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Ghost Story

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Ghost Story is 2978 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 8 places since yesterday. In United States, it is currently more popular than Seven Psychopaths but less popular than Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose.

Four successful elderly gentlemen, members of the Chowder Society, share a gruesome, 50-year-old secret. When one of Edward Wanderley's twin sons dies in a bizarre accident, the group begins to see a pattern of frightening events developing.

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Ghost stories should always begin as this one does, in shadows so deep that the flickering light of the dying fire barely illuminates the apprehensive faces of the listeners. They should be told in an old man's voice, dry as dust. They should be listened to by other men who are so old and so rich that we can only guess at the horrors they have seen. And, of course, ghost stories should be about things that happened long ago to young, passionate lovers who committed unspeakable crimes and have had to live forever after with the knowledge of them. If at all possible, some of the characters should be living in this life, filled with guilt, while others should be living the half-lives of the Undead, filled with hatred and revenge. 

Peter Straub's best-selling novel Ghost Story contained all of those elements, and so I plugged away at it for what must have been hundreds of pages before his unspeakable prose finally got to me. At least, he knows how to make a good story, if not how to tell it, and that is one way in which the book and the movie of “Ghost Story” differ. The movie is told with style. It goes without saying that style is the most important single element in every ghost story, since without it even the most ominous events disintegrate into silliness. And “Ghost Story,” perhaps aware that if characters talk too much they disperse the tension, adopts a very economical story-telling approach. Dialogue comes in short, straightforward sentences.

Background is provided without being allowed to distract from the main event. The characters are established with quick, subtle strokes. This is a good movie.  The story involves four very old men, who have formed a club to tell each other ghost stories. The casting is crucial here, and the movie's glory is in the performances and presences of Fred Astaire , the late Melvyn Douglas , Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and John Houseman . What a crowd. 

There is also a young protagonist ( Craig Wasson ), who has a dual role as Fairbanks's twin sons. When one comes to a dreadful end, the other begins to suspect that a mysterious woman may have something to do with it. And indeed she may. I would not dream of even hinting at exactly what connection this young woman (played with creepy charm by Alice Krige ) might have with the four old men, but of course there is a connection. The movie flashes back fifty or sixty years to establish the connection, but its scariest scenes are in the present. They involve a wonderful haunted house, a long-drowned auto, a series of horrendous accidents, a group of ghostly manifestations, and a truly horrible vengeance wreaked upon the living by the not-exactly-dead. 

If you like ghost stories, you will appreciate that they cannot be told with all sorts of ridiculous skeletons leaping out of closets, as in Abbott and Costello. They must be told largely in terms of fearful and nostalgic memory, since (by definition) a ghost is a ghost because of something that once happened that shouldn't have happened. “Ghost Story” understands that, and restrains its performers so that the horror of the ghost is hardly more transparent than they are.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Ghost Story (1981)

110 minutes

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Ghost Story

1981, Horror/Drama, 1h 50m

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Critics Consensus

Director John Irvin wastes the efforts of a tremendously talented cast, making this one Ghost Story that deserves to be drowned out by boos. Read critic reviews

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Every year, four affluent old friends -- Ricky Hawthorne (Fred Astaire), Sears James (John Houseman), Dr. John Jaffrey (Melvyn Douglas) and Edward Wanderley (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) -- meet to tell ghost stories. When one of Wanderley's sons dies mysteriously the day before his wedding, and the ghostly apparition of a beautiful woman appears on the ice, the four old friends have no choice but to piece together one last story -- this one more terrifying than all the others, because it is true.

Genre: Horror, Drama, Mystery & thriller

Original Language: English

Director: John Irvin

Producer: Burt Weissbourd , Douglas Green

Writer: Lawrence D. Cohen

Release Date (Theaters): Dec 18, 1981  original

Release Date (Streaming): Apr 19, 2016

Runtime: 1h 50m

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Production Co: Universal Pictures

Cast & Crew

Fred Astaire

Ricky Hawthorne

Melvyn Douglas

Dr. John Jaffrey

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Edward Charles Wanderley

John Houseman

Sears James

Alice Krige

Eva Galli, Alma Mobley

Craig Wasson

Don Wanderley, David Wanderley

Jacqueline Brookes

Patricia Neal

Stella Hawthorne

Miguel Fernandes

Gregory Bate

Lance Holcomb

Young Hawthorne

Kurt Johnson

Young Wanderley

Young James

Brad Sullivan

Sheriff Hardesty

Omar Norris

Robert Burr

Helena Carroll

Mrs. Meredith

Robin Curtis

Breon Gorman

Nettie Dedham

James Greene

The Postman

Lawrence D. Cohen

Screenwriter

Burt Weissbourd

Douglas Green

Jack Cardiff

Cinematographer

Film Editing

Philippe Sarde

Original Music

Norman Newberry

Production Design

Art Director

Mary Ann Biddle

Set Decoration

Costume Design

Mike Fenton

Critic Reviews for Ghost Story

Audience reviews for ghost story.

