All language subtitles for Eli Roths History of Horror - 01x07 - Ghost Stories Eng Subt

[suspenseful music]

- I see dead people.

♪

- The one monster that's
in every culture,

no matter how sophisticated
or primitive

all around the world,
and that's ghosts.

- Do you believe in ghosts?

- [roaring, groans]

- With "Poltergeist,"
what you get is,

you get the most thoughtful,

most thought-out,

most fun haunted house movie
that's ever been made.

♪

- "The Shining."

I mean, that is the ultimate
ghost story, is "The Shining."

- Here's Johnny.
- [gasps]

- I was struck most viscerally

by the performance
of Jack Nicholson.

- I'm not gonna hurt you.

I'm just gonna
bash your brains.

♪

- Ah!

- "The Sixth Sense"
is masterful

in that it really plays
with the ghost story

in a very new way.
- Ah!

- He sees ghosts and spirits.

Stop looking at me.

People walking around
in their day-to-day life.

[crashing]

- What "Insidious" has brought
to the genre is a humanity

which I'm not sure
has been in many

of the spooky movies
we've seen.

♪

- "The Ring" was
one of those movies

that had so many
disturbing images...

♪

...that I could not sleep

for days after
I saw that movie.

[gunshot]

- Ghost stories
are always about the way

the past casts its long shadow
on the present.

- [shrieks]

- They make us question,
is there something else?

Am I gonna wind up in limbo?
Am I gonna wind up in heaven?

Or hell?

♪

- Totally getting goose bumps
talking about this.

- [screams]

[spooky music]

♪

♪

[chainsaw revs]

♪

[ominous music]

- It's coming toward us.

- Vampires,
werewolves, zombies.

People don't really
believe that stuff is real.

But ghosts,
you ask 99% of the people,

they're like 100% certain
that they have seen a ghost.

- [screams]

- That there are ghosts,
that they experienced ghosts.

There are ghosts in the house.

- Oh!

- I mean, the ghost subgenre--
I mean, I think that's why

it just--it literally
never dies.

♪

Ghost movies
have been with us

since the dawn of cinema.

The first horror film,
"La Manoir du Diable,"

from 1896,
was a ghost story.

But until the 1980s, spirits
were rarely seen onscreen.

And if they were,
they were rarely convincing.

That all changed
with "Poltergeist."

- They're here.

- Well, "Poltergeist" was one
of the first scary movies

that I can remember
seeing as a kid.

I was truly terrified
by that movie

and I--I'm still to this day
terrified of ghosts.

- I was still a child
when I saw it.

I really connected
to that story,

the magical of uncertainty

of the afterlife
and--and spirits.

♪

- "Poltergeist" is
a haunted house movie

that took place
in the suburbs,

that was in the least scary
place possible.

- I'm out of here.
- Bye.

- The family lives
in the San Fernando Valley,

that gets plagued by spirits

because of the area where they
live was built on a graveyard

that is getting back at 'em.

- Don't worry about it.
After all,

it's not ancient tribal
burial ground,

it's just... people.

- "Poltergeist" is a really
fascinating one for me.

It's like taking sort of,
almost like,

decades of horror filmmaking,

and constructing it into,
like, this pure rollercoaster.

- No [screams].
- [roars]

- [screams]

- Took the director of
"Texas Chainsaw Massacre,"

Tobe Hooper,
and you took Steven Spielberg,

the director of "Jaws,"
"Raiders of the Lost Ark,"

that was the biggest
horror event

of my childhood,
that movie.

- And this stuff all works
as long as the audience

can find some logic for it.

- Steven just brings this
enthusiasm and this energy

to the thing.

And then Tobe is, like,
figuring out the logistics

and--and how the shot's gonna
look and all of that.

- What happens to that family
is so Tobe.

But that family is definitely
more Spielbergian.

- Before, after,
before, after, before.

- [laughing] Let me see
your tuck position.

- The important thing
was the kinetic family,

and the cohesiveness,
and keeping it light,

until it starts getting heavy.

