100 Fun Facts About Ghost Movie

What was the profession of Patrick Swayze's Sam Wheat in Ghost (1990)?

Sam Wheat is a Banker at a Manhattan bank; his colleague and best friend Carl Bruner arranged the mugging to get the password book Sam used for the accounts Carl was laundering money through.

Who won Best Supporting Actress for playing psychic con artist Oda Mae Brown in Ghost?

Whoopi Goldberg won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as Oda Mae Brown; neither the director nor the writer wanted her at first, and Patrick Swayze pushed for her casting.

Ghost (1990) was directed by Jerry Zucker, previously best known for which comedy?

Jerry Zucker co-directed the 1980 spoof Airplane! with Jim Abrahams and David Zucker, which is why Ghost's screenwriter feared his supernatural romance would be turned into a comedy.

Which actor turned down the lead in Ghost, later calling himself a 'knucklehead' for passing?

Bruce Willis passed on the role, saying he could not see how a dead man could carry a love story; he was married to co-star Demi Moore at the time.

The vocal version of Unchained Melody heard in Ghost was recorded in 1965 by which act?

The Righteous Brothers cut the 1965 version used in Ghost, with Bobby Hatfield singing lead alone; the song itself dates to 1955, with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret.

What one-word reply does Sam give Molly in Ghost whenever she says she loves him?

Sam's reply is 'Ditto', never the words themselves; when Oda Mae passes 'Ditto' on to a sceptical Molly, it convinces her that Sam is really in the room.

Roughly how much did Ghost, 1990's highest-grossing film, take at the worldwide box office?

Ghost grossed about $505 million worldwide on a budget near $22 million, making it the top film of 1990 and briefly the third-highest-grossing film ever released.

Poltergeist (1982) is credited to Tobe Hooper, but which producer, who wrote the story, is thought to have shaped it?

Steven Spielberg produced Poltergeist and wrote its story; his E.T. contract barred him from directing another film at the same time, so Tobe Hooper was hired to direct.

In Poltergeist, five-year-old Carol Anne first talks to the spirits through what household object?

The television set is her channel to the spirits: Carol Anne talks to the static after the station signs off, then turns to her family and announces 'They're here.'

The Freelings' haunted subdivision in Poltergeist, Cuesta Verde, was built on top of what?

A cemetery lay beneath Cuesta Verde: developer Mr. Teague moved the headstones but left the bodies, which is why coffins erupt from the ground in the climax.

In The Sixth Sense, child psychologist Malcolm Crowe works with young Cole in which city?

The Sixth Sense is set and shot in Philadelphia, the city where Shyamalan grew up and where he also set his follow-up Unbreakable.

Which actor played Cole Sear, the boy who sees dead people, earning an Oscar nomination at age 11?

Haley Joel Osment played Cole Sear and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 2000 Oscars, where the award went to Michael Caine for The Cider House Rules.

The Others (2001), starring Nicole Kidman, is set in 1945 on which island?

The Others takes place on Jersey in 1945, just after the German occupation of the Channel Islands ended; Grace keeps the manor dark because her children are photosensitive.

Who wrote, directed and scored The Others?

Alejandro Amenábar wrote, directed and composed the score for The Others, as he had for his earlier Spanish-language films Tesis and Open Your Eyes.

In The Conjuring (2013), Ed and Lorraine Warren help the Perron family in a farmhouse in which state?

The Perron farmhouse is in Harrisville, Rhode Island, where the real family moved in 1971; the film opens with the Annabelle doll case that seeded the wider series.

Which actors play Ed and Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring films?

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga play the Warrens in every Conjuring film; the real couple also investigated the Amityville house, the case that opens The Conjuring 2.

In Beetlejuice, how many times must the title character's name be said to summon him?

Saying his name Three times summons him: the Maitlands do it in Adam's model of the town, and Lydia later repeats it to bring him back during Otho's séance.

Beetlejuice won a single Academy Award. In which category?

Its calypso numbers came from Harry Belafonte's albums Calypso and Jump Up Calypso.

