witnesses his joyless, telly-obsessed childhood.

He's also a lot more fun than most ghouls.

Frightening Fact:
Johansen got his start as a musician, and rose to cult fame as the singer for the New York Dolls. Considering that Scrooged was one of his earliest acting jobs, he does excellent work.

Page 1 of 10
Page 1 of 10
Ghost (1990)

Ghost (1990)

The Ghost: Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze)

Helpful How? Desperate to keep a handle on his old life, murdered mugging victim Sam seeks advice from various other dead folk before eventual recruiting psychic Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg) in his quest to help grieving lover Molly (Demi Moore).

Sam, y'see has also discovered a conspiracy around his dodgy work mates and must expose the culprits before they can endanger his former lady love.

He helps her out, then uses Oda Mae to get one last, spectral song from Molly before ascending to heaven in a shaft of light. Some ghosts get all the luck.

Frightening Fact: Bruce Willis - who was married to Moore at the time - was offered the part of Sam. But he turned it down, thinking the movie wouldn't work. What, no chemistry with the missus, Bruce? Prophetic!

Page 2 of 10
Page 2 of 10
The Shining (1980)

The Shining (1980)

The Ghost: Lloyd The Bartender (Joe Turkel)

Helpful How? Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is having a particularly maddening time at the Overlook Hotel, and what he really needs is a drink. Thank goodness, then for the nattily dressed Lloyd, smoothly pours the bourbon and listens to Jack's woes…

Okay, so maybe's he's not that helpful - he's more of a vision brought about by malevolent energy and is an enabler for Jack's wilder side, what with the imaginary booze…

Frightening Fact:
To maintain a spooky aura about him, Turkel (along with fellow ghost player Philip Stone) never blinks during his scenes with Nicholson.

Page 3 of 10
Page 3 of 10
Casper (1995)

Casper (1995)

The Ghost: Casper (Voice of Malachi Pearson)

Helpful How? Continuing a legacy that began all the way in 1939 with books and a Paramount 'toon, Caspar is an annoyingly friendly, pudgy ghost finally making his transition to big budget Hollywood blockbuster status.

He becomes fast friends with Kathleen 'Kat' Harvey (a young Christina Ricci), who has bunked down in his haunted mansion with her paranormal expert dad to try to help the spirits (including Casper's even more annoying uncles) pass on. The pair end up helping each other, with Casper giving Kat more confidence and Casper getting a one-night chance to come back to life.

Sweet… (Bleurgh)

Frightening Fact:
Casper's time as a real boy is embodied by Devon Sawa, who would go on to much scarier stuff (but not much of a career yet) with Final Destination.

Page 4 of 10
Page 4 of 10
The Frighteners (1996)

The Frighteners (1996)

The Ghost: The Judge (John Astin)

Helpful How? Peter Jackson's last film before his career transitioned into making The Lord Of The Rings, it didn't exactly spook the box office, which is a shame because it's ace.

Astin is a highlight as a sharp-shooting, grizzled Old West sheriff , one of the spectral types that help out Michael J Fox's Frank Bannister, a huckster who uses his spooksome pals also including Jim Fyfe's nerd and Chi McBride's Cyrus) to haunt houses, which he then "exorcises".

The dead gang also come in handy when a truly dangerous killer (Jake Busey) comes back from beyond the grave.

Frightening Fact: Michael J Fox just couldn't stop referring to The Judge as "Doc". Someone clearly needed to tell him that the Back To The Future movies were over.

Page 5 of 10
Page 5 of 10
Always (1989)

Always (1989)

The Ghost: Pete Sandich (Richard Dreyfuss)

Helpful How? Sandich makes a (literally fatal mistake) as the pilot of a water-bombing firefighter plane - he goes on one last mission, which ends with him saving a mate but dying in the process.

He's brought back to Earth to serve as first the bringer of "spiritus" - or divine breath, which is basically making mortals think they came up with good ideas on their own. He's forced, however, to watch his former girlfriend start up a relationship with another man, but overcomes his conflicted feelings to support her and grant her happiness.

He's rewarded for his kindness by getting into heaven. A happy ending? Of course! It's 80s-era Spielberg, people!