[ominous music]

- "Poltergeist"
is a movie about

the tremendous
guilt and shame we feel

about leaving our
children in front of the TV,

letting the TV be
the babysitter.

We know it's wrong.
We do it anyway.

- That scene where the little
girl is standing in front

of the, uh--the television,

and it reaches out
to molest her.

♪

- Kind of a dawning
realization that we might be

sacrificing our--our children

in front of, uh,
this glowing screen.

♪

- I think what Steven and his
collaborators predicted

with "Poltergeist" is--is true.

We've all fallen
into our television.

- [yelps]
- Mommy.

I can't see you, Mommy.

Where are you?

- Their young daughter
gets trapped

between this world
and the next.

- Your daughter is alive
and in this house.

- During the course
of the film,

the mother literally
goes to hell

to rescue her daughter
from the beast.

- [roars]

- [screams]

[whooshing]

[suspenseful music]

♪

- Pull.

- Phew! Great.
- Real nice.

- The good fortune of
"Poltergeist" was that

it did have the budget to allow

the filmmakers to express
their imagination on film.

- A spirit coming down
the stairs for the first time.

Feeling of the--of the body
and the arms coming up.

Just when we begin
to see the fingers,

it goes whoosh,

breaks up like blowing
a smoke ring apart in the air.

- Anything that Tobe
and Steven could think of

that belonged in the movie
was in the movie.

♪

both: [screaming]

- But there's no CGI
in "Poltergeist."

- [whimpering]

[grunts]

God.
The face-tearing scene,

that whole sequence
you can see the three pieces.

There's me with
the little scratches.

[ominous music]

Then there's me with this
giant prosthetic on my face

that I pull off and pull
strips of it off,

and then there's
this really cool dummy

that looks like me,
which is actually

this dummy with Steven
Spielberg's hands underneath

pulling all this gunk off.

♪

When they showed it
to me the first time,

I just burst out laughing,
and the--the--

one of the sound designers
said, "What's so funny?"

And I said, "Everyone's
gonna remember this scene.

"I just pulled my face off
and it fell in the sink."

[whooshing]

- [laughs]

- All sorts of
different effects.

Opticals,
forced perspective sets,

contrazoom when JoBeth Williams
is running down the corridor,

and also, brilliant
practical effects.

[lighting roars]

- Oh, yeah, boy, that tree.

♪

Steven had this image,
'cause when he was a kid,

there was a tree outside
his bedroom window

that scared
the crap out of him,

and so that tree
had to be there.

It was a rubber tree.
For some reason,

they put these,
like, knobs in there.

These little prickly things.

Well, obviously, the tree,
kind of climb up,

and kind of, um, like,

scratching you
and pouring rain

and you got the wind machines
and the lightning

and--[snorts]

things are going off,
and I'm going, Jeez.

- Look out.
- My leg!

- For me,
the tree coming alive,

uh, was very vivid
and visceral,

and so every time I sort of
looked out the window,

and the moonlight was just so,

I would constantly picture
that tree.

[whooshing]

- I'm still pissed off
about the tree.

That tree was
the hardest thing to deal with

in the whole movie.

Except for the pool.

- My God.
[breathes heavily]

The swimming pool.

Be careful, honey.

- Craig Raiche, the prop guy,

stashed all these skeletons
all over the place.

[dramatic musical flourish]

- [screams]

- We did a take and went
to Craig and I says,

"Hey, Craig," I s--you know,

"you don't need to make them
smell like this."

You know, they--they smelled.

And he says,
"Well, they're real."

- [whimpering, panting]

- I mean, it's a joke now,

of something was on
an Indian burial ground

and so you know
it's gonna be haunted.

And in "Poltergeist," the great
line at the end of the movie

is when Craig T. Nelson
grabs James Karen

and shakes him and says...

- You son of a bitch,
you moved the cemetery

but you left
the bodies, didn't you?

You son of the bitch,
you left the bodies

and you only moved
the headstones!

You only moved the headstones.

- And I think, in a way,
that says a lot about America,

that we, uh--we moved
the headstones.