The Maitlands' caseworker in Beetlejuice tells them they must stay in their house for how many years?

Caseworker Juno tells the Maitlands they are bound to the house for 125 years, during which they must put up with the Deetz family moving in.

The 2024 sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opened which film festival before its September release?

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice premiered as the opening film of the Venice Film Festival on 28 August 2024, with Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe and Monica Bellucci joining the returning cast.

The 1995 film Casper is set in Whipstaff Manor in a town called Friendship, in which state?

Whipstaff Manor stands in Friendship, Maine; Christina Ricci's Kat moves in when heiress Carrigan Crittenden hires her ghost-therapist father to clear the house.

Casper (1995) holds what distinction in film history?

Casper is credited as the First feature with a fully CGI lead character: Industrial Light & Magic animated the ghost, voiced by Malachi Pearson, months before Toy Story became the first all-CGI feature.

In The Shining, the Overlook Hotel's chef warns Danny to stay away from which room?

Kubrick's film uses room 237; Stephen King's novel had room 217, and the lodge that supplied the exterior shots asked him not to use the number of one of its real rooms.

Exterior shots of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining were filmed at which real place?

Timberline Lodge, Oregon, on the slopes of Mount Hood, supplied the Overlook's establishing shots; the interiors were built at Elstree Studios in England.

In The Ring (2002), how long do viewers of the cursed videotape have left to live?

After the tape ends, a phone call tells the viewer they have Seven days; Naomi Watts plays Rachel Keller, the journalist who watches it and races that deadline.

The Ring is a remake of a 1998 Japanese film directed by whom?

Hideo Nakata directed Ringu, released in Japan in January 1998, and later went to Hollywood himself to direct the American sequel The Ring Two in 2005.

In Ju-On: The Grudge, what is the name of the wife murdered by Takeo Saeki?

Kayako Saeki is killed by her jealous husband Takeo, along with their son Toshio; her rage becomes the curse that dooms anyone who enters the house.

Which director made both Insidious and The Conjuring?

James Wan directed Insidious in 2010 and The Conjuring in 2013, reuniting on the first with Leigh Whannell, his co-writer on Saw, who also appears as ghost hunter Specs.

In Insidious, what is the name of the purgatory-like realm where Dalton's spirit becomes trapped?

The Further is the dark astral realm where Dalton, born able to astral project, wandered too far and became trapped, leaving his body unresponsive.

Paranormal Activity (2007) was famously shot for roughly how much?

Oren Peli made Paranormal Activity for about $15,000 in his own San Diego house, writing, directing, shooting and editing it himself; it went on to gross over $190 million worldwide.

Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak (2015) is set in a crumbling Gothic mansion in which part of England?

Allerdale Hall stands in Cumberland, in England's far north-west; the blood-coloured clay beneath it seeps up through the snow, giving the estate its 'Crimson Peak' nickname.

Robert Wise's The Haunting (1963) is adapted from a 1959 novel by which author?

Wise shot it in England, using Ettington Park in Warwickshire as Hill House.

The Innocents (1961), starring Deborah Kerr as a governess at Bly, is based on which Henry James novella?

The Turn of the Screw, Henry James's 1898 novella, supplied the story; Truman Capote reworked William Archibald's first-draft screenplay for director Jack Clayton.

The Changeling (1980), with George C. Scott in a haunted Seattle mansion, is a production of which country?

The Changeling was made in Canada, shot mostly in Vancouver with Seattle exteriors, and won Best Motion Picture at the inaugural Genie Awards in 1980.

Robert Zemeckis directed What Lies Beneath (2000) during a break from shooting which other film?

Zemeckis shot What Lies Beneath during the year-long hiatus on Cast Away, while Tom Hanks lost weight and grew a beard for the island scenes.

The Orphanage (2007) was the debut of which director, who later made Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom?

J. A. Bayona made his feature debut with The Orphanage, produced by his friend Guillermo del Toro; he went on to The Impossible and A Monster Calls before Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone (2001) is set in an orphanage during which conflict?

