Don't Laugh at Me - I Used to Be Terrified of 'Ghost'

This is probably the most embarrassing confession I’ve made in an article on this website, and I have exposed many weaknesses for you, the reader. It was 2008, a simpler time. I was about ten years old. My mother, a giant Patrick Swayze fan, decided to give my sisters and me a crash course in his greatest romantic classics. We all loved Dirty Dancing, and the next DVD we rented from the local Civic Video was Ghost. Horrified and anxiety-ridden by what I saw, I hurried to my room halfway through the movie and spent the rest of the night huddled under my sheets clinging to my teddy. You know, like a wuss. I didn’t return to the film for several years.

Now I know what you’re thinking. “Are we talking about the same movie? The one with the steamy pottery scene where Demi Moore has a cute pixie cut? That’s a romantic movie, you big baby!” Exactly that one. Ghost was directed by Jerry Zucker of Airplane! and The Naked Gun fame. It stars the aforementioned Swayze and Moore, along with Whoopi Goldberg, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Writer Bruce Joel Rubin also won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Almost 35 years later, Ghost is considered one of the best films of 1990, so much so that it got a West End musical based on it. The cultural impact of that pottery scene is undeniable, and each performance is a career-best candidate. The movie follows banker Sam Wheat (Swayze), or more accurately the ghost of Sam Wheat, trying to save his girlfriend Molly (Demi Moore) after his murder, with the help of huckster medium Oda Mae (Goldberg). It’s generally regarded as a “supernatural romance”, but even though this film doesn’t spook me as it once did, I will still argue that it has enough elements of horror to be partly considered for the genre.

For A Romance, Ghost’s Visuals Steer Very Gothic

Carl Bruner, played by actor Tony Goldwyn, looking shocked in Ghost — Image via Paramount Pictures

Full disclosure, I had a fear of ghosts in general as a kid, which likely contributed to my strong reaction to this movie. I always glanced over my shoulder when walking down a dark hallway, and from the film’s opening I was put on edge. The film makes dramatic use of lights and shadows, with even scenes set in the day somewhat cast in darkness. There is a lot of imagery of abandoned buildings, angels, dark alleyways, and cemeteries, plus the medium’s office, with its crystal balls and lanterns. The story revolves around a murderous conspiracy and a world beyond our own. It may not be horror, but it feels like a classic gothic romance with a bit of comedy. And you may laugh, but the portrayal of ghosts in the film is actually pretty frightening for a young viewer.

The scene that put me over the edge, and once again please don’t laugh, was Sam’s death and the realization of his undeath. He’s taken out like Bruce Wayne’s parents, shot in a dark, foreboding alleyway. He thinks he’s pursuing the killer, only to come back and look down at Molly holding his dead body, hands drenched in his blood. That’s not even the worst part. There’s a trippy nightmare sequence as Sam almost but not quite crosses into the afterlife, and Swayze sells every second of it with his reactions of genuine terror. The poltergeist on the train is the part that sent me running, the portrayal of a genuine malicious spirit that can interact with the material world was just too much.

Custom image of Gene Tierney with Rex Harrison behind her against a pink & white backdrop with rose petals

The Most Romantic Ghost Story Ever Is Also a Haunting Classic

From the Edwardian setting to the emotional intimacy, no other ghostly romance is quite as affecting or charming.

I didn’t even get to the actual scariest part of the film until the second time around. The film culminates in an action-packed final act, where both the mugger who killed Sam and the man who organized the murder are on the hunt for Molly and Oda Mae. Both men die graphically, being sandwiched between vehicles and impaled by glass, but that’s not the worst of it. The two are accosted by grasping hands of pure darkness, shadows that drag them kicking and screaming to what one can only assume is hell with a ghastly wail. If I’d seen that when I was ten, I’d never have watched another movie.

The Existential Horror Of Ghost

There is something bigger here than what’s on the screen that makes Ghost so frightening. Sam’s journey portrays what it is to die very suddenly. There are ideas shown in Ghost that are rather distressing to think about happening to you. Sam attends his funeral, watching his loved ones grieving for him while unable to console them. He watches as the doctors tell Molly there’s nothing they can do for him. He watches the light fade as he misses his ride to the afterlife. This distance gets even more upsetting when Molly’s life is in danger, and Sam feels powerless to help.

The film is very grounded in reality, aside from the apparent existence of a non-denominational afterlife, which raises some haunting prospects. Not only does Sam discover through his own death that this afterlife exists, but so do the still-living characters like Molly and Oda Mae. What does one do with the rest of their life when they see someone walking into the light? Think about the implied bad afterlife where the people who tried to kill them go, which the audience sees and knows is real. There’s an existential terror to Ghost that people don’t think about, that tragic distance Sam has from everyone he’s ever loved. Being able to see and hear them, but not interact with them directly. The world is filled with a population of ghosts who miss their chance to cross over and are cursed to wander aimlessly in a world that no longer has a place for them.

No, Ghost isn’t particularly frightening, but a lot of horror romances don’t prioritize scares. Perhaps I was at an age when I was seriously contending with the concepts of death and the afterlife, and I was a really sensitive child. Ghost’s status as a classic is well-deserved because it’s a deeply emotional movie, where bereavement and fear are fully on display. The performances of Moore and Swayze especially are deeply resonant, so I can’t blame my younger self for being so deeply affected. Also, someone gets impaled by a giant shard of glass and dragged into the void, so maybe I had a point after all.