Editorials
Six Spooky Ghost Documentaries to Give You Nightmares
Full disclosure: despite loving paranormal-focused reality TV and even having lived in what most people would describe as a haunted house, I don’t actually believe in ghosts. Sure, I think that there’s some compelling evidence out there for the existence of unexplained phenomena (“there are more things in heaven and earth,” and all that jazz), but the idea of ectoplasmic seances and translucent apparitions seems rather silly to me – especially when you realize how much of modern parapsychology is borrowed from popular culture.
And yet, I find myself irresistibly drawn to these tales of the unexplained, especially when the people involved swear that they aren’t works of fiction. I may not always take their word for it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I can’t have fun with a good old-fashioned ghost story. With that in mind, today I’d like to share 6 spooky ghost documentaries that I think will appeal to both believers and skeptics alike. After all, as a die-hard fan of the real-world X-Files, I want to believe, and I think I’m not the only one.
As usual, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite ghost documentaries if you think we missed a particularly spooky one. And while we’re here, I’d also like to give a shout-out to The House In Between, which I previously mentioned in an article highlighting six other documentaries for horror fans.
With that out of the way, onto the list…
6. The Enfield Poltergeist (2023)
The only episodic entry here, Apple TV’s experimental docuseries The Enfield Poltergeist makes it onto this list due to the seriousness with which it handles this iconic case. Shot in a faithfully reconstructed set based on the actual Enfield house and featuring reenactments shot over real audio recordings of the alleged haunting, this 4-episode mini-series is even more frightening than the traditional adaptations of this infamous story.
While skeptics will likely pick apart the show’s collection of easily faked evidence and anecdotal testimonies, the sheer artistry behind this spooky production is enough to make it worth a watch if you’re in the mood for some realistic frights.
However, one thing is for certain: you’ll never watch The Conjuring 2 the same way ever again.
5. The Unbinding (2023)
Fans of paranormal programming may already be familiar with the Newkirks due to their phenomenal work on the Hellier series (available for free on YouTube), but I think that their most recent endeavor is even more fascinating. Chronicling the misfortune that ensues when the couple discovers a bizarre statue in the Catskill mountains, The Unbinding is an intriguing case of one man’s trash becoming another man’s extremely cursed treasure.
Again, the whole thing isn’t entirely believable – especially the convenient lack of footage concerning a certain incident at a convention center – but it’s still one hell of a creepy, well-told story. Besides, you can always appreciate the flick as an unusually subtle example of Found Footage cinema if you’re not onboard with the whole vengeful spirit thing.
4. The Pantry Ghost Documentary (2013)
I’m going to be honest with you right now: I’m still not entirely sure if this is a legitimate attempt at a documentary or a Lake Mungo style mockumentary fake-out meant to capitalize on the viral success of the infamous Pantry Ghost video from the late 2000s.
Either way, it’s still one hell of a fascinating dive into homemade hauntings if you can stomach a handful of inconsistencies (especially the Paranormal-Activity-esque reveal that the original videos were only a small part of the full story), so it’s another case where I think that horror aficionados are more likely to enjoy the film if they experience it like a short Found Footage movie.
3. The Afterlife Investigations: The Scole Experiments (2011)
A five-year-long scientific study conducted in the 90s and meant to unravel the secrets of life after death, the Scole Experiments are infamous among paranormal enthusiasts due to the study’s repeated claims of producing the most believable evidence of the supernatural to date.
Naturally, this supposedly real tale of mediums, researchers and disembodied spirits working together is prime documentary material, and that’s why Tim Coleman’s fascinating The Afterlife Investigations makes it onto this list as the most in-depth discussion of what many believe to be parapsychology’s finest hour.
And if you like this one, there’s also an illusive 80-minute director’s cut that was released back in 2021 and addresses even more details about the (allegedly) groundbreaking experiment.
2. An Unknown Encounter: A True Account of the San Pedro Haunting (1997)
How you tell a story can be just as important as what you’re telling, but An Unknown Encounter is a rare example of a legitimately chilling yarn being inexplicably enhanced by some exceedingly dated and often unintentionally hilarious presentation. Hosted by veteran genre actor Ferdy Mayne, this sensationalist doc presents us with real footage and interviews concerning California’s most famous haunting.
Following a single mother and the paranormal research team dedicated to helping her as they struggle with disembodied heads, mysterious orbs and murderous forces in the attic, the sheer number of eerie recordings here is worth the price of admission – but it’s the exaggerated editing, corny reenactments and cartoony sound effects that make me love this oddball documentary.
1. Ghosts on the Underground (2005)
Few places are as naturally spooky as subway tunnels, especially the ones that were built generations ago when workers had to manually dig through church crypts and plague pits to get the trains working on time, so it makes sense that my favorite film on this list is about the horrors that lurk underneath a bustling metropolis.
