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‘Ghost Stories’ Review: Bollywood Aims for Frights

With this Netflix anthology, four directors from Indian cinema draw horror from a country’s lived reality.

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By Bilal Qureshi

“Ghost Stories” is a new Netflix anthology of four horror films made by some of Bollywood’s leading filmmakers. To those unaware that Indian cinema has long surpassed the clichés of MGM-style musicals and Technicolor kitsch, this movie introduces the talents — and the shortcomings — of the current tastemakers of Hindi film.

Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee and Karan Johar direct vastly different shorts about contemporary Indian characters pushed to various stages of madness. There are terrifying in-laws, unexplained sounds in the hallway, violent miscarriages, gruesome revelations and one particularly frightening mob of village cannibals. Bollywood’s usual focus on romance and family melodrama hasn’t allowed for a thriving horror genre, but with this anthology, each of these filmmakers tries their hand at local screams and moody creeps. The films are at their most unsettling when they draw their supernatural fears from India’s lived reality — mob violence, intergenerational conflicts and women’s suffering.

In promotional interviews for “Ghost Stories,” all four directors have discussed the artistic freedom of creating content for the global streaming giant, freed from the country’s cutthroat theatrical business model and the censors at the Central Board of Film Certification . For audiences, however, the results are a mixed bag.

Kashyap transforms the trauma of a miscarriage into a stylized psychological thriller in which a jealous nephew uses his malicious supernatural powers to inflict pain on his pregnant aunt. Akhtar, whose masterful film “Gully Boy” was India’s official Oscar submission for international feature this season, tells the story of a young nurse caring for a senile woman who may not be as ill as she seems. With exquisite production values — dramatic apartments and severe color palettes — these two segments showcase the technical prowess of contemporary Indian cinema and the acting talents of a new wave of performers.

The least successful episode comes from Johar, the most commercial of the filmmaking foursome. In line with his existing oeuvre of glossy Bollywood extravaganzas like “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham …” (2001) and “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil” (2016), Johar’s ghost story stars a preternaturally attractive married couple and a palatial estate. The couple is haunted by the groom’s deceased grandmother who even interrupts a sex scene with her not-so-subtle entrance. It’s mostly ridiculous and an embarrassingly unsuccessful attempt to infuse psychological horror with Bollywood’s typical mix of melodrama and flashy masala.

Things get much more interesting with the contribution from Banerjee, who is arguably the most promising contemporary filmmaker working in commercial Hindi cinema. “Ghost Stories” marks his first foray into horror following the critical success of social and political dramas like “Khosla Ka Ghosla!” (2006) and “Shanghai” (2012). With his searing intelligence and filmmaking gifts, he crafts a story of a rural village where the sole survivors of a mysterious affliction are two young children. As fanged monsters begin to appear from the wilderness, Banerjee remains true to the sensory possibilities of the genre while offering a powerful analogy for India’s rising tide of political violence and division in the midst of a wave of Hindu nationalism.

“Ghost Stories” is the third anthology film by this foursome of Indian filmmakers. As with any samplers, however, there are some tastes better left forgotten and others one hopes will be expanded into fuller, even more terrifying forms.

Ghost Stories

Not rated. Running time: 2 hours 24 minutes.

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Ghost Stories Review: Once Upon A Time In Bollywood

Released on New Year’s Day,  Ghost Stories  (Netflix) combines the efforts of four of Bollywood’s leading filmmakers into a two-and-a-half-hour horror anthology, one divorced from India’s theatrical model and musical, melodramatic expectations. You’d expect, then, that the opportunity to embrace full creative freedom would have been grasped a bit more enthusiastically than it is here;  Ghost Stories  boasts only one stand-out short — a political analogy wrapped up in rural cannibalism focusing on two young children (Aditya Shetty and Eva Ameet Pardeshi) by Dibakar Banerjee — and several middling entries that don’t suggest a great future for India’s burgeoning scare scene.

Joining Banerjee are Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, and Karan Johar, who all contribute radically different shorts running the entire gamut of universally scary elements and culturally-specific embellishments. Banerjee’s is the best of them, and Johar’s glossy haunting is the worst. The other two are fine, lavishly produced and acted well, but a little thematically thin. How these stories fuse the supernatural and the corporeal doesn’t always work, and when it does it could often stand to work better, but using horror as a means by which to address the nation’s real cultural foibles — as the Oscar-winning short documentary Period. End of Sentence, about the stigma of menstruation in rural India, capably proved there’s a way to go in some respects — is a smart use of a neglected genre.

The presence of  Ghost Stories  on Netflix will help its reach and, hopefully, encourage a freer creative climate, which is yet another upside of the streaming giant’s international influence that its detractors reliably ignore. This isn’t the best example of what India can do in the field, but it’s a start.

Article by Jonathon Wilson

Jonathon is one of the co-founders of Ready Steady Cut and has been an instrumental part of the team since its inception in 2017. Jonathon has remained involved in all aspects of the site’s operation, mainly dedicated to its content output, remaining one of its primary Entertainment writers while also functioning as our dedicated Commissioning Editor, publishing over 6,500 articles.

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Movie Review: Ghost Stories (2020)

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Ghost Stories is the third installment in the Hindi anthology series from directors Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, and Karan Johar, following Bombay Talkies and the Netflix Original Lust Stories . The latest is a strong collection, but some of the short films are more enjoyable than others.

Akhtar’s opening short is a fitting introduction to the overall theme, with a beautiful young woman in a creepy house. Janhvi Kapoor plays Sameera, a home health nurse sent to care temporarily for bedridden dementia patient Mrs. Malik (Surekha Sikri). Sameera was told Mrs. Malik’s adult son was taking care of her over the weekend, but there’s no sign of him when Sameera arrives at the cluttered, dimly lit apartment. Mrs. Malik says he’s hiding. Suspicious sounds in the hallway tip Sameera off that something is very wrong.

Akhtar bucks horror conventions by making Sameera a woman of questionable ethics, rather than some imperiled virgin. She invites her married boyfriend over for a romantic rendezvous and riffles through Mrs. Malik’s jewelry box. Instead of being about virtue under threat, Akhtar’s story explores which morals really matter when times get tough, and what obligations we have to other people and ourselves.

Anurag Kashyap’s story is next. It’s the most ambitious but least successful of the four films. After her first child died minutes after its birth, Neha (Sobhita Dhulipala) has eventually become pregnant again. She’s still struggling with the psychological damages from her previous loss. On top of that, the little boy she babysits, Ansh (Zachary Braz), isn’t keen on sharing her affections with anyone else. And she may have been cursed by a bird.