Four old gentlemen, in a small club that celebrates ghost stories as well as strong drink, cannot believe it when they are visited by bad dreams and occurrences that seem to point to a real ghost in their lives. The main attractions to this particular story are its top heavy cast as well as the popular story by Peter Straub. The scares have not weathered the passing of years too well, but the spooky vibe still remains and carries the work nonetheless.

Ghost Story is an average horror yarn that had the potential of being something truly memorable. As it stands, there are some effective moments here and there, but overall the material is mostly flat with minimal chills to be had. I enjoyed the film as a mindless time waster, but I also felt that the filmmakers could have put a bit more effort into the film's script to really make it stand out among other ghost tales. Acting wise, there are some good performances, unfortunately there are no standout performances either. Genre fans may enjoy it, and there some good things about the film. However like I said, there should have been more effort put into delivering something truly horrifying. Ghost Story is mildly chilling, and it leaves a lot to be desired. Is the film worth seeing, you ask? Well, it is, if you want something in the vein of Amityville horror, where it's not too scary, and then this is a perfect film to watch. Ghost Story is one of those films that is perfect for newcomers of the horror genre as the horror content is quite soft, but suggests more that what is going on, on-screen. In that sense, it leaves the imagination run wild, and it that respect, the movie succeeds at being quite entertaining and overcoming its shortcomings. The film could have been reworked, but as a whole, it's mindless entertainment that will appeal to new fans of horror, but for the veteran, they notice its flaws very early. The plot on the other hand is quite good, but good have been perfected a bit more to really make Ghost Story a memorable horror classic. In the end, it's worth seeing, and if you can get past its imperfections, you might like it as a cheesy horror tale.

Not bad at all but not as scary as I hoped it would be

Even though the effects are outdated, there are some very genuine feelings of creepiness and read while watching this. This movie also relies heavily on flashbacks and more of a story than most brainless horror movies, even though it isn't as fun as some slasher flicks.

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• Cast & Crew

Ghost Story

• 1 hr 50 mins
• Drama, Suspense

Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and John Houseman as friends bound together by a long-kept secret. Craig Wasson. Alma/ Eva: Alice Krige. Stella: Patricia Neal. Milly: Jacqueline Brookes. Directed by John Irvin.

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Fred Astaire

Ricky hawthorne.

Melvyn Douglas

Dr. john jaffrey.

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How two spine-chilling TV shows are bringing Indigenous ghost stories to life

Indigenous filmmakers melding genre and culture into something fresh, spooky.

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While growing up in Siksika Nation , Trevor Solway would watch spooky TV shows such as  Goosebumps , Tales from the Crypt and Are You Afraid of the Dark? in the evenings, before he and his cousins gathered around the kitchen to hear real-life Blackfoot legends told by their grandparents.

That pairing of culture and genre is the basis for the Calgary-based filmmaker's APTNlumi series, Tales From The Rez. It combines the comedy-horror anthology format he loved in his youth and scary stories from his community, each updated and embedded with a lesson for younger generations.

"I think this is like a modern continuation of that tradition," Solway told CBC News. "As Blackfoot filmmakers and storytellers, it's our responsibility to come up with new stories."

As Indigenous horror continues to cement itself as a rich subgenre, filmmakers such as Solway are reimagining old family ghost stories for the screen, melding genre and culture into something fresh, but still familiar to those who grew up with these stories and characters.

• Indigenous storytellers share scary stories and the wisdom they hold
• Membertou filmmaker shines light on Mi'kmaw ghost stories in new TV show

Like the radioactive monster films that Japan made after the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the American horror films of the 1970s that depicted the breakdown of traditional families, Solway says that the Indigenous horror subgenre draws from the community's fears.

"I think for us, one of the scariest things that trumps all of those is colonial horror and the horrors that have been put upon us as Indigenous people," he explained. During production of  Tales From The Rez , he said the cast and crew held smudge ceremonies so as not to invite in the dark subject matter that the show depicts.

With Tales From The Rez,  "there's a lot of subthemes of toxic masculinity and alcoholism and all of these things that didn't exist before contact," he said. "And so, you know, there's a layer of that to all the episodes and the struggles that we continue to deal with."