The orphanage stands in the final year of The Spanish Civil War, 1939; an unexploded bomb sits in its courtyard, and the ghost is Santi, a boy who vanished when it fell.

Which revived British studio produced Daniel Radcliffe's The Woman in Black (2012)?

Hammer, the revived British horror studio, produced The Woman in Black, the second adaptation of Susan Hill's 1983 novel; Radcliffe plays solicitor Arthur Kipps.

In David Lowery's A Ghost Story (2017), Casey Affleck spends most of the film as a ghost wearing what?

Affleck's ghost wears A white bedsheet with two eyeholes cut out, a child's costume played straight; Rooney Mara's widow eats an entire pie in one unbroken take.

Which actor plays a psychic architect who cons people alongside ghosts in The Frighteners (1996)?

Michael J. Fox plays Frank Bannister, a psychic who stages hauntings with his ghost friends and then charges to exorcise them; Robert Zemeckis produced the film.

In Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990), Alan Rickman returns as the ghost of a man who played which instrument?

Jamie was a Cello player, and Alan Rickman's ghost returns to play duets with Juliet Stevenson's Nina; Anthony Minghella wrote the film for her, and its working title was simply Cello.

David Lean's Blithe Spirit (1945), about a novelist's dead first wife summoned at a séance, is based on a play by whom?

Noël Coward wrote Blithe Spirit for the stage in 1941; Margaret Rutherford carried her Madame Arcati over from that production, and the film won an Oscar for its special effects.

In the 1937 comedy Topper, which future superstar plays George Kerby, a fun-loving ghost?

Cary Grant plays George Kerby opposite Constance Bennett as his wife Marion; Hal Roach produced it from Thorne Smith's novel, with Roland Young as the henpecked Cosmo Topper.

The 1944 haunted-house classic The Uninvited introduced which song that became a jazz standard?

Victor Young wrote Stella by Starlight as the film's theme for the ghostly Stella Meredith; lyrics were added in 1946, and Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Sinatra all recorded it.

The 1964 Japanese ghost anthology Kwaidan adapts folktales collected by which writer?

Lafcadio Hearn, a Greek-born writer who settled in Japan as Koizumi Yakumo, collected the tales; Masaki Kobayashi's film includes Hoichi the Earless, about a blind biwa player.

William Castle promoted House on Haunted Hill (1959) with "Emergo", which sent what flying over the audience?

Emergo sent A skeleton on a wire gliding over the audience during the climax, matching the one on screen; Vincent Price's millionaire offers guests $10,000 to survive a night in the house.

In Field of Dreams, the ghosts of which disgraced team emerge from Ray Kinsella's cornfield?

Shoeless Joe Jackson leads the ghosts of The 1919 Chicago Black Sox, the eight players banned for throwing that year's World Series; Burt Lancaster made his final film appearance as Moonlight Graham.

In Ghost Town (2008), Ricky Gervais's dentist sees ghosts after being clinically dead for how long?

Bertram Pincus was dead for Seven minutes during a routine hospital procedure, after which he can see Manhattan's ghosts; Greg Kinnear plays the dead husband who wants his widow's engagement broken up.

In Scrooged (1988), Bill Murray's Frank Cross is a cynical executive in what industry?

Frank Cross runs the IBC Television network and is staging a live Christmas Carol; Carol Kane's Ghost of Christmas Present beats him up and David Johansen's Ghost of Christmas Past drives a cab.

The Ghostbusters run their business out of what kind of building?

They buy A disused firehouse in Tribeca and put the containment unit in its basement; the exterior is the real Hook & Ladder 8 station on North Moore Street.

Sinister (2012) stars Ethan Hawke as a true-crime writer who finds snuff films shot on what format?

The footage was shot on real Super 8 stock; a 2020 heart-rate study named Sinister the scariest film ever made.

Talk to Me (2022), where teens contact spirits through an embalmed hand, comes from which country?

Talk to Me was made in Australia, shot in Adelaide by brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, who came from the YouTube channel RackaRacka; A24 released it in 2023.