But the bodies are still there.

[whooshing]

- The spirit of "Poltergeist"

lives on in
the "Insidious" series,

which shows us an afterlife
filled with restless souls.

Some friendly.

Some deadly.

[thump, rattling]

- Slow down.

- James Wan's film "Insidious"
is a ghost story

for the 21st century.

It delivers shocks, suspense,

and genuine emotion
to audiences

that may think
they've seen it all.

- [whispering]
Give it, give me.

I want it.
I want it

[screaming]
now!

[baby crying]

[suspenseful music]

- It's a fun thing
to mess with,

that suburban domestic bliss
that's supposed to exist.

- Can you go wake up Dalton?

- It's a fun thing
to get in there

and rip that domestic
bliss away from a family.

- Dalton, Dalton.

Dalton.

- There is no brain damage.

- "Insidious" is about
a, uh, mother and a father

who lose their child

to a place called
"The Further."

[ominous music]

- What does that mean?

- The Further is a world
far beyond our own.

It's a dark realm filled
with the tortured souls

of the dead.

A place not meant
for the living.

- And all these ghosts
that are crowding

in this family's house are
trying to get into his body.

It's an empty vessel.

- And they do everything
in their power

to try and get
their child back.

And that's really about what
you would do as a parent

if you--if you
lost your child,

or if your child got sick.

[baby crying]
[dramatic musical flourish]

- [screams] Josh, Josh, Josh,
please, come...

- Twenty minutes
into the movie,

when just as
the audience is saying,

Why on Earth would you not get
out of this house,

the, uh--Patrick Wilson says
to Rose Byrne's character...

- We're going.

- And they move houses.

[foreboding music]

And the haunting follows them
to their next house.

[doors slam]
- [gasps]

- [giggling]

- It's not the house
that's haunted.

♪

It's your son.

♪

- So it doesn't matter
where they move,

they're gonna be--they're
gonna be haunted

no matter where they are.

♪

[dramatic thump]

♪

- So they call upon my
character, Elise Rainier,

who is a known ghost hunter,
so to speak.

I think Elise is distinct
and unusual in the sense

that, um, I'm not
a typical heroine.

♪

[dramatic musical flourish]

[suspenseful music]

- [wheezing]

This is how you die.

- Not today it isn't.

[thump]
[grunts]

[whooshing]

♪

Come on, bitch.

♪

What I tried to do was find
the places in myself

of empathy, of reception.

Elise is a really good
receiver.

She's got a good radio.

We have some help.

- Who?

- Someone else is here with us.

- Mom.

- You know, she's tuned in.
And I believe all people

have that ability.

I don't think it--it's just,
uh, assigned to a few.

But we're ful--
so full of static

that I think we don't hear
very often at all.

We don't hear each other,
let alone another world.

[whooshing]

♪

- The first "Insidious" score
was a really great experience

beca--it was--it was--
it's a very pure,

very raw filmmaking experience
all around.

[whooshing]

both: [grunting]

- My friend found
this rusted out piano,

and you flick a string,
and just this--just--

eons of just crud
come flying off of it.

It had been abandoned in
the alley behind his studio

for some time
and they dragged it in there

and I got to go in
and record on it.

[rusted piano crash]

So that made up a big part of
the sound of that film.

♪

- We were so thankful when
"Insidious" was a hit film

and people really took to it.
- [screams]

- Death is the one
inevitable thing.

It's coming for all of us.

There's a human need
to answer that question

of like after death,
and I think

ghost films
feed into that.

- There's very little
we really know

about the spirit world,
if there--

whether you believe
in it or not.

I tend to believe
in everything

because I think we know
so little about so much.

all: [screaming, groaning]

- [whimpering]

[sheet ripping]

- [gasps]

- The "Insidious" series
and "Poltergeist"

showed us normal families
bonded by a love

strong enough to survive
a supernatural attack.

But one of the greatest film
directors of all time,

painted a much darker picture
of parenthood

and the afterlife.

- The haunted house is
a staple of horror films.

