Top 7 Ghosts of Christmas Present
Scott Hallam
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Ebenezer Scrooge saw a series of ghosts during his fateful Christmas Eve slumber, the second of which was the Ghost of Christmas Present. This inspired us to come up with our own Top 7 Ghosts of Christmas Present.
You might be asking, “What the hell are you guys talking about? Has all that eggnog and holiday shopping driven you mad? How can you have a list of the Top Ghosts of Christmas Present?” Well, we decided to track down some the most effective and biggest earning haunters from recent years and throw together a list of some of the best supernatural apparitions to terrorize the big screen in the last five years. Be sure to let us know your choices in the comments section below!
This list contains only films featuring hauntings, possessions, or ghostly apparitions. A few honorable mentions to throw at you are Grave Encounters and Grave Encounters 2 (from 2011 and 2012), which play on the popular pastime of ghost hunting and show viewers just what might happen if one of those hunts goes awry. Another one to look out for is The Possession of Michael King. An impressive indie from 2014, The Possession of Michael King proves just how little in the way of big budget F/X you need to make something truly frightening. The collaboration of director David Jung and the star of the film, Shane Johnson, proved to create a powerful team that used all sorts of physicality and unique filming ideas to conjure up a creepy and quite powerful possession tale.
Now on to the…
The Babadook (2014)
You can’t get any creepier or more timely than The Babadook. Writer/director Jennifer Kent simply blew audiences away with this top-of-the-line horror offering from 2014. The movie has been hailed by critics and fans alike, and even the great director of The Exorcist, William Friedkin, called The Babadook the most frightening film he’s ever seen. That’s high praise indeed. We don’t know if it’s the scariest thing ever, but it’s certainly one of the most effective haunters we’ve seen in a long, long time. As far as Ghosts of Christmas Present go, The Babadook is a shining example!
Paranormal Activity series (2009-2014)
The original Paranormal Activity film was developed and ran in festivals in 2007. It was picked up by Paramount, altered a bit, and released in theaters in the fall of 2009. It was an instant hit, bringing in nearly $200 million worldwide on a $15,000 budget. Audiences were blown away by the amazing tension that writer/director Oren Peli was able to create with such a minimal budget and tiny cast. Originally starring Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat, the story expanded in Paranormal Activity 2 to include Katie’s sister and her family in a slickly written prequel/sequel that wrapped around both ends of the first film. The quality of the movies, as would be expected, begins to fade as we delve deeper into the sequels, but the series is still a fantastic earner (Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones raked in almost $100 million on a $5 million budget). And Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension is scheduled for release in early 2015.
Insidious films (2011, 2013)
James Wan simply crushes the box office every time out. With Insidious Wan took a simple $1.5 million budget and turned it into a $150 million box office smash. He topped that with the over $160 million brought in by the film’s sequel, but they went all out on that one, shelling out a whopping $5 million to make it. The combination of Wan’s direction and co-writing with Leigh Whannell manages to create eerie environments and great, spooky characters. The imagery of the red-faced demon and the super scary old witch are brilliant. Combine all this with marketing campaigns that know just how to hit that exposed nerve of the audience, and you’ve got box office gold. If James Wan is going to release a film, it’s going to have a major theatrical presence, it’s going to have amazing commercials and trailers, and it’s going to have the entire horror community buzzing upon its release. That’s how it’s done. And watch for Leigh Whannell’s directorial debut with Insidious: Chapter 3 on June 5, 2015. Here’s a secret… it’s going to make $100 million-plus… shhhhh!
The Conjuring (2012)
James Wan simply forces our hand to include yet another of his haunting films on this list. What can we say? The guy is just that damn good at freaking audiences out! With The Conjuring he sets the table with the story of the Annabelle doll and then proceeds to knock it out of the park with the Perron family’s story and Ed and Lorraine Warren’s part in the tale. And just as you think you’re safe, The Conjuring ends by teasing the Warren’s most infamous paranormal investigation, that of the Lutz family. For those not aware of the reference, the Lutz family were the victims in The Amityville Horror haunting. A great package from start to finish. And the financial details are extraordinary. The Conjuring earned nearly $320 million on a $20 million budget (that’s not even figuring in the $250+ from the Annabelle movie), making it one of the highest grossing horror movies of all time. The upcoming sequel, The Conjuring: The Enfield Poltergeist (filming begins this summer for a June 10, 2016, release), should shoot this franchise’s earnings into the stratosphere.
Sinister (2012)
The filmmakers behind the 2012 horror show Sinister had the right idea by putting a face that could inspire nightmares on the antagonist of the film. Mr. Boogey (or, more properly, Bughuul) was a fantastically creepy character that helped to drive Sinister to become the box office gold it was. Director/co-writer Scott Derrickson (who also co-wrote and directed The Exorcism of Emily Rose and co-wrote Devil’s Knot) delivered a genuinely chilling film on a budget of $3 million, and audiences responded to the tune of nearly $80 million at the box office. That’s a nice bang for your buck. In addition to that, Sinister impressed audiences enough to garner a sequel that will be unleashed on August 21, 2015. You’ve been warned.
The Woman in Black (2012)
When it comes to being atmospheric, it’s hard to top Hammer. The Woman in Black helped to lead the Hammer charge as the production studio begins to churn out films again. And somewhere after attending school at Hogwarts and before growing Horns, Daniel Radcliffe joined forces with Hammer, and The Woman in Black was born. Based on the novel of the same name by Susan Hill, the movie is set in the perfectly fitting Eel Marsh House. The Woman in Black is everything you want a haunting story to be. It’s creepy, holds you on the edge of your seat, and delivers powerful frights. Earning over $125 million on a $15 million budget made the picture a smashing success, and filmmakers wasted no time in diving back to continue the story. Hill returned to help tell the story of The Woman in Black 2 Angel of Death, which you can see very soon on January 2, 2015.
Oculus (2014)
There are films that are on this list because they were absolutely amazing (like The Babadook), and there are films on this list because they became phenoms at the box office (like the Insidious movies). Oculus is a bit of both. A quality offering by talented filmmaker Mike Flanagan, Oculus nearly earned back its $5 million budget on opening day and would end up grossing over $44 million worldwide. And if that’s not enough, critics and fans agree that it’s a pretty damn good movie. Featuring the scariest mirror we’ve seen since Snow White, Oculus, like Flanagan’s previous film, Absentia, builds tension wonderfully as it takes the audience on a dark and foreboding ride into the unknown.