Stir of Echoes (1999), with Kevin Bacon as a lineman who sees visions after hypnosis, is adapted from a novel by whom?

It came out weeks after The Sixth Sense and was overshadowed; David Koepp wrote and directed.

What had happened a year earlier in the Long Island house dramatised in The Amityville Horror (1979)?

Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot his relatives, six members of his family, in the house in November 1974; its later owners refused filming there, so a private house in Toms River stood in.

In Just Like Heaven (2005), why does Reese Witherspoon's spirit haunt her apartment?

Elizabeth is not dead but In a coma after a car crash, and her spirit drifts back to her San Francisco apartment; the story comes from Marc Levy's French novel If Only It Were True.

Which clipper ship, wrecked a century earlier, do the revenants in The Fog (1980) come from?

The Elizabeth Dane was lured onto the rocks in 1880 by Antonio Bay's founders, who stole its gold to stop its leprosy-stricken owner Blake founding a colony nearby.

Roughly how much did The Sixth Sense gross worldwide?

The Sixth Sense took Over $672 million worldwide on a budget of about $40 million, finishing as the second-highest-grossing film of 1999 behind The Phantom Menace, and earned six Oscar nominations.

Who wrote the screenplay for Ghost (1990)?

Bruce Joel Rubin wrote Ghost and won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for it; his pottery-wheel scene was parodied the next year in The Naked Gun 2½.

Beetlejuice's soundtrack leans heavily on calypso recordings by which singer?

Harry Belafonte's calypso records supply the film's signature numbers: the possessed dinner party dances to 'Day-O' and the finale is set to 'Jump in the Line'.

In Poltergeist, which spiritual medium explains that Carol Anne is trapped on another plane?

Tangina Barrons, played by the diminutive Zelda Rubinstein, tells the Freelings that Carol Anne is alive but on another plane, and later delivers the line 'This house is clean.'

In Ghostbusters (1984), what giant form does the god Gozer finally take?

Ray picks the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man by accident: told to choose the Destructor's form, he tries to think of something harmless from his childhood, and the giant mascot comes striding up the street.

In Ghostbusters II, which landmark do the team bring to life with positively charged slime?

They coat The Statue of Liberty's interior with positively charged mood slime and walk it through Manhattan to Jackie Wilson's 'Higher and Higher', using the crowd's goodwill to breach Vigo's slime shell.

Disney's 2003 film The Haunted Mansion stars which comedian as a workaholic realtor?

Eddie Murphy plays Jim Evers, a realtor who drags his family to Gracey Manor on the way to a holiday; the film opened in November 2003, the same year as Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean ride adaptation.

In The Sixth Sense, which colour is kept off screen so it jolts when it finally appears?

Red is kept off screen so the basement doorknob, Cole's tent and the balloon at the birthday party jolt when they appear; Shyamalan reserved it for anything in the real world touched by the other world.

The 1944 comedy The Canterville Ghost is loosely based on an 1887 story by which writer?

Oscar Wilde wrote The Canterville Ghost in 1887, about an American family unfazed by an English ghost; Charles Laughton plays Sir Simon, a cowardly 17th-century knight doomed to haunt the castle until a descendant performs a brave deed.

Winchester (2018) stars Helen Mirren as the heiress to a fortune built on what product?

Rifles made the family fortune: Sarah Winchester was heir to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and the film, set in 1906, has her ever-expanding San Jose mansion built to house the spirits of those its guns killed.

Ecto-1, the Ghostbusters' car, is a converted 1959 ambulance from which manufacturer?

Ecto-1 is a 1959 Cadillac with a Miller-Meteor combination body that could serve as hearse or ambulance; the 2016 reboot used a 1984 Cadillac Fleetwood hearse instead.

In The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), Rex Harrison's ghost had what profession in life?

Captain Daniel Gregg was a Sea captain in life and insists his death at Gull Cottage was no suicide: he kicked open the gas heater valve in his sleep.

