The 7 Most Realistic Ghost Movies Of All Time
June 28, 2017 8:12 AM ‐ Paranormal • Movies
This article is more than seven years old.
Some supernatural movies are based on real-life hauntings and true stories, others are nothing more than a work of fiction but either way there aren't many films that manage to accurately recreate what it's like to be haunted by a ghost.
The problem with most ghost movies is that in order to make the plot interesting, things have to build and escalate towards a climactic ending, its often at this point that the haunting becomes unrealistic and outside the realms of real-life hauntings.
Most of the seven movies I've selected below also make the mistake of over the top endings but until that point they portray a factual and realistic representation of what it's like to be in a haunted location.
7. The Exorcist
Up until the spinning head and projectile vomiting, the idea of a demonic possession isn't too far removed from reality. The Catholic church have taken possessions very seriously in the past and there have been countless real-life exorcisms. The movie is based on a novel by William Peter Blatty. Aspects of the novel were inspired by the exorcism of a young boy in Maryland in 1949.
6. The Conjuring
Although this movie does get away with itself a little in that typical Hollywood way, it is based on the true life case files of one of the most famous paranormal investigators of all time, husband and wife, Ed and Lorraine Warren.
5. The Sixth Sense
The 1999 movie staring Bruce Willis still has the reputation of having one of the greatest twists in movie history. The story is told for a ghost's point of view so it's hard to know how accurate that might be but young boy, Cole played by Haley Joel Osment, seems to experience ghosts in quite a realistic way and as there's no ridiculous climactic moment at the end of the movie, it remains quite believable throughout.
4. Grave Encounters
Grave Encounters is a highly underrated horror movie set in a haunted, disused asylum. The found footage movie presents itself in the style of a ghost hunting television show, a very common format which is why this movie seems so real. Most of movie isn't any less believable than the likes of 'Most Haunted' and 'Paranormal Lockdown'.
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3. Paranormal Activity
The 'Paranormal Activity' series of movies seems so real because of the way it's shot using consumer devices like camcorders, phones, laptops and security cameras. In the first movie Katie and Micah suspect their house might be haunted and place a camera in the bedroom over night. The activity starts off slowly and very realistically but the dark force that's haunting them soon gets much more sinister.
2. The Blair Witch Project
The movie was the first of its kind, the start of the found footage genre and while most of the movie shows nothing more but the lots documentary makers attempting to make their way through the forest, at the end of the film a ghostly house appears from nowhere and the gang meet their fate. The movie was so realistic that when it was released in 1999 many people thought it was real.
1. When The Lights Went Out
A British ghost story based on the story of the Pritchard family and their time in the UK's most haunted house on East Drive, Pontefract. This movie does get out of hand towards the end as isn't true to the original story, but the way the haunting begin are very true to the real life accounts.
The film is set in the 1960s and the movie makers have done a great job of recreating life in that period in a council house in the north of England, from clothing, to props and lifestyle this movie feels very real.
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