There’s so much going on that it’s hard to keep track of why things happen, let alone differentiate between what’s real and what’s not. Is Neha simply paranoid or out of touch with reality? Is she cursed, or does Ansh really have some kind of evil powers to harm her unborn child? Everything ends in gory, bizarre chaos. Women with a history of fertility problems or miscarriages may find this film disturbing.

The gore-fest continues in the third film, director Dibakar Banerjee’s parable of a small village literally cannibalized by its big-city neighbors. A bureaucrat (played by Sukant Goel) arrives in Smalltown to find it destroyed, with a boy (Aditya Shetty) and a girl (Eva Ameet Pardeshi) the only survivors. They explain that her father — a councilman from Bigtown — ate most of the residents and turned everyone else into zombies. Only when the man is nearly eaten himself does he accept that they kids are telling the truth.

Despite some truly disgusting moments, this is an intriguing story of greed and the sacrifices people will to make to save themselves. Banerjee does an excellent job building a world and giving his audience a lot to chew on (cannibal pun intended).

The anthology’s closing tale is much what you’d expect from a Karan Johar ghost story. Two rich and very attractive people, Ira (Mrunal Thakur) and Dhruv (Avinash Tiwary), agree to marry. When Dhruv interrupts their honeymoon lovemaking to say “good night” to his grandmother — who’s been dead for twenty years — Ira wonders what kind of mental illness afflicts her new husband. But maybe she’s the one who can’t see the ghost right in front of her.

Johar’s story is a light, fun respite after the two heavy shorts that came before it. Dhruv’s family mansion is gorgeous. There’s also a minor theme about faith that gives the story some dimension.

Other than Kashyap’s dense narrative, the stories all suit the short film format. They say what they need to say and end before they run out of steam. There are so many ideas in Kashyap’s story that he might have been able to better organize them in a feature-length film. Overall, Ghost Stories is an interesting collection that creates chilling scenarios without relying on jump scares. Just be ready for some blood and guts.

• Ghost Stories at Wikipedia
• Ghost Stories at IMDb
• Watch Lust Stories on Netflix
• My review of Bombay Talkies

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Ghost Stories

The winning team of "Lust Stories" reunites to tell some spine-chilling tales. "Ghost Stories" is a 2020 Indian anthology horror film consisting of four short film segments. The winning team of "Lust Stories" reunites to tell some spine-chilling tales. "Ghost Stories" is a 2020 Indian anthology horror film consisting of four short film segments. The winning team of "Lust Stories" reunites to tell some spine-chilling tales. "Ghost Stories" is a 2020 Indian anthology horror film consisting of four short film segments.

• Zoya Akhtar
• Dibakar Banerjee
• Karan Johar
• Niranjan Iyengar
• Janhvi Kapoor
• Surekha Sikri
• Amruta Subhash
• 347 User reviews
• 27 Critic reviews
• 2 wins & 7 nominations

• Sameera (Zoya Akhtar's segment)

• Mrs. Malik (Zoya Akhtar's segment)

• Off-Screen Nurse (Zoya Akhtar's segment)

• Guddu (Zoya Akhtar's segment)
• Cop 1 (Zoya Akhtar's segment)
• (as Mohammed Ashique Hussain)

• Cop 2 (Zoya Akhtar's segment)

• Husband (Anurag Kashyap's segment)

• Father (Anurag Kashyap's segment)
• Child Actor (Anurag Kashyap's segment)
• Nurse (Anurag Kashyap's segment)
• Reiki Woman (Anurag Kashyap's segment)
• Twin Sister 1 (Neha) (Anurag Kashyap's segment)
• Twin Sister 2 (Neha's Twin Sister) (Anurag Kashyap's segment)

• Visitor (Dibakar Banerjee's segment)
• Little Boy (Dibakar Banerjee's segment)
• Little Girl (Dibakar Banerjee's segment)
• Runner (Dibakar Banerjee's segment)
• Niranjan Iyengar (Karan Johar's segment)
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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia Ghost Stories is the third of three anthology films from Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap, being preceded by Bombay Talkies in 2013 and Lust Stories in 2018.
• Crazy credits Even though the name of the character from the second segment is said out loud a bunch of times (Ansh), he's listed as Child Actor in the end credits.
• Connections Followed by Lust Stories 2 (2023)
• Soundtracks Madhaniya by Asees Kaur & Deedar Kaur

User reviews 347

• Peter_Young
• Jan 20, 2023
• How long is Ghost Stories? Powered by Alexa
• January 1, 2020 (United States)
• Những Câu Chuyện Ma Ám
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• Runtime 2 hours 24 minutes

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Ghost Stories movie review: Janhvi Kapoor and Sobhita Dhulipala impress, Netflix’s lacklustre Lust Stories follow-up doesn’t

Ghost stories movie review: directors anurag kashyap, zoya akhtar, dibarkar banerjee and karan johar reunite for netflix’s unnerving anthology follow-up to the acclaimed lust stories..

Ghost Stories Directors - Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Dibarkar Banerjee, Karan Johar Cast - Janhvi Kapoor, Mrunal Thakur, Sobhita Dhulipala, Gulshan Devaiah, Surekha Sikri, Vijay Varma

Like your neighbourhood aunty, Hindi cinema doesn’t do horror. So it’s rather interesting to see four filmmakers who represent the broad spectrum of Hindi moviemaking, come together to experiment with a genre that the industry believes is best avoided.

But unlike 2018’s Lust Stories , and indeed, the filmmakers’ first anthology film together, 2013’s Bombay Talkies, Netflix’s Ghost Stories is an uneven and ultimately impotent affair. There are occasional moments of magic, especially in a couple of segments, but they’re inconsistent. It should be noted that none of the four filmmakers — Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee and Karan Johar — has made a horror movie before. God knows Johar has scared audiences, but this time, he’s expected to.

Ghost Stories begins rather promisingly, though, with Akhtar’s technically impeccable short. Janhvi Kapoor plays Sameera, a nurse who’s assigned to look after a senile old woman, played by Surekha Sikri. For a filmmaker who’s expressed her apathy for horror, Akhtar does a splendid job of appropriating some of the genre’s most recognisable tropes — visually and tonally. Think of her film as an elaborate Halloween costume; you can’t deny the effort and skill that must have gone into making it, but in the end, it can’t help but feel slightly superficial.

The film is wonderful to look at — the creaky old Mumbai apartment, set against the backdrop of incessant rains, is intricately designed — and Akhtar does an excellent job of laying out the geography of the place. So when a noise wakes Sameera up in the middle of the night, we’re subconsciously aware of where it might have come from. Akhtar puts us in her protagonist’s shoes, allowing us to feel what she’s feeling, successfully sustaining dread in this age of jump-scare filmmaking .