It's usually
a sinister mansion

where murders have
been committed.

Or about to be committed.

- This house,

it knows we're here.

- Two haunted house movies
loom above the rest.

[suspenseful music]

Stanley Kubrick's
"The Shining,"

and Robert Wise's
"The Haunting."

♪

- Usually ghost stories work
when it's about

what you don't see.

And so that's, in a way,
why I probably separated out

what is my absolute favorite
horror movie of all time,

um, which is "The Haunting."

- No one who
rented Hill House

ever stayed for
more than a few days.

- I just think that's
the ultimate horror movie.

- The dead are not quiet
in Hill House.

♪

- "The Haunting" is
about a group of people

who are brought together
in this old, dark house

to try to find out
what's at the root

of supernatural spirits.

- The house is calling you.

- It's also about a woman

who has had a very troubled
relationship with her mother,

and who goes away to be
a part of this experience.

- Don't let me go.
Stay with me.

♪

- "The Haunting" works so well
because we don't see anything.

- [indistinct speech]

- We don't see
the ghosts at work.

We sense, we hear them.

- [indistinct speech]
- Are you awake?

Don't say a word, Theo,
not a word.

Don't let it know
you're in my room.

- We are given
complete freedom in our minds

to wander through the house.

- [gasps]

- And it is one of
the most terrifying films

because of Wise's instinct

to focus on the faces
of those being terrified,

because that is what
you're relating to

and that is what is
informing your emotion,

not the ghosts.

- Oh, God, no.

- The first movie that
terrified me to the point

where I could barely look at it
was "The Haunting."

I was probably 11 years old,

and you never really
see anything

until that woman--
- When that door is pounding.

[door pounding]

- The door kind of bulges.

♪

And finally,
she's going up this rattly,

unsteady spiral staircase,

and the trap door opens
and it's the professor's wife,

and she goes, "Ah!"

- Ah!

- And I'm thinking, I'm dead.
[chuckles]

I had a heart attack,
I'm never gonna grow up.

♪

- Of course,
Stephen King did grow up.

And 17 years later,
his second novel

"The Shining" was adapted
for the screen

by the legendary director
Stanley Kubrick.

Like "The Haunting,"
"The Shining" is about

a bad place.
- [screams]

- And the terrible effect
it has

on the people
who stay there.

Jack Nicholson
plays Jack Torrance,

an unstable writer who takes
the job of winter caretaker

at the secluded
Overlook Hotel.

[heart beating]

- Is there something bad here?

- Well...

you know, Doc,
when something happens,

it can leave a trace
of itself behind.

Things that people
who "shine" can see.

- Jack and his son Danny
have a psychic gift.

A shining that lets
them see the ghosts

of the murdered people
at the Overlook.

Those ghosts terrorize Danny,

while they slowly
drive Jack insane.

- [guffaws]

- Jack Torrance,
he's an alcoholic.

He doesn't know
how to control it.

And he blames his son
and his wife

for his artistic impotence.

- Whenever you come in here
and interrupt me

you're breaking
my concentration.

You're distracting me.
And it will then take me time

to get back to where I was.

- There's something about this
hotel that just wants

the people who go there
to murder each other.

- Come and play with us, Danny.

[ominous music]

Forever.

And ever.

And
ever.

- "The Shining" is filled
with the kind of iconic scenes

you'd expect from one of
history's greatest directors.

But Kubrick made many changes
to King's story

that didn't sit well
with its author.

- I can enjoy it on the same
level that you could enjoy

a beautifully restored Cadillac
without a motor in it.

- [laughs]
- You know?

My rap about it is
there's no character arc.

In the book, Jack Torrance
goes from a nice guy

who's trying to get better for
his family and for himself.

And I felt like Jack Nicholson

played Jack Torrance as though
he were crazy from the--

- Crazy from minute one.

- That is, uh, quite a story.

- Talking with Mr. Ullman
in the office,

and Ullman saying this and that
and Jack's going,

"Yes."
- [laughs]

- "Absolutely,
Mr. Ullman."