Frightening Fact: Spielberg and Dreyfus bonded on Jaws over their mutual love of 1942's romantic fantasy A Guy Named Joe, and they'd sworn to homage it. Consider it done…

Page 6 of 10
Page 6 of 10
Hamlet (1996)

Hamlet (1996)

The Ghost: The King (Brian Blessed)

Helpful How? Tch. Bloody Kenneth Branagh, always pilfering ideas that have been done before. The ghost of someone who was murdered coming back to help… Wait, what? Shakespeare, you say? Written around 1600? Okay, we'll let him off.

Yes, 90s UK filmmaking has a Branagh-driven stab at The Prince Of Denmark with the classic story of our hero's dad coming back from the afterlife to warn his son that his uncle (who married his mother) is a murdering git. It sounds like an episode of Trisha, but it's cult-ure, innit?

If it weren't for the rather bloody and tragic end to the play, we could see Hamlet and his ghostly pop solving crime as a detective team. "What's that, father? You've talked to the victim at Club Heaven and the butler did it? Another case solved! High five… Sorry… forgot you're insubstantial."

Frightening Fact: Blessed agreed to be one of the film's cameo roles to help Branagh get funding for the four-hour epic.

Page 7 of 10
Page 7 of 10
The Ghost And Mrs Muir (1947)

The Ghost And Mrs Muir (1947)

The Ghost: Captain Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison)

Helpful How? Supernatural romance blossoms between Gene Tierney's widow Lucy Muir and the crusty ex-sea captain who haunts his former home.

The Cap helps Mrs M recover her financial stability by dictating his high seas memoir to her, and they slowly fall in love. Sadly for both of them, there's no hope of a quick phantasmic fiddle as he can't touch her.

But while she moves on to a real man, only to have her heart broken - they're reunited once she dies and he arrives to claim her spirit.

Frightening Fact: Fox pondered remaking the film in 1990 with Michelle Pfeiffer and Shir Shean Connery in the leads. Then The Russia House came out and that idea quietly died. It hasn't come back to haunt anyone… yet.

Page 8 of 10
Page 8 of 10
The Sixth Sense (1999)

The Sixth Sense (1999)

The Ghost: Dr Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis)

Helpful How? Look, if you've never seen the movie or haven't heard what the big twist is… um… you've probably already been spoiled just by looking at this page. But the film is 10 years old, people!

Anyhoo, Willis gives a suitably haunted (yes, pun intended) performance as Crowe, trying to help disturbed youngster Haley Joel Osment, who sees, say it with us, "dead people."

Crowe helps him realise that Osment's Cole Sear can help the recently departed, including a girl whose mother was poisoning her. The big twist is, of course, that Crowe is also dead and must slowly come to terms with the fact he has to give up his old life…

Frightening Fact:
While circling a passage in his notes, Willis uses his right hand. He's actually left-handed and learned how to write right-handed so that cinemagoers wouldn't notice that his wedding band was no longer on his hand. Dedication!

Page 9 of 10
Page 9 of 10
Ghostbusters II (1989)

Ghostbusters II (1989)

The Ghost: Slimer (Voice of Ivan Reitman)

Helpful How? There are many reasons to dislike the GB sequel - it's largely a lesser retread of the first film, everyone seems to be cashing a paycheck, the villain's a bit cack who never lives up to his legend - but there's still Slimer, who steals every scene he's in.

Apparently having moved in to the 'Busters firehouse base, he makes a small nuisance of himself by stealing food and scaring Louis Tully (Rick Moranis). But he later proves useful by, er, driving a bus to help Louis get to the art museum to help the guys.

All right, so he's not *that* useful. But he's funny.

Frightening Fact:
Co-writer/star Dan Aykroyd would refer to the ghost on set as the spirit of John Belushi. He's technically named Onionhead, because of his noxious smell, but that's never used in the film itself.

Page 10 of 10
Page 10 of 10
CATEGORIES
Apple Tv Plus Amazon Prime Video Streaming Services
James White
Freelance Journalist

James White is a freelance journalist who has been covering film and TV for over two decades. In that time, James has written for a wide variety of publications including Total Film and SFX. He has also worked for BAFTA and on ODEON's in-cinema magazine. 