It’s a fun tweak on that old babysitter-in-peril premise, but Sameera most certainly isn’t a vapid, virginal victim. Janhvi instils in her an instant warmth, and even though her accent might not be as consistent as her performance, there’s an effortless charm about her. Surekha Sikri, meanwhile, knows exactly the sort of film she’s in, effectively alternating between her character’s many moods with precision and restraint. But I struggled to understand the larger point Akhtar was trying to make, or if there even was any. This is unfortunate, especially if you remember the muffled voices she handed a megaphone to in Gully Boy, and also in her Lust Stories short.

Like the first segment, the second, directed by Anurag Kashyap, is also a twist on familiar horror movie tropes. Featuring yet another largely solitary performance at its centre, Kashyap’s short is a wildly ambitious mashup of Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan and Richard Donner’s The Omen, with a bit of Cronenbergian body horror thrown in for good measure. Unlike Akhtar’s film, this one has anxieties to address — about motherhood and mania, loss and loneliness.

As always, Sobhita Dhulipala proves that she can be an astonishingly reliable actor, regardless of what she’s given to work with. She’s able to add more dimensions to her character in 30-odd minutes here than she was in seven episodes of the shoddy Bard of Blood . But once again, the film is more impressive technically — the deathly desaturated colour palette, the sneaky visual foreshadowing, the impressive practical effects — than on a narrative level. Kashyap has never been one to pull punches, but he seems to lack the courage of his convictions here, especially towards the end, when he chooses to spell out certain details that he’d already effectively communicated through his filmmaking.

Banerjee, in his segment, also seems to be conflicted. Should he make the most of the creative freedom that has been given to him, or should he keep one foot in the realm of the mainstream and not risk alienating the majority of the audience that is likely to watch his film? In the end, he gets spliced, clearly struggling with the exposition that is necessary to build the fictional fantasy world that he has created, and to deliver the thrills that are expected of him.

Surprisingly, Banerjee is the only one who decided to go political with his short. In all honesty, I was expecting at least two others to also use the creative liberties at their disposal, and the opportunities that genre filmmaking affords writers, to make some sort of statement about the world. Banerjee’s film is sort of like a Grimm Brothers’ fairytale, combined with the post-apocalyptic aesthetic of a modern zombie movie and the absurdity of a propaganda pamphlet. It would be unfair to reveal more details about the film, especially because this segment, for good reason, has the potential to be the most divisive. But there are interesting ideas in there, about our place in the world, and how precarious it really is.

In a shocking turn of events, I suspect that Johar’s short might be the most palatable of the lot, especially to audiences who are, rightly so, caught unawares by the sheer abstractness of some of the previous segments. This one, despite featuring the thinnest characters and absolutely no perspective to speak of, is a more traditional haunted house story. To be clear, Johar isn’t communicating his own personal fears through his film, but appears to have based his ideas on what someone else has told him horror should be. And so there are scenes in which poor Mrunal Thakur, skimpily dressed, is sent on midnight walks around a house she should have checked out of ages ago. There is also a sleep-walking mother-in-law and a creepy Catholic maid. But whatever momentum Johar is inadvertently able to build is tossed out of a Spanish window when he cuts to Kusha Kapila, as our heroine’s BFF, popping in to make a smutty joke or two.

Also read: Neha Dhupia on facing sexism in South film industry: ‘They insisted on feeding hero first and I would say I am hungry’

The result is a tonally inconsistent but visually refined film that throws in random Christian symbolism with desi scare tactics, and ends up resembling one of those Ekta Kapoor serials about naagins and whatnot. It’s a mess, but it’s also the only segment that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Perhaps reshuffling the lineup might have helped, but this is assuming you watch the entire thing in one sitting. Ideally, Ghost Stories, for its own sake, must not be seen as a whole. It’s fearless, but frustrating; ambitious, but not ambitious enough.

Follow @htshowbiz for more The author tweets @RohanNaahar

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Ghost Stories Review: Misfires And Meaning In Netflix’s Rooted Horror Anthology

Directors: Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Karan Johar

Cast: Janhvi Kapoor, Vijay Varma, Sobhita Dhulipala, Mrunal Thakur, Avinash Tiwary, Surekha Sikri, Sukant Goel, Aditya Shetty, Gulshan Devaiah

The stories in Netflix’s horror anthology, Ghost Stories , are rooted and the problems seemingly arise from the horrors of life as we know it already — geriatric loneliness, abandonment, majoritarianism, lynching, death of a child and the stigma, and finally the unknowable in an arranged marriage.

Zoya Akhtar manages to infuse the air in her short with the kind of stillness that can suffocate even the young. Her film opens with cliches that say, ‘look, a horror film’ — an overcast day, a lone woman, a dead crow. Once the setting changes, indoor, Akhtar uses every frame, every movement of the camera with precision. Guiding us, telling us what to feel, every step of the way. Surekha Sikri as the senile Mrs Malik is beguiling. Jahnvi Kapoor who comes as a replacement nurse Sameera shows promise. The idea of an old woman who’s half paralysed alone in an apartment, during Mumbai’s terrifying monsoons is horrific enough. The thought of a ‘presence’ in this eerie, smelly home does give you chills, initially. The fact that the young nurse continues to remain in the house even after she sees something questionable the first night, speaks of the kind of things resilient young women will put themselves through to make it in life. There’s much in common between the two women who find themselves alone in this short. The older woman tells the younger one, she would not wait if she had a life… Perhaps this is why Sameera had to be there. To hear these words.  All said and done though, the thrills are far and few and the actual horror of it does not really hit you (long) enough. The slow-mo walking and the camera following gets a bit tiring after a point.

The symbolism of the crow spills over from one film to another in an interesting manner in Ghost Stories . Sobhita Dhulipala’s deadpan face in Anurag Kashyap’s short, while initially serving the intrigue, later on, makes her seem too distant to access. In fact, you feel absolutely no connection to any of the characters in the film. That’s also because of how disorienting the script is. You don’t know which of them is supposed to horrify the others. And so it becomes exhausting. A young mother who loses a child bears the guilt of childhood, when she was prone to accidentally dropping birds’ eggs. As an adult feeds birds in her attic, dreams of losing the baby in her womb (and there are some particularly disturbing scenes in the bathroom), has a young nephew with an almost oedipal obsession, who wants her to love him as much even after she has her baby… and he can draw and inflict pain on her… In the end though the Black Swan-esque film fails in capturing the journey of the mother who’s consumed by the idea that she’s being… or will be punished.

In Dibakar Banerjee’s film, it’s a man eat man world (and there’s a scarecrow). There’s a big town and a small town. And a government official who comes to find out just why the school in the small town isn’t good. The unnamed Visitor undergoes the horrors of the small town’s inhabitants (two kids) at the hands of the big town’s people. Through stray conversations (fights between the kids), he pieces together the kind of animosity the people of big town harbour towards the small. It’s a very effective short, in that there is the immediate physical danger that the main characters must protect themselves from, as well as the implied danger of majoritarianism and mob lynching… In one scene, the Visitor falls into a pit and everyone just looks at him. And then he folds both his hands and pleads, at which point the animal-like head of the big town pounces on him… The casting is superb and the setting eerily real. It’s a superb subversion of the zombie horror genre, without the cinematic desi verve.