During the first episode, for example, a devil walks into a bar — and Solway infuses the script with themes of toxic masculinity, addiction and colonialism. A later episode follows a trickster character who goes on a mischievous rampage.

Solway and producer Colin Van Loon pitched the series to Indigenous broadcaster APTN at a live pitch competition during the ImagiNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival a few years ago. It was well-received by the audience, but it didn't win.

"I think the really brilliant thing that Trevor was able to elevate through his writing was this idea of characters and narratives and the things that might have been happening that weren't in the [original] story or the kind of urban legends that people told," said Van Loon.

APTN recently renewed the series for a second season. 

Ghost hunting on Cape Breton Island

The duo aren't the only ones repurposing urban legends. Dawn Wells, a Sydney, N.S.-based documentarian and ghost hunter, dives into the ghost stories and unexplained mysteries that haunt the Nova Scotia Island's Mi'kmaq community in her series, Creepy Cape Breton .

"My grandmother would tell us ghost stories when we were younger. And it was just a family thing we all did," said the Mi'kmaq filmmaker. Like Solway, she was fascinated by TV shows such as  Unsolved Mysteries in her youth.

She thinks the show — coming from a Mi'kmaw filmmaker who was brought up surrounded by the community's urban legend on a reserve — offers a unique perspective that isn't usually found in the genre, mixing real-life UFO sightings and Bigfoot-like creatures with Mi'kmaq legends and smudging ceremonies.

"Traditionally the older generation, like my parents, were very superstitious. Even though we told ghost stories and everything, it actually kind of was a no-no to talk about the dead," said Wells, which she attributed to a strong Catholic influence. 

"It's kind of strange because our culture is so wrapped in tradition and it's so strongly connected to the earth and a lot of [spirituality]."

Jamesie Fournier, a Toronto-based Inuk horror writer, says his own interest in the genre was inspired by the stories that his mother told him as a child — bone-chilling tales that kept him and his brother from getting into trouble.

He believes there's no better way to learn about a community than to learn what their fears are, pointing to a legend frequently told during his upbringing in Northwest Territories: the Qallupilluit, a creature that lives under the sea ice who drags down children playing too close to its cracks.

"In a lot of Indigenous cultures, we [have] the world that we see in front of us right now. But also behind that world there is a secondary one, a spiritual landscape that exists [where] all your actions have much more gravitas and the consequences are much more dark," Fournier said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jenna Benchetrit is a web and radio journalist for CBC News. She works primarily with the entertainment and education teams and occasionally covers business and general assignment stories. A Montrealer based in Toronto, Jenna holds a master's degree in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University. You can reach her at [email protected].

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Opinion AI ghosts are coming. But must we perform from beyond the grave?

When Tom Hanks recently declared that he expects an AI version of himself to keep performing after his death, the so-called Everyman actor hinted at a future that’s coming for all of us.

Hollywood’s special effects and computer-generated imagery have long tricked us into believing in what isn’t real. But today’s deepfake technology goes further, promising a future of “live” musical performances from the dead. Last year, a convincing AI avatar of Elvis Presley , the product of a collaboration between an onstage singer and a technologist, appeared on “America’s Got Talent,” and a less polished avatar of the Notorious B.I.G. performed a posthumous concert in the metaverse .

Why I’m writing a column on the future

Technology to make deepfakes that closely resemble real people is poised to get even better, and more accessible, with growing commercial investment. Last week, the multilingual AI video company Synthesia announced it had achieved a $1 billion valuation after raising $90 million in new investment.

When Natalie Cole sang a live duet with a simple video of her late father, Nat King Cole, or when Tupac Shakur appeared as a projection onstage at Coachella, no one could have mistaken the apparitions for the genuine articles. A future when we can actually be duped by high-tech versions of our favorite dead performers holds some appeal — supercharging the nostalgia served up by cover bands like the Fab Four and Dark Star Orchestra. And if AI clones are going to power efforts to disinform the masses about elections, distort geopolitical outcomes , create revenge porn and prey on unwitting grandparents for cash, the public deserves as a consolation prize deepfake concerts from Tina Turner and David Bowie.

But what about people who aren’t so famous? Should we perform from beyond the grave, too, to nourish the nostalgia of family and friends who might want to remember us? We might want to think twice before haunting our friends and descendants like ghosts of Christmas past.

Grief tech is already on offer. So it might be inevitable, if trends hold, that someone will try to make an AI apparition of you. Seance AI offers an AI chatbot for the living to “communicate” with dead loved ones. Amazon has promised that Alexa will soon allow people to read to their grandchildren after they are dead via a digital voice likeness. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Post, and The Post’s interim CEO, Patty Stonesifer, sits on Amazon’s board.) HereAfter AI combines voice-cloning and the content of recorded conversations to let the living talk to artificial versions of the dead.

