10 Scariest Movie Ghosts EVER
1. Miss Jessel - The Innocents (1961)
And speaking of corrupted innocence…
What makes a movie ghost scary?
The simplest answer is that it makes you believe that you are seeing a real ghost.
In Jack Clayton’s adaptation of The Turn of the Screw, Miss Jessel is one of two ghosts (alongside Mr Quint) that haunt Bly Manor. Miss Jessel is the scarier of the two perhaps because, as this list would suggest, female ghosts are spookier than male ghosts. Is this to do with the subversion of the maternal figure? Or is the flowing silhouette of a lady in a grey dress just somehow more spectral?
Either way, the scares in The Innocents work because they are subtle. Miss Jessel glides silently across the landing in the back of a frame. When she is seen across the lake, she appears as a distant shadowy shape hidden amongst the reeds.
This image in particular is utterly haunting because it looks like an old photograph of a ghost. It looks genuine.
The Innocents never undermines the credibility of its ghosts. You are never shown too much. They remain unknowable but you’re left believing in them.