- Well, you can rest assured,
Mr. Ullman,

that's not gonna happen
with me.

- And I also thought that
Kubrick had taken

a pretty strong, scary,

suspense, horror novel

and turned it into an art film.

- I think Kubrick was doing--

was trying to make
an anti-horror movie.

He was intentionally going
against the grain

of the horror tropes.

You think you know
how horror is made,

well, I'm showing you
how I do it.

- Counter to convention
in "The Shining"

is the brightness
of the lighting style.

And he's almost always
on really wide lenses.

'Cause he doesn't do
that kind of horror,

people don't pop out, you know,

and stab you or whatever.

It's much more psychological,

so it works
for what he's doing.

It's even creepier.

[dramatic musical flourish]

- So much of the movie
is from the perspective

of whatever character
you're with,

so for Danny, it's one thing,

for Jack Nicholson's character
it's this sort of unseen menace

that sort of takes him over,
and Shelley Duvall,

so she's a--
a ghost story freak,

and it's like,
so in her mind

the horror takes on
this cheesier form.

And it's like, Oh--it's just,
everybo--it's all from

subjective perspective, which
just makes it all the creepier.

[tense music]

- Family is a great source

for horror storytelling

because family
is very intimate,

family is very close to us,

and family is very dangerous,
if you're in the wrong family.

- Here's Johnny.
- [gasps]

- The Overlook Hotel and
this trauma-filled family,

they just go together so well.

It's a perfect location
for them to fall apart.

- Danny!

- And that's often the case
in--in haunted house movies,

in movies about ghosts.
People who are traumatized

end up there for one reason
or another,

and the house is just like,
Yes.

This is a person that's ready
to be affected and impacted

by unspoken darkness.

- "The Shining" featured
a boy who could see

the malevolent
spirits of the dead.

Two decades later,
"The Sixth Sense"

told the story of
another haunted child.

This time by ghosts who
were desperate for help.

[dramatic musical flourish]

- [gagging]

- [whispering]
I see dead people.

- Dead people, like, in graves?
In coffins?

[tense music]

- Walking around
like regular people.

- There are many different ways
that you can tell a story

within the context
of a horror movie.

And there's high-brow
and low-brow, like, you know,

there are many colors
to the spectrum of horror.

- Cole, you're scaring me.

- They scare me too sometimes.

- They?

[suspenseful music]

♪

- Ghosts.

- Supernatural thriller.

That was what they called
"The Sixth Sense."

And there were orders not
to call it a horror film.

One of the scariest, most
brilliant films ever made,

and they said,
"Don't call it a horror movie."

It was like "horror"
was a dirty word.

- I'll show you where
my dad keeps his gun.

Come on.

♪

- Cole Sear is a
eight-year-old boy

living in Philadelphia, uh,
with a young, single mom.

He's a very troubled
and disturbed boy.

And he runs into
a child psychologist.

- Think about what you wanna
get out of our time together.

What our goal should be.

- Instead of something I want,

can it be something
I don't want?

And he tries to treat Cole,
and tries to help him,

and he ends up
finding out that Cole

believes that he sees
ghosts and spirits

of people walking around
in day to day life.

And they even
come into his home.

Mama.

- No, dinner is not ready.

♪

- What's great is that
when somebody like

M. Night Shyamalan comes along
with "The Sixth Sense,"

he has the confidence
to slow it down

and make it intimate, and make
it about the performances,

and make you completely
invested in the premise.

♪

- "The Sixth Sense"
was deeply soulful.

The purpose of all the ghosts,
it's all about, like,

resolving your
human relationships,

which is actually more scary
than a ghost.

[laughs]

It was perfectly cast as well.
It was, like,

an awesome, different thing
for Bruce Willis at the time.

- I can't be your
doctor anymore.

I haven't paid enough attention
to my family.

- Poor Haley Joel Osment
was fantastic,

who had this most
expressive face

and pain and loneliness

that's expressed so well
that he feels 40 years old

rather than 10 years old.

- You believe me, right?