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Karan Johar’s final short is more a wink at the horror genre, and less a serious attempt. There’s a Sabyasachi-like wedding ad, hiding as an arranged marriage scene in there as well. Rich people meet to, maybe, have an arranged marriage; boy seems to be still talking to his dead grandmother; girl goes ahead and marries him despite the red flag and then like a detective walks around the uber-rich house (with superb wallpapers by the way), trying to ‘find’ the ghost. There’s a ‘creepy’ cook, the crow-shaped head of a walking stick, and a sleepwalking mother-in-law… The only upside though is, everyone looks polished and buff all the time, and the swearing from victim and ghost alike.

The Ghost Stories review is a  Silverscreen.in  original article.  It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film.  Silverscreen.in  and its writers do not have any commercial relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.

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Ghost Stories Review (Netflix): Dibakar Banerjee’s Soul-Shaking & Spine-Chilling Story Stands Out From The Rest

The two and half hour approx film works in half and disappoints equally..

Directors : Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Karan Johar

Streaming On : Netflix

Ghost Stories Review (Netflix) : What’s It About? & How’s The Screenplay?

Netflix’s latest anthology Ghost Stories has 4 different horror stories directed by Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Karan Johar each. All four directed Lust Stories for Netflix earlier and now they are back to scare the hell out of you.

Zoya Akhtar’s segment starring Janhvi Kapoor, Surekha Sikri & Vijay Varma is a story about an old lady on her death bed and a nurse who has been appointed to take her care. As the nurse reaches her house she starts having some supernatural experiences.

Anurag Kashyap’s segment comes in a psychological horror zone. It’s about a woman who is going through the trauma of her miscarriage and is second time pregnant. How her nephew’s overtly affection and her own negative thoughts manifest into some really creepy happenings makes the basic plot.

Dibakar Banerjee’s segment talks about how the discrimination between powerful and underprivileged people can take a nightmarish turn.

Karan Johar tells the story of a girl named Ira. She gets married to a boy who along with his family is connected with “granny” even after her death. What happens when Ira takes charge of investigating the reality and challenges granny to show up?

Watch out Ghost Stories to know.

The two and half hour approx film works in half and disappoints equally. Zoya Akhtar’s story is more about cinematic art and technicalities. You’ll love the way her camera moves from one place to another, you’ll like the performances but everything doesn’t add up to hook you because the story doesn’t offer anything new and on top of that the screenplay is as weak as it gets. There’s absolutely nothing and it won’t be wrong to call the story even meaningless. It seems like a last-minute assignment submission to Netflix by Zoya.

Anurag Kashyap tries to create a creepy and eerie environment that he successfully creates to some extent. However, the very niche treatment leaves the audience more baffled and less entertained.

It’s the right time when Kashyap should understand that stories are meant to engage a large section of the audience, not a tiny set of people who satisfy themselves with your brilliant technical skills as a director.

Dibakar Banerjee saves the sinking ship of Ghost Stories single-handedly. His segment is not just engaging but extremely disturbing. As a regular Netflix audience, I must say his segment creeped the hell out of me. Dibakar creates an environment that is eerie, painful, emotionally disturbing, spine chilling and shiver-inducing. Never before I felt as scared as I felt while watching this one. The detail with which he has shown the events will haunt you for a long time.

I didn’t expect much from Karan Johar but honestly, he didn’t disappoint. He doesn’t tell a great horror story but the man deserves accolades for making a good debut. His story is actually spooky if not a hardcore scary one.

Ghost Stories (2020) Review : How Are The Performances?

The film is good on the performance perspective. All the performances are good but Janhvi Kapoor, Surekha Sikri, Sobhita Dhulipala, Sukant Goel, Aditya Shetty, Avinash Tiwary & Mrunal Thakur deserve special mention.

Janhvi Kapoor comes out of her comfort zone and impresses with her act. Surekha Sikri is a brilliant actor and she outshines even though she plays a restricted role. Sobhita Dhulipala gives another stunning performance after Made In Heaven. She doesn’t have many dialogues but still keeps you hooked.

Sukant Goel & child artist Aditya Shetty add value to Dibakar Banerjee’s extremely engaging story. Both of them give a mindblowing performance and make their characters believable.

Avinash Tiwary & Mrunal Thakur are so amazing. We’ve witnessed the excellent acting chops of Avinash in Laila Majnu and even though he doesn’t play as challenging character as that, he creates a very good impression here as well. Mrunal Thakur is excellent too.

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Ghost Stories Review (Netflix) : Final Verdict

Watch Ghost Stories for Dibakar Banerjee’s story. Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar & Karan Johar’s stories will find limited appreciation from the audience but Dibakar’s one makes this film a must-watch.

Zoya Akhtar: 2/5 Anurag Kashyap: 2.5/5 Dibakar Banerjee 4.5/5 Karan Johar: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3/5

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Ghost Stories’ on Netflix, a Hit-and-Miss Indian Horror Anthology

Where to stream:.

• Ghost Stories (2019)

Netflix’s Ghost Stories is a collection of Indian short films by directors Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Karan Johar and Dibakar Banerjee — the same lineup as two other anthologies, 2013’s Bombay Talkies and 2018’s Netflix original Lust Stories . It’s a novelty of sorts, as Hindi cinema is almost entirely bereft of horror movies, so it’s no surprise to learn that all four participants have never taken a stab at the genre before. No doubt, this group of directors boasts plenty of experience, but are they able to effectively cross over to an unfamiliar genre?

GHOST STORIES : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Note, all segments are untitled. First is Akhtar’s, about Sameera (Janhvi Kapoor), a nurse assigned to take care of an old woman who lives alone in her sprawling, crumbling apartment. The bedridden Mrs. Malik (Surekha Sikri) suffers from dementia, and a stroke left her partially paralyzed, so how much credence do you give to her mutterings about her son, who she says is home, even though there’s no physical evidence of such? Sameera is a little freaked out, but she’s preoccupied with drugging up poor Mrs. Malik so she can invite her boyfriend (Vijay Varma) over for a little somethin-somethin. Will they ignore the omnipresent yucky smell and that weird dragging noise in the hallway, or is the mood like, totally ruined now?