Narrated by underrated Doctor Who veteran Paul McGann, this highly atmospheric documentary plunges viewers into the claustrophobic world of London’s world-famous metro system and features terrifying stories from both passengers and train workers in a healthy blend of skepticism and supernatural curiosity. There may be little in the way of evidence here, but there’s no denying that this is one of the most stylish ghost docs ever made.
Not bad a for a TV special!
The great Ernest Dickerson turns seventy-five years old this month, so we’re looking back at his most memorable contribution to the horror genre – 1995’s Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight!
The film hit screens while the Tales from the Crypt series was winding down its run on television, and it stands apart with a story that feels a step or two removed from the franchise norm. That was the smart play, though, as the show’s stories – and those from the original EC comics – work best in short bites. The result is a film that holds up beautifully as a gory good time.
Now keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
Commentator: Ernest Dickerson (director), Michael Felsher (moderator)
1. Dickerson was in post-production on Surviving the Game when he got a call from his agent saying that producer Gil Adler wanted to meet about a Tales from the Crypt feature film. It went well, so Dickerson met with Joel Silver next and secured the job.
2. The original screenplay for the film came to the producers as a spec script wholly detached from the Tales from the Crypt brand. They added the Crypt Keeper (voiced by John Kassir) bookends to make it fit.
3. Dickerson was more familiar with the original EC comic books having read them as a kid, but he had watched a few episodes of the HBO series, so he knew what the current vibe was for the project.
4. Adler directed the film’s wraparound segments, meaning Dickerson never actually got to work with the creepy puppet. “Gil and the Crypt Keeper had a great relationship,” he adds, “they worked together for years.”
5. While he was new to the Tales from the Crypt family, Dickerson had previously worked as a director of photography on the Tales from the Darkside anthology series. That show is underappreciated in my humble opinion, and I will go to bat for both it and the equally underloved Monsters.
6. A big appeal of the horror genre for Dickerson is the idea of dark mysteries that challenge our imagination. For this film, that came down to the mythology being created between the characters.
7. Five executive producers are listed in the opening credits, but Dickerson says the only two he had dealings with were Silver and Richard Donner. The other three were Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis, and David Giler.
8. Dickerson had only ever seen Billy Zane in movies with a full head of hair, so he was surprised when Zane showed up on the first day with a bald head. “He had this case, and he opened up the case that he had all these hair pieces in, and he says, ‘So which one of these do you think I should use?’” Dickerson looked at him and suggested he just go bald for the character.
9. While the bulk of the opening exteriors were filmed in a desert just outside Los Angeles, the shot of the old church at 11:26 was created on a warehouse hangar soundstage where the film’s interiors were shot.
10. When he had read the script, Dickerson pictured the character of Jeryline (Jada Pinkett Smith) “as a little, tough lady.” He had recently seen Smith in Menace II Society, and while the producers had someone else in mind for the role, he fought to get her instead.
11. Just as Zane surprised Dickerson with his hair (or lack thereof), Smith arrived on the first day with her hair dyed platinum white. He “liked the idea” but asked her to please get it tweaked so it looked more yellowish blond. “It’s definitely a statement.”
12. He had seen Brenda Bakke in the 1989 sci-fi/action film from Japan, Gunhed, and thought she’d be great here as Cordelia. The rest of us might recognize her from Death Spa or Trucks.
13. Felsher comments that the film’s setup does a good job not telegraphing who’s going to live or die, and he uses the “nice guy” (Charles Fleischer) and “the kid” (Ryan O’Donohue) as examples. “You don’t play by those rules here,” he says, and Dickerson replies that he wanted to subvert those rules. That extends to Smith as well because she’s Black, “and usually in movies like this they’re the first folks to die.”
14. Dickerson says they had forty days of filming, “which, the way I’m used to working, was a very generous schedule.” It was budgeted at around $10 million.
15. This probably won’t surprise you, but Zane improvised the bit at 26:25 after he jumps out the window and says, “Fuck this cowboy shit! You fuckin’, hodunk Podunk, well, then, motherfuckers!”
16. In the original script, the demons that The Collector (Zane) raises from the dirt actually looked more like the people they used to be. “They were more human,” but the very smart decision was made in pre-production to make them look far more unique instead.
17. The demons are killed by shooting their eyes, but Dickerson felt there should be one more element to it. “Shoot out their eyes, you gotta duck because the souls come shooting out, and if it hits ya, boom, it can kill ya.” This is a fun touch.
18. He’s been asked more than once if these demons are where Peter Jackson got the idea for how the orcs would look in his Lord of the Rings movies. “They do look like orcs.”
