10 Horror Movies That Break The Genre
4. A Ghost Story
A horror movie that doesn’t scare with gore, jumpscares, or tone and atmosphere, but in its philological ideas instead is A Ghost Story. This was David Lowery’s third directorial effort, and stars Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara as a young married couple, only credited as C (Affleck) and M (Mara).
In the story, the couple are living a small but happy married life, and are planning to move from their house. Suddenly, C dies in an accident, but comes back as a ghost, covered in a stereotypical white sheet. As a ghost, he must see all of his surroundings, but cannot do anything about it. He sees M move out of the house, a new family move into the house, then begins to travel in time, to the past and then to the distant future.
Despite its horror-inflicted title and story, the film actually lacks real scares or a tension-filled narrative. Its story attempts to be more intellectual, centring on the legacy someone will leave after their death, and how ultimately they will be forgotten in the passage of time. The scares lie in the notion that life is just quite meaningless and hopeless.
A Ghost Story might not give you the chills, but it will definitely give you an existential crisis. And what's a better horror than that?