In Netflix's We Have a Ghost (2023), who plays Ernest, the ghost who goes viral online?

David Harbour plays Ernest, a mute ghost named after the bowling shirt he wears; Christopher Landon adapted Geoff Manaugh's 2017 short story 'Ernest' for Netflix.

Which future Lord of the Rings director made The Frighteners (1996)?

Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh conceived it in 1992 while writing Heavenly Creatures; Jackson cameos as a man with piercings whom Frank bumps into on the street.

In Thirteen Ghosts (2001), the ghosts are held in a house made almost entirely of what?

The house is built of Glass panels etched with Latin containment spells, and the ghosts inside can only be seen through special spectral glasses.

Ray Parker Jr.'s Ghostbusters theme drew a lawsuit from which musician over its melody?

Huey Lewis sued in 1984, claiming the theme copied his hit 'I Want a New Drug'; the case settled out of court, and Parker later sued Lewis for discussing the settlement on VH1's Behind the Music.

A night at which Colorado hotel inspired Stephen King to write The Shining?

The Stanley in Estes Park inspired it: King and his wife Tabitha checked in as it shut for the winter in 1974 and were almost the only guests; a hedge maze honouring Kubrick's film was added in 2015.

The Conjuring 2 (2016) dramatises a 1977 poltergeist case in which London borough?

The haunting took place at a council house on Green Street in Enfield, north London, between 1977 and 1979; the Hodgson sisters Janet and Margaret, aged 11 and 13, were at its centre.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) sends Egon Spengler's grandchildren to a farm in which state?

The farm is in Summerville, Oklahoma, a fictional town beside a mine once owned by the occultist Ivo Shandor; the film was actually shot around Calgary, Alberta.

ParaNorman (2012), about a boy who talks to the dead, came from which stop-motion studio?

Laika, based in Hillsboro, Oregon, made ParaNorman after Coraline; the puppets' many replacement faces were 3-D printed, a technique the studio had pioneered on the earlier film.

In Heart and Souls (1993), who plays a man guided by four ghosts killed in a 1959 bus crash?

Robert Downey Jr. plays Thomas Reilly, born at the moment the four strangers' San Francisco bus crashed in 1959; the ghosts withdraw during his childhood and return in 1993 to settle their unfinished business.

Who directed the female-led Ghostbusters reboot of 2016?

Paul Feig directed and co-wrote it with Katie Dippold, his collaborator on The Heat; the end credits use the title Ghostbusters: Answer the Call.

The real Annabelle behind the films is what kind of toy?

The real Annabelle is A Raggedy Ann doll, kept in a locked case at the Warrens' Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut; the filmmakers swapped the cloth toy for a sinister porcelain one.

Audrey Hepburn's final screen role was in which 1989 ghost romance about an aerial firefighter?

In Always, Hepburn plays Hap, the spirit who tells Richard Dreyfuss's dead pilot that his new job is to guide the living; the film remakes 1943's A Guy Named Joe.

In 1408 (2007), John Cusack checks into the cursed room of which New York hotel?

The Dolphin is the hotel; the film adapts a 1999 Stephen King story, and Samuel L. Jackson plays manager Gerald Olin, who begs Cusack's sceptical writer not to take room 1408.

In Hong Kong's The Eye (2002), a blind violinist starts seeing ghosts after what transplant?

Mun's sight is restored by a Cornea transplant, but she begins seeing the dead her donor saw; the Pang brothers' film was remade in Hollywood in 2008 with Jessica Alba.

Shutter (2004), about a photographer haunted through his pictures, comes from which country?

Shutter was made in Thailand by Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom; the 2008 Hollywood remake starring Joshua Jackson moved the story to Tokyo.

The 1999 remake of The Haunting was directed by which filmmaker, best known for Speed?

Jan de Bont, who had made Speed and Twister, directed the 1999 remake with Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson and Lili Taylor.

Mama (2013), grown from an Argentine short, was the debut of which future It director?