See more Movies Features
Read more
The 30 best horror movies of all time: pictures from The Wicker Man, The Shining, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Hereditary.
The 30 best horror movies that will haunt you long after the credits roll
talk to me
The 25 best Netflix horror movies to watch right now
Rachel Sennott in Shiva Baby
The 32 greatest movies under 90 minutes
Eddie Murphy as Russell and Pete Davidson as Travis in The Pickup.
The 25 best movies on Amazon Prime to watch right now
Helen Mirren as Elizabeth Best in The Thursday Murder Club.
The 25 best movies on Netflix to watch this week
David Howard Thornton as Art the Clown in Terrifier.
The 10 best Amazon Prime horror movies to watch right now
Latest in Action Movies
Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster in Marvel's Thunderbolts*
A new behind-the-scenes Thunderbolts photo is making fans even more disappointed with one character death: "She showed her face for like two seconds for absolutely no reason"
Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania
Avengers: Doomsday directors tease it's even bigger than Endgame as Paul Rudd hints at more practical, "jaw dropping" sets in the MCU crossover
Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm in The Fantastic Four_ First Steps
The Fantastic Four: First Steps has finally crossed a major box office milestone over 1 month after release, but only just
Viola Davis as Amanda Waller in Black Adam
James Gunn provides update on Amanda Waller series
Thor: Love and Thunder
Chris Hemsworth says Thor 5 happening depends on one important detail
Hawkeye
Marvel fans are shocked that one of the most exciting new MCU characters has only had two appearances
Latest in Features
Borderlands 4 screenshot shows someone holding a weapon forward towards the camera.
"We tend to commit to the bit": Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford talks Borderlands 4, the evolution of looter-shooters, and $80 game discourse
Valor Mortis
Ghostrunner devs abandon parkour for Valor Mortis, a first-person soulslike that might explain why the rest of the genre follows Dark Souls' lead
A mech firing a machine gun in the desert in Menace
Menace is an XCOM-Warhammer hybrid that makes turn-based strategy feel like an immersive sim, and for the first time in my life I'm playing a game that seems made for me
Metal Gear Solid 5 showing Snake and Ocelot looking to the horizon in front of more soldiers
10 years later, Metal Gear Solid 5 remains a masterpiece that was never going to live up to its own hype
Dogtooth
The new Yorgos Lanthimos movie is getting rave first reactions out of Venice Film Festival, but I think it's worth revisiting his breakout feature Dogtooth before Bugonia hits theaters this fall
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Legacy of the Forge DLC showing Henry and two allies standing looking down
I built a home and ran a business in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's next DLC, and the added role-playing guarantees I'll spend another 70 hours in my current game of the year
  1. Kaser clad in black and Victor in white clash swords in Lost Soul Aside
    1
    Lost Soul Aside review: "We (don't) have Final Fantasy Versus 13 at home"
  2. 2
    Hell is Us review: "The lack of waypoints and explicit objectives is a double-edged magical sword that pulls me deep into its harsh world"
  3. 3
    Shuten Order review: "The Danganronpa creator's new multi-genre mystery feels like a forgotten DS cult classic I would have been obsessed with"
  4. 4
    The Rogue Prince of Persia review: "I roguelike but don't roguelove this freerunner – there's just not enough to stand out"
  5. 5
    Shinobi: Art of Vengeance review: "So close to being to a pitch-perfect revival of a classic series, but just can't quite line up the killing blow"
  1. Jacob Elordi as the monster in Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein
    1
    Frankenstein review: "A classy, if somewhat safe, adaptation"
  2. 2
    Weapons review: "A twisted fairytale that bests Barbarian"
  3. 3
    The Fantastic Four: First Steps review: "An occasionally thrilling heroic adventure that sits safely within a B-tier MCU range"
  4. 4
    Superman review: "A triumphant reinvention and a promising start for the DCU"
  5. 5
    Jurassic World Rebirth Review: "An unscary sequel that needed a little more time in amber"
  1. John Cena as Peacemaker holds a gun to the head of a different John Cena as Peacemaker in Peacemaker season 2.
    1
    Peacemaker season 2 review: "Darker and sadder than the first year, but there's still a lot of fun to be had with the 11th Street Kids."
  2. 2
    Wednesday season 2 part 1 review: "Complex and exciting but weighed down by too many subplots"
  3. 3
    Alien: Earth review: "Arguably the franchise's strongest outing since James Cameron's Aliens"
  4. 4
    King of the Hill season 14 review: "Hank Hill himself has evolved into a much more open and accepting person"
  5. 5
    Eyes of Wakanda review: "A creative premise shortchanged by the runtime and Marvel bloat"

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...