Film No. 2 is Kashyap’s. Neha (Sobhita Dhulipala) is pregnant. She babysits young Ansh (Zachary Braz) until his father (Pavail Gulati) finishes working, usually late. Her husband (Sagar Arya) doesn’t seem keen on the situation, but he tends to come home late, too. This leaves lots of time for Neha to exhibit signs that she’s not all right in the noggin: She feeds a bird (a crow I think; it goes unseen) that lives in a hole in the attic ceiling; she cuddles and “feeds” creepy baby dolls, as if practicing for the real thing; she has HORRIBLY DISTURBING DREAMS that we can’t be sure aren’t real. And why exactly is Ansh drawing cute pictures of Neha with dense black scribbles where the baby should be?

Next up is Banjeree, who crafts a tale of an unnamed man (Sukant Goel) who gets lost on the way home from work one day and stumbles into a terrifying political allegory. In a small town called Smalltown — subtle! — there appears to be some sort of heavily localized zombieish apocalypse happening. He meets a little boy (Aditya Shetty) and girl (Eva Ameet Pardeshi) who tell him the supernatural “rules” they follow in order to avoid being eaten alive by the roaring people-things roaming around outside. Will he interpret the social commentary before his bowels get yanked out for barbecue?

Finally, Johar crafts a love story that gets weird real quick — too weird. Ira (Mrunal Thakur) appears to have met the love of her life in Dhruv (Avinash Tiwary): He’s handsome, megarich and very close to his dear Granny. Problem is, dear Granny is dead, and he says he needs her blessing before they wed. The camera slowly pans to a photo of Granny. THIS WILL BE FINE, Ira lies to herself. JUST FINE. Yet she sticks with Dhruv, because she’s in love, and she’ll soon be living in Granny’s posh mansion. The wedding night is awkward, because we get the feeling that Granny’s watching as Dhruv puts his face in some sexy places. Ira’s moaning as the bedroom door swings open by itself. Looks like Dhruv didn’t say good night to Granny, who, notably, is played by nobody, because she’s invisible. So who should poor, confused Ira call first — a divorce lawyer or a medium?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: A little bit of mother! , a little bit of Eraserhead and a little bit of the 1986 The Fly remake — and that’s just the Kashyap film. Otherwise, Ghost Stories is kind of like Creepshow with its sense of humor surgically extracted.

Performance Worth Watching: Dhulipala fully commits to the role of a soon-to-be mom uncertain of her child-rearing faculties. She’s good, and has the support of a strong screenplay.

Memorable Dialogue: “SQUAWWWK!” — Neha expresses her horror in crowspeak, putting into non-words exactly the non-words we feel during this short’s best/worst/most upsetting moments.

Sex and Skin: A little implied whatnot, but otherwise, not much to discuss here.

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Our Take: Ever watched an anthology where each short was consistently good? Me neither. Akhtar’s film kicks up an effective musty-dusty atmosphere, and features a few instances of impressive framing and camerawork, but it’s incoherent down the stretch, and doesn’t generate enough potent dread to distract us from that fact. Banjeree’s contribution is thematically ambitious, but tonally inconsistent; it leans toward comedy, but doesn’t fully commit. And Johar’s film is the most accessible and conventional, but the most drab; it’s an idiot plot with a creepy sleepwalker who wanders absolutely nowhere, an overly stern housekeeper (sigh) and a protagonist who wanders… very… slowly… through the house in her flimsy nightie… turning… forbidden… doorknobs… and never… turning… on… a goddamn… light. Yawn.

So be thankful for Kashyap’s short, which saves Ghost Stories from persistent mediocrity. Its color palette is best described as cooled-corpse blue, all the better to sufficiently chill us. The director has clearly studied Lynch, Cronenberg and Aronofsky, and effectively ladles up some steaming-hot mommy-to-be anxieties from deep, dark subconscious regions. Its steady-dready somber pace pays off with a handful of images — very effectively using practical effects and makeup — that sear themselves into the back of your skull. Dust off the psychic sandblaster for this one.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Kashyap’s short is brilliant, as overtly disturbing as it is suggestive. The others are imminently skippable.

Should you stream or skip the Indian horror anthology #GhostStories on @netflix ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) January 4, 2020

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba .

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Ghost Stories review: Ghosts from the Present

Ghost stories movie review: overall, there’s not enough sustained unease or a sense of dread or foreboding. nor is there too much originality: i got flashes of john krasinski’s a quiet place, and daphne du maurier’s rebecca..

Ghost Stories cast: Janhvi Kapoor, Surekha Sikri, Vijay Varma, Sobhita Dhulipala, Sagar Arya, Pavail Gulati, Sukant Goel, Gulshan Devaiah, Mrunal Thakur, Avinash Tiwary, Aditya Shetty, Eva Ameet Pardeshi Ghost Stories directors: Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Karan Johar Ghost Stories rating: 2 stars

The quartet which gave us Bombay Talkies and Lust Stories has regrouped for the latest Netflix Indian original Ghost Stories.

A young, attractive nurse (Janhvi Kapoor) walks into a once-well-appointed-now-neglected flat, to take care of a bed-ridden old woman (Surekha Sikri). The former is needy, clutching at a reluctant lover (Vijay Varma); the latter, a stunner in her time, looks as if she scythed through men back in the day. Now it’s night. Time for things to go bump.

Dolls are scary, especially when they sit in a row, and stare back at you with their beady eyes. A pregnant young woman (Sobhita Dhulipala), going up and down a steep set of stairs, a possessive little boy, and the harsh cowing of crows. The colours are leached out, the mother-to-be is constantly wary, all is ominous: what is going to happen?

A young man (Sukant Goel) gets off at a railhead and walks towards a village where he’s meant to join work. But things go south rapidly, as he runs into a boy and girl (Aditya Shetty and Eva Ameet Pardeshi) cowering in a corner, scared out of their wits. The desolate village feels like a place that time’s forgotten, and, wait a minute, who are those zombie-like figures clomping about outside, snarling and drooling?

A pretty young thing (Mrunal Thakur) agrees to have an ‘arranged marriage’ with a handsome, wealthy fellow (Avinash Tiwary) who lives in a house his granny built. She soon discovers that all is not as it seems in the stately mansion she comes to as a bride: the housekeeper glowers, the in-laws are strangely blank, and the spouse likes playing peekaboo. Ooh.

Atmospherics-wise, all four segments, directed by Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee and Karan Johar , come off well enough. Each instantly creates a specific world, and we get drawn in. But surprise-wise, with elements that jump-start or shock-and-startle, or traverse new territories, Ghost Stories doesn’t score as high: those who familiar with genre movies, or have seen enough horror/supernatural/creepy critters will pretty much guess where things are headed to.

Will someone like me, who is petrified of any brand of horror, genteel or oblique or straight-up in-your-face, emerge shaking? Honest confession: I closed my eyes in exactly two places. The rest of it was a series of oh look, there it comes, and oh look, it’s hoved out of view, phew. Or just simply, yuck.