- Haley Joel Osment is from
another planet in that movie.

- And you're so drawn to--to
Haley Joel Osment

that you can't help but--
but sympathize for the people

that have died through him.

[dramatic musical flourish]

- That shoot was sort
of my education

into a lot of horror films,

because we were watching a lot
of things to see

good examples of people
in frightening situations.

'Cause at like 10 years old,
you haven't really had

a whole lot
of traumatizing experiences

most of the time.

- What is it?
What...?

- [whispering]
Why did you leave me?

[ominous music]

- I didn't leave you.

[object clinks, rolls]

- I did not see the twist
coming in that film.

I was so scared.
- No, and anybody--

by the way, anybody that tells
you they guessed it,

they're so full of it.
- I so didn't.

- Nobody gets is.
- Did you guess it?

- No--
- Oh, good, I was gonna say--

- I can't even guess the ending
of a "Murder, She Wrote,"

let alone "The Sixth Sense."
[laughter]

- [whispering]
Anna.

[solemn music]

- Happy anniversary.

- It's a frightening movie,

but the fear doesn't come
from ghosts.

It comes from people
being afraid that, uh,

they won't be able to
communicate with each other.

So the movie is--communication
is the real theme of the movie.

[ominous music]

- What do you think they want?

- Just help.

- That's right.
That's what I think too.

They just want help,
even the scary ones.

[suspenseful music]

- Ah!
[panting]

♪

What sets Cole free
from his situation

is when he finally figures
out that he has to be a conduit

between people
who still need to, uh,

communicate
with each other.

Grandma says hi.

And even though Night does
some amazing things

that really makes you jump
and--and create

some really
frightening circumstances,

I think what makes
the movie endure

is that anybody can identify
with that sort of desire

of saying things to people
that you never got to say.

She said

you came to the place
where they buried her,

[stirring music]

asked her a question.

♪

She said the answer is...

♪

every day.

♪

- The theme of ghosts
looking to the living

to solve unfinished business

didn't start with
"The Sixth Sense."

Some of the greatest ghost
stories of all time,

old and new,

are murder mysteries
the dead want us to solve.

[suspenseful music]

[foreboding music]

♪

- She's mad.
- Ghosts can be terrifying.

- [screeches]
- [screams]

- But in some films,
the spirits of the dead

aren't trying
to torment the living.

They're victims
of terrible crimes,

looking for justice.

- [screeching]
- [screams]

- Perhaps the greatest ghost
mystery movie of all time

is "The Changeling."

It's not as famous as
"The Shining"

or "Poltergeist."

But it deserves to be.

[suspenseful music]

- "The Changeling"
is one of the best

American ghost
stories put on film.

Very powerful. And George C.
Scott is terrific.

- George C. Scott
plays a composer

who is dealing with the death

of his young daughter and wife

in a tragic car accident.

♪

- George C. Scott
winds up moving

to a vast, crumbling mansion

that hasn't been
inhabited in years.

- And he's trying
to shake himself

of his memory
of his daughter.

- And then over the course
of his stay,

he starts to notice something

trying to communicate
with him.

At first, it's really subtle
things like a piano note

playing itself.

[piano note rings]

It escalates into
pounding noises.

[pounding]

♪

And so he starts to realize

that there's something
in the house

that's trying
to connect to him.

- "The Changeling"
feels very real.

I think that's
why I love it so much.

The way it handles
the paranormal

is very simple and effective.

[pounding continues]

- It's the first movie
that, um,

made a bouncing ball
absolutely terrifying.

[ball thumping]

- So the ball comes
thump, thump,

thumping
down the stairs,

and George C. Scott
is freaked out,

and he says, Enough of that,
and he--he takes the ball

to the nearest bridge,

and he drops it 70 feet down
into the--the river.

[ominous orchestral music]

And he drives home
and he thinks, Phew,

that's over with.

And he walks in through
the front door and...

♪

You know, it makes my skin
crawl just to think about it.

Love that.
- What is your name?

♪

- [whispering]
Joseph.