Entrepreneurs are building these tools ostensibly to help people bring back memories — though even AI enthusiasts are wary. “I’m all about the technology in general but am skeptical about its uses in this deeply emotional and human domain,” says Rabindra Ratan, a professor at Michigan State University whose research has shown how online avatars help people build confidence in the real world, and now advocates that people try to make deepfakes of themselves — but not of dead loved ones.

The current offerings are mostly stilted and glitchy — and a poor substitute for the experience of actually talking to a lost family member or friend. It turns out summoning the King’s likeness to sing and thrust his hips is simpler than capturing your late father’s full personality, let alone the unique way he interacted with each of his kids. And so far, most efforts have been retroactive, making it impossible to secure the consent of the dead (although entertainment industry fakers have attempted to get permission from performers’ estates).

However, as language models get better at imitating the natural speech of individuals, and as techniques improve for cloning human voices and facial expressions, it’s going to get easier to imagine a next generation of these technologies with the same degree of verisimilitude as the musical performances — that is, interactive AI avatars who survive us, embodied by augmented-reality holograms or robots who look and talk something like we once did.

For now, there is something vaguely predatory about selling grieving people a product that supports the fiction that they can speak with their dead relatives, even when the technology is not all that convincing. But future generations might one day have a less nefarious and more fun use for our AI avatars — if they are meant to project not an illusion of immortality amid acute grief, but episodic connection and education.

Getting the best out of these ghosts will require that the living exercise some foresight. Fame has compelled celebrities such as Hanks to wrestle with who holds the rights to their digital likenesses. Their guilds and lawyers are negotiating with Hollywood studios and record labels, and some performers are suing advertisers who make deepfake versions of them.

Copyright law doesn’t explicitly cover deepfakes, and even if it did, it would likely not be enforceable across countries. Some states have outlawed the use of deepfakes for political campaigns and revenge porn, and such reforms ought to be expanded to protect the living, whether famous or not. But we should also start worrying about how likenesses created by people with good intentions might outlive us.

At a minimum, consider putting your wishes regarding an AI avatar into your will. You might also exert some control by creating your own ghost in advance instead of leaving critical design choices to your descendants. Recordings of your conversations and habits will form the database that the avatar will use to communicate. When it comes to being remembered, some people like the hagiographic eulogy, the obituary that betrays no flaws or setbacks. You might similarly be tempted to emulate the many people who create virtual-reality and video game avatars that are more idealized versions of themselves — by making your AI ghost taller or more attractive, correcting that nervous tic, adding fluency in Finnish and Japanese, or picking an age in your heyday. You might even create a digital self who is less hot-tempered and more magnanimous with the kids.

The risk here is that your descendants will one day write you off as a long-dead egomaniac. This is why it’s wise to keep in mind that your AI avatar is not actually about you — as you won’t be around to experience its encounters. Rather than burnish your reputation, aim to represent the truth of your life to distant relatives who might want to meet you or understand the history you witnessed.

And be warned that the downsides of haunting people from the grave in the immediate aftermath of your death might exceed the glories. Your AI avatar will be more than the Taj Mahal while also being less: more a reflection of your living self than a grand monument — and yet also less marvelous. Although people have long preserved themselves and relatives for posterity in family portraits and littered the landscape with memorials, such remembrances are not mistakable for living versions of the dead, as digital deepfakes could be.

Avatars lurking around the living room could thwart the grieving process of the living, depriving them of the peace that comes from letting go. People already mistake and confide in chatbots as if they were human; those who are suffering loss might come to depend on AI avatars as stand-ins, prolonging their grief.

Ratan suggests there might be isolated instances, such as after an unexpected death, in which simulated interactions between the living and dead might help a person achieve closure. But it would pay to be cautious — to avoid the delicate grieving period altogether and instead cast AI avatars as future ancestors who could show up decades or even generations down the line as a connection to history and a family’s past. Having great-aunts and -uncles visit Passover seders and family reunions to share old stories and answer questions would be entertaining and edifying. At a broader scale, AI avatars could allow communities to preserve endangered languages by offering up elders as interlocutors for the young.

These ghosts need not pretend to any starring role among the living. Better that they make only cameo appearances. After all, no one wants a future in which the dead fail to exit stage right. The quest for immortality is ancient, and it’s starting to look its age — no matter what new technology dresses it up. A truly radical future would be one where people no longer try to live forever, where loss is accepted and the living are well taken care of — where we live, let die and make room for the new.

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Ghost Story (1981) Trailer

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