Bombay Talkies felt mint-new, as Johar revealed how surprisingly spiky he could be; Kashyap’s jar of murabbas was memorable in a tale that lagged, Akhtar’s little boy who likes to wear dresses was bright and alive, and Bannerjee’s fabulous segment I still keep visiting in my head.

Lust Stories was good in parts, with whiffs of occasional freshness, as the four explored variations of love-that-turns-into-lust, or just plain hormones-raging-lust. A young wife trying very hard to bite down on the vibrations going through her, via a suitable object? The sweetest spot of all.

But this latest coming together of the four is neither particularly scary nor smartly revisionist. Some genre tales may not have a single bhoot, praet or aatma, because, well, live humans can be dead inside too. The best ghost stories can give us a whole new way of seeing, or take us down paths we haven’t been down before.

Bannerjee’s segment begins by sketching a subversive landscape: those who dare open their mouths to speak will be gobbled by those who can’t handle dissent. There’s resonance with our times, especially as a lot of the action takes place in a school: these guys want no education for students, they only want control. But then it becomes more tell than show, and the mystery whittles away.

Overall, there’s not enough sustained unease or a sense of dread or foreboding. Nor is there too much originality: I got flashes of John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place, and Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. Kashyap’s segment has so much going on, with expecting wives and jealous husbands and little boys who look innocent, that it feels crowded and muddled. Johar’s is expectedly, pretty, but you are ahead of every beat. Two solid performances light up Akhtar’s short: Sikri is great, and Janhvi Kapoor surprisingly good, the only real surprise of the film, in fact.

The segments are well-produced, but the plots are predictable, and feel familiar. Seriously, where are the scares?

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Ghost Stories

Ghost Stories: Release Date, Trailer, Songs, Cast

• Release Date 1 January 2020
• Language Hindi
• Genre Horror, Thriller
• Duration 2h 24min
• Cast Sobhita Dhulipala, Mrunal Thakur, Avinash Tiwary, Janhvi Kapoor, Surekha Sikri, Raghuvir Yadav, Gulshan Devaiah, Anish Bamne, Pavail Gulati
• Director Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap
• Writer Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee, Isha Luthra, Avinash Sampath
• Cinematography Sylvester Fonseca, Tanay Satam, Mitesh Mirchandani, Ranjan Palit
• Music Dibakar Banerjee, Sid Shirodkar, Ketan Sodha, Benedict Taylor
• Producer Ronnie Screwvala, Ashi Dua
• Production Netflix
• Certificate 16+

About Ghost Stories Movie (2020)

Four renowned directors, Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, and Karan Johar, join hands for this quartet of thrillers.

In the first flick, Sameera (Janhvi Kapoor), a young nurse, is assigned the duty to take care of an ailing bedridden elderly lady, Mrs. Malik (Surekha Sikri), who has dementia in a desolate house.

The second tale has a paranoid, pregnant woman Neha (Sobhita Dhulipala) who affectionately babysits her late sister's kid, Ansh (Zachary Braz), in the absence of his father. Neha soon begins to lose sight of what is real and what is her nightmare.

In the third one, a middle-class man (Sukant Goel) gets relocated to a newly-posted location in a bizarre small town, Bees-ghara. He sees that the entire Bees-ghara town is cannibalised by the big town 'Sau-Ghara', where the village inhabitants get eaten by the cannibals of Sau-ghara.

And in the fourth and final story, Ira (Mrunal Thakur) ties the knot with the handsome and wealthy Dhruv (Avinash Tiwary) who blathers about his dead granny who visits him every night to bid him good night.

Ghost Stories Movie Cast, Release Date, Trailer, Songs and Ratings

Ghost Stories Review

In the last decade, Netflix went from being a nobody to one of the biggest players in Hollywood. That strength is visible from the money it's now spending on movies — over $500 million (about Rs. 3,570 crores) put together on Martin Scorsese, Michael Bay, and Dwayne Johnson's ventures — and how it's rivalling other studios at awards. It has the most nominations at the 2020 Golden Globes, to take place this Sunday. But here in India, Netflix simply isn't at a stage where it can get big-time Bollywood directors to make feature-length films for its platform. What it can offer them though is an outflow of their creative juices, since there are no box office concerns to begin with.

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Netflix Ghost Stories Review (2.5/5): Janhvi Kapoor's Film Is More Cringy Than Creepy

Netflix's horror anthology, starring janhvi kapoor, mrunal thakur and shobita dhulipala fails to keep it fresh. ghost stories instead takes on a groggy approach to the horror genre..

Available On: Netflix Language: Hindi Duration: 144 minutes

Story: The film presents four segments, each consists of a horrifying tale directed by Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee and Karan Johar. All stories are set in different time and places without a connection to each other. While some express the trauma of past experiences, others are a take on something completely new.

Review: Ghost Stories is said to express each directors viewpoint on life, but as an extremely literal and visual film, the short stories have a hard time expressing anything more than the characters. Four stories of the anthology are based in a different time and places, while Anurag Kashyap's is set in a bit older times, rest three are set in around 2019 and talk about incidents that could happen to anyone at any time. It is the one thing that adds to the negligible level of scary that the film is.

Starting with Janhvi Kapoor's story directed by Zoya Akhtar, we are introduced to a nurse who is dating a married man but is finding it hard to quit the toxic relationship. She meets her new patient suffering from numerous disease, living alone in a creepy house. Janhvi comes off as a more experienced actress, with almost no information on Samira and little material to work with, she still makes you root for her. While it is not scary, the short story does have a beautiful message.

Another directed by Anurag Kashyap is the story about a lady trying to conceive after suffering from a miscarriage. More then horror this one takes a turn towards a psychological thriller. This short story is the only one that made me want to look away, but not because it was scary. More so because it was hard to watch. Vulnerable characters having to deal with loss is not easy and Anurag takes full advantage of it in this film.

Dibakar Banerjee's directorial is the most bizarre one, in a good way. While the story is not scary again, it raises many questions about perspective and society. We meet a zombie-like vampire species that feeds on each other humans based on their hatred. But it takes a funny tone since it comes off as a knock off, of 'how to survive a zombie apocalypse' movie.

Karan Johar's segment is the most lavish, if half of its budget was used on other segments it would have been easier to accept the Dibakar Banerjee's story. In this one, we meet Mrunal Thakur as Ira, who is marrying into a family where everyone talks about the dead granny as if she is alive. The story takes a turn when she refuses to accept it and starts making changes. All the segments have a rudimentary script. Some feel rushed or have missed the essence of the story. There aren't any moments when you will feel sacred or feel the urgency for survival.

Overall the runtime of 144 minutes feels even longer due to the slow stories and relaxed presence of the ghosts, which weren't actually there, except in the last story. But that wasn't scary either. Cartoon Network's Courage The Cowardly Dog, has felt scarier than this.