- It's the ghost of a young
boy

who was murdered
in the house.

- What is your name?

- [whispering]
Joseph.

- George C. Scott understands
that the specter of this child

has something to communicate,

and he's afraid of it, and
he's afraid

of what it will do,
but he's also curious

and wants to help it,
because of his own loss.

♪

- There's something about
heartbreak and horror

that go hand in hand.

When you've lost a child,

it's something
so deep and so painful

that it either closes you off
completely,

or it opens you up
to other experience.

- What is it doing?
Why is it trying to reach me?

- John.
- Is it because of my daughter?

♪

I can't go through
all this again.

- I think a lot of ghost
stories are about wrestling

with the idea of loss.
- [sobbing]

- Trying to make sense of
the death of loved ones

and--and what that means.

What happens to us
when we're gone?

- If any of us were forced
to linger behind,

uh, on this plane,
in the afterlife,

it's probably because there's
some unfinished business.

[tense music]

♪

And "The Changeling" was
the first time I got exposed

to the idea that ghosts didn't
just wanna scare

the living [bleep] out of you
like they did in "The Shining,"

but that they actually
wanted help.

They needed someone
on the mortal plane

to actually help them.

- What do you want from me?

I've done everything I can do.

- "The Changeling" is,
not only is it a horror movie,

it's also, uh,
a murder mystery.

We wanna know what happened
to this little boy.

And it introduces, uh,
sort of an element

we've seen in a lot of ghost
story movies since then,

where the ghosts
are reaching out to us

to solve a mystery to help
put their souls at rest.

♪

- [coughing]

- And it's a kind of theme
that we've seen

in the films of
Guillermo del Toro,

where we really feel
the pain of the ghost.

- Unlike "The Changeling,"
and many other ghost movies,

del Toro lets you see
his specters.

The ghost of a murdered child
in "The Devil's Backbone"

is one of the most disturbing
figures ever put on film.

- Guillermo has this
incredible, like, sense--

uh, visual sense.

[ominous music]

♪

Santi, the ghost, empty eyes,

and the crack
in--in his forehead.

Blood coming out of his
forehead is shooting up.

It's floating.

Its physics abide
by the laws of--

of the conditions
where he died.

- [groans, grunts]

- [grunts]

♪

- Because he's--he's--he's
actually drowned.

♪

[dramatic musical flourish]

- But del Toro's
ultimate ghost movie

is 2015's "Crimson Peak."

- When the time comes,

you'll hear of Crimson Peak.
- [whimpering]

- By blending practical
effects

with powerful new CGI...
- [screams]

- He took Gothic horror to
a level of visual artistry

never seen before.

- [screeching, moaning]

♪

[crying]

- "Crimson Peak" was my fifth

of my six movies
with Guillermo del Toro.

When he calls and says,
"I want you to be in a film,"

I don't ask questions,
I just say yes,

and then I find out later
what it's gonna be.

[chuckles]
'Cause I trust him that much.

[screeching]
- [gasps]

- [moaning]

- And then when I found out
you're gonna be playing

two of my--of my five
ghost ladies in the movie,

I'm like, "How's that, again?"

"Crimson Peak" is about a
young woman whose father dies

early in the story.

- [grunts]

[groans]

- Edith is met by
a gentleman who says,

Ah, I can--I can offer you
a better life.

Come with me to England.
And so she comes

with her dowry,
with her inheritance.

- Once she signs
the final papers,

I want this over with.

- But the house
that he takes her to

is haunted by lots
of ghost ladies

who might be
from a similar past.

- [growls softly]

- [gasps]

- And he might've
done this before.

What I love about
"Crimson Peak" was

that the ghosts
weren't to be feared.

The imagery might be a little
off-putting at first,

but they were there
to heed warning

and to help this--this woman
who was still alive

not to become one of them.

- [breathing heavily]

- His blood

will be on your hands.

- [gasps, pants]

- Well, ghost stories
are always about the way

the past casts its long shadow
on the present.

- [grunts, groans]

- [grunts]

- Faulkner famously said,
The past isn't over.

