Most Promising Upcoming Ghost Movies



(The movie above, “Phasma Ex Machina” promises to be the movie I would have written if I wrote an ideal ghost hunter-themed movie. This looks wickedly cool. I haven’t found a date for release, but it’s gotta be soon)

*See also “The Eclipse” review in my last post being release March 26th.

After writing about “The Strangers,” I couldn’t help thinking about how amazingly well directed that movie was. I wondered what the director was up to now. He’s got a fantastic project in the hopper. It’s due out in 2011, but I will be counting the days. “Alone” is about woman who, after she suffers a tragedy, becomes a shut-in in a fancy apartment. Trouble is, the place is haunted and she soon finds herself seeing things

Box of Shadows” is awaiting release. It centers around a group of college friends, who discover a 15th century coffin that allows them to experience the world as ghosts. While their first adventures in the spirit world are playful and innocent, the "Box of Shadows" soon brings out the group's most dangerous impulses and desires. The friends find themselves pulled into a world of evil where they learn the line between life and death is there for a reason.

The Ward” by John Carpenter is in production. Due out 2010. Set in a mental institution where a young woman, Kristen is haunted by a mysterious and deadly ghost. As danger creeps closer, she comes to realize that this ghost might be darker than she could have imagined. Kristen, early 20's wakes to find herself bruised, cut, drugged and held against her will in a remote ward of Chamberlain Psychiatric Hospital . She is completely disorientated, with no idea why she was brought this place and no memory of her life. The other patients in the ward, four equally troubled girls, offer no answers and Kristen quickly realizes things are not as they seem. The air is heavy with secrets and at night, when the hospital is dark and foreboding, she hears strange and disturbing sounds. It appears they are not alone. One by one the girls disappear and Kristen must find a way out of this hellish place before the ghost comes for her too. As she struggles to escape, she will uncover a truth far more dangerous and horrifying than anyone could have imagined.

Some remakes and sequels are promising, others are just plain stupid:

Poltergeist” (will surely be as bad as the “Amityville Horror” remake)

Dark Shadows" (promises to be better than the campy original)

Ghost Rider 2” (how stoned was this production crew to think this was worthy of an original, much less a sequel?)

Ghostbusters 3” (by Ivan Reitman, I think it’ll be fun if the originals will join)

It” (the Stephen King miniseries, you know, the one with Pennywise the clown. I doubt it’ll be any good, the original was a questionable plot line)

Mirrors 2” (the original was pretty okay and original but definitely not worth a revisit)

Paranormal Activity 2” (hey, director, did you ever hear of “Blair Witch 2?” Stop while you’re making a profit!)

Pet Semetery” (okay, another Stephen King not worthy of a first let alone second version)

Silent Hill 2” (better be by the same folks and not have such a damned dark ending--people do not like seeing families separated and children involved.)

The Orphanage” (who would remake a masterpiece?)

Comments

  1. Wow so many remakes. I didn't like the clown Pennywise the first time. I think Alone sounds interesting. I'd like to see more scary/ spooky ones with a fall or Halloween theme. Endless possiblities and folklore. Maybe one set in victorain era with a focus on divination games adults used to play. :)

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  2. Becca;
    I'm in total agreement! I was so excited last fall about "Trick R Treat" which actually was the first Halloween movie I saw that was packed with the actual day of Halloween. How rare is that??? I don't get moviemakers. Don't they know that Halloween is like a religious holiday for most of America? We want our Halloween mood to last for a few months! I sometimes dream about writing and directing my own horror movie just to get it "right." Remember all those scary urban legends as a kid? The local "haunted house" and the scary dude everyone thought was burying bodies in his basement? The smell of woodsmoke and the scarecrows against a night sky? I wish someone could come along and get it together! I'm planning on getting a flip cam, so maybe amongst the videos I'll do for the blog, I can manage a couple moody scary ones that capture little moments in scary time. That will be my goal this late spring/summer.

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  3. Like you said, some of those remakes should not have been made. Great list of movies. Some I haven't heard of. Spooky exicitment to come...

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  4. Julie;
    I always hope that they release the horror movies in August to October because that's when I'm in peak Halloween mood. Come latter part of monsoon season, I'm fully and completely in Halloween in my head and ready to move on. Of course, with El Nino, we might get an actual monsoon season this year--yahoo!

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  5. that movie looks scary! i am not too good with scary movies. i bought my flipcam on amazon used but like new condition. it paid 78.00 for it. someone received it and opened the package but never used it. it's in perfect shape.

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  6. Hey Joyce;
    Cool! I was going to take some earnings from my writing and go splurge and pick one up. I can't even imagine the kind of mischief I will get into on my blog using it.

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  7. You know I'm all hyped up re Phasma Ex Machina! However, a lot of these other ones sound very promising too (like Dark Shadows and Alone). GREAT post!

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  8. Hey, this is Matt Osterman, writer/director of Phasma Ex Machina. Just wanted to jump in and say thanks for posting the trailer and the kind words. I wish I could give you a hard date on when the movie is coming out, but we're an independent movie outside the hollywood system and things take a little longer for films like ours. We so appreciate the support and I promise to scream from the rafters when the film is available.

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  9. Matt;
    I gotta say, I'm totally stoked. I haven't been this excited about a ghost-themed movie since...well, can't even remember! Yours promises to be something quite unique and riveting. I love the concept and have worked on a SciFi novel about the concept of talking to the other side and how it would change the world. I set it aside for the past decade, but I keep meaning to change it to a screenplay. The implications of a virus being launched from the other side and maybe we're not just talking to heaven but also hell---very much a correlation with the problems with the Internet. I just need to find some time and space to learn about screenplay format, but I sure think it lends itself better to film than book. I think your movie will satisfy my thoughts on the subject of whether we really want to talk to the other side...

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