Andy Muschietti expanded his 2008 short into the feature, with Jessica Chastain as the reluctant guardian of two girls raised in the woods by a spectral protector; Guillermo del Toro executive-produced.

The 2004 US remake The Grudge, with Sarah Michelle Gellar, was directed by whom?

Takashi Shimizu, who created the original Ju-On films, directed the Hollywood remake himself, with Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures producing and the story kept in Tokyo.

Ghost Story (1981), from Peter Straub's novel, was the final film of which dancing legend?

Fred Astaire's last film role was Ricky Hawthorne, one of the four elderly Chowder Society friends; it was also the final film for Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Melvyn Douglas.

In The Ghost Breakers (1940), Bob Hope joins an heiress at her haunted mansion in which country?

The castle stands on an island off Cuba, inherited by Paulette Goddard's heiress; director George Marshall remade the story in 1953 as Scared Stiff with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

In Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse (2001), ghosts begin invading the living world through what?

The dead seep through The internet, via a website asking 'Would you like to meet a ghost?'; set against mass disappearances across Japan, it was remade in English in 2006.

In Dark Water (2005), Jennifer Connelly moves into a grim apartment block in which part of NYC?

Dahlia moves to a bleak block on Roosevelt Island, reached by the tram from Manhattan; Walter Salles directed, and the trouble starts on the roof, where her daughter finds the water tower.

His House (2020) follows a refugee couple from which country, haunted in their new English home?

Bol and Rial fled South Sudan's civil war and crossed the Channel in an overcrowded boat; assigned a shabby house on the edge of London, they find a night witch, an apeth, has followed them.

In the 1977 Japanese cult film House (Hausu), a schoolgirl nicknamed Melody is devoured by what?

Melody is eaten by A piano that chews off her fingers as she plays; director Nobuhiko Obayashi built the film from fears dreamed up by his young daughter Chigumi.

Dead of Night (1945), famed for its ventriloquist's dummy segment, came from which British studio?

Ealing, a studio far better known for its comedies, made the portmanteau film; the dummy, Hugo, torments Michael Redgrave's ventriloquist Maxwell Frere in the closing story.

In The Awakening (2011), Rebecca Hall's hoax-buster investigates a ghost at what kind of place?

Set in 1921, it has Florence Cathcart, who exposes fraudulent spiritualists, summoned to A boys' boarding school called Rookford, where the pupils have been terrified by sightings of a ghostly child.

Carnival of Souls (1962) was shot around the abandoned Saltair pavilion near where?

Saltair, a derelict resort on the Great Salt Lake west of Salt Lake City, is the carnival; Herk Harvey made the film for about $33,000 during a short break from his industrial-film job in Lawrence, Kansas.

Ugetsu (1953), in which a potter is seduced by the ghostly Lady Wakasa, was directed by whom?

Kenji Mizoguchi directed Ugetsu, which won the Silver Lion in 1953 and helped open Western cinemas to Japanese film; Masayuki Mori and Machiko Kyō star.

Ti West's The Innkeepers (2011) is set in which real Connecticut hotel?

The Yankee Pedlar Inn in Torrington is the location; West's crew had lodged there while shooting The House of the Devil, and some of them reported strange experiences.

Personal Shopper (2016), with Kristen Stewart as a Paris medium, won Cannes Best Director for whom?

Olivier Assayas shared the 2016 Best Director prize with Romania's Cristian Mungiu, who won for Graduation; Stewart's Maureen is trying to reach her dead twin brother Lewis.

Ghost Stories (2017), with Martin Freeman, was adapted from a stage play by Jeremy Dyson and whom?

Andy Nyman co-wrote the 2010 play with Jeremy Dyson and reprises his stage role as Professor Goodman, a debunker of psychics confronted with hauntings he cannot explain.

In A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), Leslie Cheung falls for a beautiful ghost played by which actress?

Joey Wong plays the ghost Nie Xiaoqian opposite Leslie Cheung's tax collector; produced by Tsui Hark and directed by Ching Siu-tung, it sparked a wave of Hong Kong folklore ghost films and made her a star.