It isn't even past.

The big bloodstain of the past

lying across the present.

- "Crimson Peaks" ghosts were
victims

of cold-blooded murder.

[suspenseful music]

So is the ghost
in "The Ring."

But this ghost doesn't
wanna help you.

[television buzzes, screeches]

It's a serial killer
from beyond the grave.

- Have you heard about this
videotape that kills you

when you watch it?

- What kind of tape?
- A tape. A regular tape.

[suspenseful music]

♪

- "The Ring"
is about a videotape,

and if you watch it,
within seven days you die.

[television ringing]

♪

Naomi Watts
plays a news reporter.

And she's reporting
on this story.

Essentially, she comes across
the film

when doing her
journalistic research.

[phone rings]

♪

- Seven days.

- And just brings a tape home

and her--her son
watches the tape.

[television static whooshes]

- No!

♪

- And so now it
becomes also a story of--

of not just a journalist
trying to dig into the story

and find its roots.
It's a mother

trying to save her son's life.

♪

- And it has this natural
time bomb structure.

You see the video,
you know you have seven days

before you're gonna die.

Your life is gonna decay
around you,

and steadily becoming more
and more like a nightmare.

♪

- [coughing]

♪

[coughs]

- And there's nothing
you can do to stop it.

- You don't wanna hurt anyone.

- But I do, and I'm sorry.

- As Naomi Watts' character
is digging in and digging in,

you realize that this child

is what you have to be worried
about.

She's the one
that will haunt you,

and she's the one
that will come after you.

♪

- Samara...

- "The Ring" is a remake

of the haunting
Japanese film "Ringu."

- [gasps]

- Though the plot is the same,

you can see how differently
Eastern and Western cultures

tell ghost stories.

- There's a very specific
approach to fear.

The Japanese films,

all you need is a pale face
and long, black hair.

It's iconic in a way
that has been for years.

There are icons that, uh,
immediately induce

shudders and goose bumps
to a Japanese audience

that would not necessarily
to an American audience.

♪

- [grunts]

[horse groans]

- The U.S. version
of "The Ring"

grossed $249,000,000,

ushering in a wave of Japanese
ghost film remakes.

- [screeches]
- Ah!

- [softly screeching]
- [whimpering]

[tense music]

♪

- The dark, brooding
Japanese horror style

made its way into
Hollywood films,

like Andrew Douglas'
2005 remake

of "The Amityville Horror."

♪

- We're seeing a lot
of Asian horror films

for the first time.
- [whimpering]

- We're kind of influence by
this new imagery.

We hadn't seen it.

- [screams]

- The child twisted up,
stuck to the roof

is very much a kind
of Asian horror image.

♪

- But "The Ring" remains the
most successful

Japanese horror-inspired
classic.

- Oh.
[screams]

- Rachel!

- "The Ring" was, uh,
one of those movies

that had so many
disturbing images.

I just--I could not

sleep for days

after I saw that movie.

And I watched a lot of TV, so
whenever there would be

static white noise
kind of screen,

I would--I just--
I couldn't deal.

- Ah!

- It changed
that whole image for me

for the rest of my life, like,
to this day, you know,

I--I would probably still
get a twinge of, like,

Oh, [bleep].

- Ah!

- This is about the fear of our
own mortality, you know.

About getting the diagnosis
that you only have so long,

and not being able
to put the brakes on,

not being able
to bargain for more time.

[suspenseful music]

- Ghosts mean different things
in different religions

and different cultures.
Some ghosts are benevolent,

some ghosts are malicious.

But there's always
that struggle.

'Cause what--when someone dies,
where do they go?

♪

I have a friend who says that

the people she knows don't die.

They just are on vacation.

Where's Larry?

Oh, he's in Rio de Janeiro
on the beach.

Because they just are here,
and then they're not here.

And that's why
we create rituals,

funerals, memorial services,
to help us deal

with the grief.

And part of the grief is,
Where the hell did they go?

♪

Movies help you.
They're therapeutic.

They deal with
"where did they go"?

♪