This weekend sees the release of The Curse of La Llorona, a supernatural story set in the universe of The Conjuring films. Stories involving ghosts and the supernatural date back to early literature, with depictions of the dead appearing in Homer’s Odyssey, as well as being popularized through the works of Shakespeare and other Renaissance authors. While ghosts are still used in many forms of entertainment, many mainstream fantasy and horror films and series often instead lean more towards elements such as the undead, monsters, aliens, and other assorted creatures.
So to coincide with the release of La Llorona, here are ten of the best movies (horror and non-horror) that focus on the supernatural (in alphabetical order):
1) Beetlejuice
Tim Burton’s second movie remains one of his best, focusing on a newly-deceased married couple who summon the titular character to haunt the family who took residence in their former home. Despite the film being about a haunting, the film is funnier than it is scary, with Michael Keaton being wickedly over-the-top as the titular character, and having an absolute blast with it, even if in retrospect, he does have a bit of creepy vibe to him. The film is visually fantastic, and is the movie that solidified Burton as one of the most visual, gothic directors in recent memory. The scenes that take place in the ghost world are great to look at, while many of the visual gags used by Beetlejuice are a lot of fun. While Tim Burton is more known these days for his subpar remakes of popular children’s movies, this otherworldly venture remains one of the best horror-comedies to date.
2) The Conjuring
Based on a true story, The Conjuring follows demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren investigate a house that appears to be haunted by supernatural entities, after the family residing in the house experiences some strange occurrences. What makes The Conjuring so refreshing is how it never once relies on jump scares or any other typical horror tropes in order to elicit thrills. The suspense is all expertly built and the movie is just plain creepy. The movie is filled with a pair of excellent performances from Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine, and for a movie that focuses on a haunted house, it’s surprisingly very grounded. It’s rare to find a horror movie like The Conjuring these days, and it’s doubtful many more like it will come along.
3) The Devil’s Backbone
Guillermo del Toro is most remembered these days for Hellboy, Pan’s Labryrinth, and the Oscar-winning The Shape of Water, but this early feature of his remains one of his best. While del Toro is a master at fantasy, skills at telling a well-crafted horror movie are even better. The film is incredibly well-shot and relies more on frightening imagery to elicit its scares, especially the scenes that surround a mysterious young boy named Santi. The film also has some political undertones that are expertly weaved into the story, taking place in an orphanage run by a couple set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. The movie is filled with some slow-building suspense, but moves at an awfully quick pace, breezing through its hour-and-forty-minute runtime. Creepy, atmospheric, and visually astounding, this is a treat for any die-hard horror fans.
4) The Evil Dead
The film that launched two sequels, a remake, a TV series, and countless other media, The Evil Dead was a huge sensation, and has gone on to become one of the biggest cult movies of all time. The film focuses on a group of college students in a cabin who find a book of the dead, reciting its incantations and bringing about countless spirits and demons that attack them all. This is easily one of the most bonkers entries on this list, filled with gory, over-the-top violence, demonic trees, and moments of some truly dark humor (which would be nothing compared to its sequel, which went into full comedy territory). The film put both director Sam Raimi and star Bruce Campbell on the map, and continues to be regarded as one of the greatest horror movies of all-time. This is “Horror 101” for those newer to the genre, and remains a bloody good time.
5) The Exorcist
One of the quintessential horror movies is one that has stood the test of time well. Focusing on two priests who attempt to perform an exorcism on a young girl possessed by an evil spirit, this is the flagship film when it comes to stories of demonic possessions in horror films. Infamous for many of the adverse reactions by audiences at the time, including fainting and nausea, the film is arguably still one of the most frightening films of all-time. Filled with some truly terrifying imagery of the possessed Regan, many moments in this movie are some of the most famous in movie history, including the infamous head-turning and spider-walk sequences. Bound to make one squirm at least once while watching it, The Exorcist is one of the films that defines “pure terror.”