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The 10 Best Family Movies About Ghosts, Ranked

These movies are spooky, but in a kid-friendly way!

Ghosts, haunted houses and things that go bump in the night are key ingredients to a good scary movie , but not all of them have to be so terrifying. Even kids love ghost stories, and there are plenty of movies about these spiritual apparitions that are both spooky and good fun for the whole family without giving the kiddos nightmares for days. It could seem as if adults would become bored with a ghost movie geared toward kids, but one would be mistaken, as even those relatively innocent movies can provide a decent scare here-or-there for the older crowd.

To be clear, the bulk of the horror genre is not made with kids in mind. While flicks like Insidious and The Conjuring are definitely too much and will likely scar your child for life upon first viewing , there are many safe options out there that still make for thrilling and exciting family viewing . As they say, “I ain’t afraid of no ghost!”

10 ‘We Have A Ghost’ (2023)

Directed by christopher landon.

Happy Death Day and Freaky director Christopher Landon stepped away from teen slasher films to direct the family-friendly supernatural movie We Have a Ghost for Netflix. In the film, Kevin’s ( Jahi Di’Allo Winston ) family become overnight social media sensations when they discover they have a ghost in their home named Ernest ( David Harbour ). However, when Kevin and Ernest investigate Ernest’s past, they become targets of the CIA.

Thanks to its comedic elements and a fun performance from Harbour, We Have a Ghost is light family viewing that will make kids laugh rather than scream . It’s a perfect choice for a kids' movie to watch on the streamer , and features actors like Anthony Mackie and Jennifer Coolidge . It will leave viewers also wishing they had a ghost like Ernest in their house.

We Have A Ghost

We Have A Ghost can be streamed on Netflix in the U.S.

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9 ‘Scooby-Doo’ (2002)

Directed by raja gosnell.

Based on the iconic Warner Bros. cartoon and cultural phenomenon, Scooby-Doo marks the live-action debut of everyone’s favorite sandwich eating and mystery-solving dog. After a clash of egos forces Mystery Incorporated to break up, the gang reunite at a creepy amusement park on an island resort, where they investigate strange occurrences.

Along with Scooby ( Neil Fanning ), the Mystery Inc. gang are perfectly cast, with Freddie Prinze Jr. as Fred, Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, Linda Cardellini as Velma and Sarah Michelle Geller as Daphne. Scooby-Doo has delightfully camp 2000s vibes, with plenty of ghostly moments that will have viewers trying to uncover the mystery along with the gang . It’s a nostalgic favorite that is still so much fun to watch today.

Scooby-Doo can be streamed on Apple TV+ in the U.S.

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8 ‘Haunted Mansion’ (2023)

Directed by justin simien.

Most people are familiar with the 2003 version of The Haunted Mansion , starring Eddie Murphy and based on the popular Disneyland attraction. The ride was once again adapted for the big screen in 2023’s Haunted Mansion , giving the story a modern update and feel. The film follows single mother Gabbie ( Rosario Dawson ) and her son Travis ( Chase Dillon ), who enlist the help of spiritual experts to rid their new home of ghosts.

The ensemble is made up of LaKeith Stanfield as Ben, Tiffany Haddish as psychic Harriet, Owen Wilson as Father Kent, Danny DeVito as historian Bruce, Jamie Lee Curtis as Madame Leota and Jared Leto as The Hatbox Ghost. Haunted Mansion is a Disney movie, so the scares are quite tame , but the film is still full of entertaining haunted house shenanigans .

Haunted Mansion

Hunted Mansion can be streamed on Disney+ in the U.S.

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7 ‘Casper’ (1995)

Directed by brad silberling.

They call Casper ( Malachi Pearson ) the friendly ghost, and it’s easy to see why in this touching and heartfelt paranormal tale. Afterlife expert Dr. James Harvey ( Bill Pullman ) is hired to remove ghosts from a crumbling mansion, and he brings daughter Kat ( Christina Ricci ) along with him. His plans change when they meet Casper, a kind young ghost who befriends Kat.

However, Casper’s ghost uncles are not so friendly, and the human pair must ultimately help them cross over to the afterlife. Viewers will fall in love with the adorable Casper and his sweet relationship with Kat . It is also deeply emotional and will tug on the heart strings. Ultimately, it is a harmless little spooky film that is perfect for both kids and adults.

Casper can be streamed on Apple TV+ in the U.S.

6 ‘Monster House’ (2006)

Directed by gil kenan.

Monster House takes the concept of haunted houses to a whole new level, with the titular house being a living, breathing and dangerous monster. The story follows three teens who try to convince everybody that the house is haunted, but when no one listens, they must take matters into their own hands to protect the children in their neighborhood.

Monster House features some genuinely scary moments and imagery that may be a little too much for younger kids, so the film is definitely targeted towards older children and their families . If kids want a really great scare without any of the emotional trauma, this is the perfect viewing choice. As funny as it is scary, it makes for a great watch on Halloween or any other time of the year.

Monster House

Monster House can be streamed on Apple TV+ in the U.S.

5 ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ (1992)

Directed by brian henson.

If you are in the mood for a more cheerful story about ghosts, then look no further than The Muppet Christmas Carol . Michael Caine plays Ebenezer Scrooge in this retelling of Charles Dickens ’s A Christma Carol , which also features Kermit the Frog ( Steve Whitmire ) and Miss Piggy ( Frank Oz ), and is narrated by Gonzo ( Dave Goelz ) and Rizzo the Rat (Whitmire).

In the film, the grumpy and greedy Scrooge is visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, in order to teach him about Christmas and change his views on life. Not only is The Muppet Christmas Carol a beloved film to watch during the festive season , but it’s also probably the best Muppets movie ever . It is perfect viewing for all ages.

The Muppet Christmas Carol

The Muppet Christmas Carol can be streamed on Disney+ in the U.S.

4 ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ (2021)

Directed by jason reitman.

The original Ghostbusters is one of the most iconic movies to come out of the 1980s, launching a franchise that still lives to this day. While most of the sexual innuendo and references in that movie will likely fly over children’s heads, they are a reminder that the film is not necessarily targeted towards kids. Ghostbusters: Afterlife , the legacy sequel that continues the story after decades, is definitely more family friendly in terms of content .

The film follows a single mom ( Carrie Coon ) and her two kids ( Mckenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard ), who are related to original Ghostbuster Egon Spengler ( Harold Ramis ). They discover their connection to the Ghostbusters and continue what they started. Whimsical, charming and heartfelt, this is a film to be enjoyed by all ages.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Ghostbusters: Afterlife can be streamed on Fubo TV in the U.S.

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3 ‘Corpse Bride’ (2005)

Directed by tim burton.