19. He recalls having seen Ronny Yu’s The Bride with White Hair shortly before going to work on Demon Knight, and he hoped to bring some of that staged style into his own film. An example of that in practice is Brayker’s (William Sadler) brief flashbacks to Christ on the cross.
20. Character deaths were mostly based on the idea that “each person’s downfall was going to be predicated by their weakness.” The Collector discovers someone’s weakness and then uses it against them. Cordelia wants to be loved, Jeryline wants to travel, Uncle Willy (Dick Miller) is a horndog for both liquor and ladies, Danny loves horror comics, etc.
21. Dickerson says that plenty of genre classics were in the back of his head while making the film, including Assault on Precinct 13, Alien, Aliens, and more.
22. Cordelia is possessed into a demonic form, and Dickerson’s idea for how she’d look was originally a bit different. “Since Cordelia was a prostitute, I thought that her mouth should actually be a vertical slit that was in her stomach… which would open up with teeth and a tongue.” It was nixed, he says, when “the wife of one of the producers read that and said ‘no way you’re putting that in the movie.’”
23. The key makes an appearance in the followup, Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood, but it wasn’t originally meant to. Apparently, early test audiences expected it to be a more connected sequel to Demon Knight, so the filmmakers added it in to appease them. This is where I go on record saying that Bordello of Blood is a fun time. Can’t touch Demon Knight, obviously, but it’s more entertaining than its reputation suggests.
24. They had to film Uncle Willy’s bar scene “dream” twice, once with the women topless and once with them in bikinis, to have versions for both theaters and television broadcast. “Dick’s a pro.” (To be fair, Dickerson says this in regard to Miller having to endure the makeup application, but the sentiment fits both situations, so…)
25. Dickerson says he’s “always amazed at the love that people show this film,” and adds that fans bring it up to him incredibly often. This is great to hear, as we should always be telling artists how much their work means to us while they’re still alive and able to hear it.
26. Zane also suggested the gag at 1:08:21 with the sponge coming out of his mouth. The beat reminds Dickerson to praise the actor even more, adding that he was an “ally” to the director when “bad ideas” came down from the studio suits.
27. He didn’t get any pushback on killing little Danny. He did insist on one added element, though, as he wanted to immediately follow the boy exploding in the air with a shot of his bloody and torn sneaker hitting the ground below. “And the sneaker had to be a hightop.”
28. Dickerson says there’s “something kinky sexy about” Smith being covered in blood, and then the two commentators go quiet for almost two minutes out of respect for the scene. It’s a good opportunity to reflect on how Dickerson had previously mentioned Alien and Aliens as films being in the back of his head during filming, and how two scenes here reflect that – Jeryline stripping down to her underwear for the final confrontation feels like a nod to Ridley Scott’s film, while an earlier scene with Irene (CCH Pounder) and Dep. Bob (Gary Farmer) realizing they’re surrounded and choosing to blow themselves up alongside some of the demons is something of a callback to the air vent sacrifice in James Cameron’s film.
29. Asked about the film’s critical reception at the time of release, Dickerson says it received good reviews from horror-loving critics and then talks about the importance of horror in general. “Horror has always been a great way of putting out ideas, of talking about some of the things that affect us as people. Some of the best horror, like the best science fiction, talks about what it’s like to be human. Some of the best horror gets very political.”
30. The original ending would have featured The Collector showing “his true self, which is a demon made of fire.” They spent a lot of time trying to make it work, but it was “extremely difficult… back in the day of analog effects.” It was rewritten into the faceoff between him and Jeryline featuring the dancing, the crotch fire, Zane’s attempts at saying “love,” and his eventual demise from her bloody spit.
31. They both agree that a direct sequel to Demon Knight could be a lot of fun, but Dickerson says he’s unaware of any talk on the possibility.
32. Dickerson was super excited about this new Scream Factory Blu-ray in 2015, and he mentions that before its release, he had imported a Blu-ray from Germany presumably to enjoy the film in HD. He’s just like us! (Or am I the only one here who’s imported a German Blu-ray of the much maligned werewolf flick Big Bad Wolf…)
Quotes Without Context
“I was so happy to get Dick Miller for this movie.”
“There was a time when guys used to put ketchup on everything.”
“I’m a big student of Hitchcock, and the best way to make a moment of horror work is to lull the audience into a false sense of security.”
“A villain should always be the most interesting person in a movie.”
“They were a really great bunch of performers who were performing on these little leg-extension stilts wearing a diaper that had a radio-controlled tail that was being manipulated by a special effects tech right out of the frame.”
“It’s hard to direct air; it doesn’t do what you want.”
“The only censorship problem came from the producer’s wife, who didn’t want the vagina dentalis [sic] in the movie.”
“One of the executives wanted to know why the devil didn’t try to have sex with Jada.”
“It always starts with the script.”
Keep up with more horror commentary breakdowns here.
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