Ah, ghosts. The one horror element that never seems to get
old. They might be the original horror villain because they are the first
reason that we are afraid to turn off the lights, and they tend to be the
subject of many scary stories we hear as kids. Think about it, there is a whole
category of “ghost stories”. Ghosts are also the most flexible of monsters. You
can make them threatening, as in The
Woman in Black or they can be friendly like Casper or most of the ghosts on
The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. You can also make up your own rules for
ghosts depending on what you’re writing. It’s like you can play Mad Libs when
writing a ghost story. I actually picture this kind of questionnare being filled out when writing a ghost story.
Circle one for each answer:
What are they haunting?
A specific area (such as a town or hotel) A person or a group of people
Why are they haunting?
Curse on the area
Unfinished business
Person(s) was an asshole to them in life
Is there any way for them to go away? Yes
No
If circled yes, explain below (bonus points if it involves
human sacrifice):
Do they have any abilities? List them below:
Most of the time, they only circle one answer. They circle
two, then things start to get needlessly complicated.
Ideal Specimen: Lloyd the Bartender
One of the brilliant aspects of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is the build up. At first it
doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot happening, but once the ghosts in the
hotel start to reveal themselves, things get going very quickly. One of the
first ghosts to appear is Lloyd the Bartender, who appears to Jack in a moment
of weakness. We don’t know what to make of this guy. He seems more than
friendly and polite, but considering how tense things have been building up, we
don’t trust him at first. I think it’s the fact that you never actually see him
blink. Much like Hannibal Lecter, there’s an uneasiness that comes when you are
talking to a person who never seems to close their eyes. It just feels more
like they are studying you, learning everything they can. And considering Lloyd
is a supernatural entity, we can assume it won’t be that hard for him. And besides, he's a ghost. Why would a ghost blink?Now some
may be expecting that I would put Grady instead of Lloyd, and I can understand
that. But for me, Grady is the one who spoiled the mystery of the hotel. He was
the one that confirmed to us that the hotel has sinister intentions and that
it’s not just screwing with its inhabitants. Since a good portion of this movie
is trying to figure things out, the questionable nature of Lloyd kept the theme
going. Don’t get me wrong, Grady was cool, and the way he slowly lifted the
veil and went from being friendly and polite to commanding and threatening was
brilliant, but it was more fun when we were trying to answer questions
ourselves. And that is another thing that people don’t really think about when
it comes to ghost movies. It becomes a mystery of figuring out their nature and
whether they can be stopped or not, and how.
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