Tim Burton is king when it comes to creepy movies targeted towards families, and Corpse Bride is one of his best. Victor ( Johnny Depp ) is set to marry Victoria ( Emily Watson ) in an arranged marriage. Nervous, he practices his wedding vows in front of a deceased woman’s grave. The woman, Emily ( Helena Bonham Carter ), is brought back to life (still appearing as a corpse) and believes the pair are now married.

Featuring creative and eye-popping stop-motion animation , Corpse Bride is as equally spooky as it is kooky . It is both hilarious and macabre, with a bittersweet love story at its core. The film marked Burton’s first animated feature film, and his gothic style and influence is evident in every frame.

Corpse Bride

Corpse Bride can be streamed on Apple TV+ in the U.S.

2 ‘ParaNorman’ (2012)

Directed by chris butler and sam fell.

From Laika, the studio that brought audiences the weird and wonderful Coraline , comes ParaNorman , another stop-motion animated and frightful adventure. Norman Babcock ( Kodi Smit-McPhee ) is a misunderstood boy who can talk to ghosts. When his town comes under a deadly curse, he must use his abilities to save the day.

He teams up with his friend Neil ( Tucker Albrizzi ), sister Courtney ( Anna Kendrick ), her boyfriend Mitch ( Casey Affleck ) and bully Alvin ( Christopher Mintz-Plasse ). Norman’s unique gift is seen as a positive, as he can talk to his dead uncle ( John Goodman ) and receives important information that will help him lift the curse. ParaNorman is another flick that may be too scary for very little ones, but that older kids will absolutely adore .

ParaNorman can be streamed on Roku in the U.S.

Watch on Roku

1 ‘Beetlejuice’ (1988)

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice! Say his name three times and the mischievous, trickster ghost played by Michael Keaton will appear. The film follows Adam ( Alec Baldwin ) and Barbara ( Geena Davis ), a deceased couple who continue to live in their home. When new people move in, they try to scare them out and enlist the help of Beetlejuice.

Keaton’s portrayal of the crass and eccentric Beetlejuice is one for the ages, crafting a truly iconic cinematic character. Kids will be enthralled (and maybe even a little creeped out) by the imaginative and quirky visuals, which come courtesy of director Tim Burton and his distinct filmmaking style . While children probably won’t get some of the adult jokes and humor, it’s likely they’ll be distracted by all the artistry on screen.

Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice can be streamed on Prime Video in the U.S.

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KEEP READING: Horror Movies For Beginners To Ease Into The Spooky Genre

Every Horror Movie Releasing in April 2024

Here's every horror film that you should be looking forward to in April 2024.

While horror has always been subjective among viewers, most consider it to be the best of all. Of course, other genres, such as action and romance, are just as popular, but horror can blend into almost any genre while remaining the dominant factor, making it distinctive. In fact, horror symbolizes something that many people are terrified of in real life yet embrace in fiction.

As a result, there have been hundreds of phenomenal horror films over the years. With modern streaming services making it easier to see these films, we're witnessing a surge in new productions. In the past couple of months alone, several notable horror films have been released, including Out of Darkness , Imaginary , and Immaculate . With the upcoming month looking equally exciting and promising, it's reasonable that many would be excited. To that end, here is a list of every horror movie that will be released in April 2024.

The First Omen

Watch it in theaters on apr. 5.

The Omen franchise started in 1976 as a horror mystery and evolved over time into something more supernatural. The last film in the franchise was released in 2006, although it was not considered a sequel to the previous films. With The First Omen being a prequel to the popular franchise, the anticipation has been fairly high.

The film, co-written and directed by Arkasha Stevenson, follows Margaret, a young American woman, who is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, which she joyfully obliges. However, as she comes across various dreadful incidents, she uncovers a dark conspiracy that draws her closer to the truth about the birth of evil incarnate. The film will be released in theaters on Apr. 5, 2024.

Watch It in Theaters on Apr. 12

Creature features are one of the best forms of horror that captivate a large number of fans. These are effective enough to instill fear in the audience while remaining highly fictitious. Sting is one such creature horror film that follows Charlotte, a 12-year-old girl who secretly raises a spider, afraid her parents will never approve of it. However, when a once-charming tiny spider rapidly transforms into something terrifying, Charlotte realizes she has made a big mistake. Can she rectify what she's done before it's too late? Watch and find out when Sting releases in theaters on Apr. 12, 2024.

10 Scariest Asian Horror Movies on Netflix 

In Flames is a Pakistani horror film that utilizes every opportunity to address the world's issues, making it an intricate story but nonetheless an engaging one. The film, which was released in many regions last year, is regarded as a slow-burn, genre-bending horror picture that any movie fan should see.

Written and directed by Zarrar Khan, it is set in modern-day Karachi and follows Mariam and her family as they lose their patriarch. However, since that day, Mariam has been haunted by a ghost from her past, leaving her terrified and isolated from the rest of her family. In Flames will be released in the United States on Apr. 12, 2024.

Watch It in Theaters on Apr. 19

Reimaginations of classic films are generally popular among audiences as long as they remain faithful to the source material. Abigail , starring Giancarlo Esposito , Kathryn Newton, and Alisha Weir, is an anticipated horror thriller based on the 1936 film Dracula's Daughter .

In the movie, a group of criminals abduct a young girl named Abigail, the ballerina daughter of a prominent underworld figure, with the belief that the ransom money will change their lives overnight. However, when they arrive at the isolated mansion where Abigail is held, they realize that they are in deep trouble as the little girl's secret becomes apparent. Abigail is available to watch in theaters starting Apr. 19, 2024.

The Night of the Harvest

The Night of the Harvest , written and directed by Ryan Callaway, is an upcoming horror movie that blends the traditional serial killer premise with something more sinister. When Aubrey and her friends go geocaching in the middle of the woods, they come across an old cornfield that is rumored to be haunted.

However, before they grasp what exactly plagues the cornfield, they are confronted by a woman in white wearing a mask, resulting in a sequence of tragic murders that leave a lasting impression. Who exactly is the lady with the mask, and what is lying beneath the cornfield? The Night of the Harvest is available in selected theaters across the United States on Apr. 19, 2024.

10 Creepy Movies That Take Place in a Forest

Watch it in theaters on apr. 26.

While horror films based on eerie ghosts and serial killers are fairly prevalent, what's more terrifying than knowing you'll die soon but not knowing when? It may seem a bit confusing, but Humane , the upcoming horror film, takes an innovative approach to the notion, with environmental collapse as the major premise.

In a world where ecological conditions are deteriorating due to overpopulation, the government has implemented a euthanasia program in which 20% of the human population is to be sacrificed for the sake of others. But who would be willing to give up their lives for strangers? Humane will open in theaters on Apr. 26, 2024.