6) Ghostbusters
And now for something completely different. The furthest thing from horror on this list, but it’s hard to make a list of ghost movies without mentioning this one. Ghostbusters, like many of the movies on this list, went on to become a huge franchise. It spawned a sequel of its own, a remake, video games, theme park attractions, and plenty of other media. It is wonderfully over-the-top and full of laughs, with a talented cast led by Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Dan Aykroyd firing off plenty of quotable one-liners that are still remembered to this day. Many of the film’s scenes are iconic, with ghosts and demonic characters such as Slimer, Zuul, and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man being instantly recognizable. Visually appealing, laugh-out-loud hilarious, and an all around good time, Ghostbusters is pure entertainment.
7) House on Haunted Hill
The oldest film on this list, House on Haunted Hill is one of the finest films to contain one of the earliest masters of horror, Vincent Price. While the film can be genuinely scary, it is also extremely campy and over-the-top at the same time. Price plays an eccentric millionaire who invites five people over to his house for a “haunted house party,” offering $10,000 to those who stay in the house for just one night. While it’s believed to be a stunt at first, it does turn out the house is genuinely haunted, with the five guests being endlessly chased around by spirits that reside in the house. The film is also easily the shortest on this list, clocking in at 75 minutes, and moving at an extremely fast pace. It feels a bit dated, but that’s part of the fun, as it didn’t take a itself too seriously to begin with. A little bit of laughter, mixed with some old-school scares, House on Haunted Hill is a delightful good ol’ time.
8) A Nightmare on Elm Street
While this one is more associated with the slasher subgenre, it’s very much a ghost story, considering Freddy Krueger is the ghost of a serial killer who lives within people’s dreams. And like many of the other movies on this list, it’s also a popular media franchise. It’s arguably one of the most iconic horror franchises of all-time, spawning six sequels of its own, a crossover movie with Friday the 13th, as well as a remake. While many of the sequels are fun in their own rights for how over-the-top they would get, the first film in the franchise remains the best. The overall tone is unsettling, especially all the scenes that take place in the infamous boiler room, while many of the kills displayed here can get extremely gruesome. While there are little traces here and there of the series’ dark sense of humor it would become known for in the sequels, this one plays it mostly straight, and still remains a frightening experience to this day.
9) ParaNorman
The second feature from stop-motion animation studio Laika does involve zombies invading to a town in Massachusetts, but mainly follows a young boy who can speak with the dead and has to end a 300-year-old witch’s curse on his hometown. This movie is one of the funnier ghost stories around, with plenty of rapid-fire exchanges between characters and some over-the-top visual gags. While it’s not so much a scary movie, that’s not to say it’s without some great imagery, due mostly in part by the beautiful animation style that really captures the feel of old-school small-town-set horror movies, like many adaptations of Stephen King’s novels. The film is also full of heart, with well-developed characters and a story that manages to get into some pretty emotional territory, especially towards the end. And to boot, it also has an excellent voice cast, including Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and John Goodman in a cameo that is easily the funniest part of the entire movie. May not be as much of a family-friendly venture as most animated movies are, but ParaNorman remains one of the best animated movies in recent memory.
10) The Shining
It’s almost impossible to make a list of ghost movies and not include one of film’s most famous haunted hotels. While Stephen King famously dislikes this adaptation of his beloved novel, The Shining has gone on to be known as one of the greatest horror movies of all-time. The film follows a hotel caretaker who looks after the place in the off-season with his wife and son, and soon becomes caught up with the hotel’s horrifying past and the many spirits that reside within the hotel currently. The film contains one of Jack Nicholson’s greatest performances, and while as King famously noted it’s a bit too obvious from the beginning that he would lose his mind throughout the movie, Nicholson still makes it quite an unnerving experience. The film is filled with some creepy imagery, as Jack and his family discover what’s inside some of the rooms within the hotel. It’s also a bit of a slow-burn, clocking in at almost a full two-and-a-half hours, mainly thanks to director Stanley Kubrick’s meticulous style of slow, long-takes to build up suspense, which would lead to some explosive, terrifying moments. Well-acted, beautifully filmed, and one of the scariest movies of all-time, The Shining is an iconic horror classic.
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