Yes, I'm planning for next Halloween already

November 1, 2021 9:46 AM

For the past several years, I've watched The Witch on Halloween. For next year, I'd like to pair that with a movie about ghosts. Please recommend ghost/haunting/haunted house movies that would go well tonally as a double feature with The Witch.

- I have no problem with gore but would prefer to avoid sexual violence if possible.

- I don't care for stories where the haunting turns out to have a mundane explanation (eg, the haunted person is mentally ill, or is being harassed/gaslit by someone alive). Ambiguity on those points is fine but ultimately, I am looking for properly supernatural ghosts.

Thank you!

posted by darchildre to Media & Arts (20 answers total)

It's hard to improve on Poltergeist, frankly, but it's a very different sort of movie than The Witch (I'm assuming you mean the Anya Taylor Joy movie). The Others might suit better tonally as it's also sort of a period piece with a supernatural plot.
posted by phunniemee at 9:55 AM on November 1, 2021

Yes, for clarity, this is my yearly Halloween film. I'm looking for a tonal match, rather than a setting/period match - any setting or period is fine.
posted by darchildre at 10:05 AM on November 1, 2021

These come to mind — the tone varies but I could see all of these as a pairing.

I also thought of The Others;

— The Shining
— The Haunting (1963)
— The Conjuring
— The Sixth Sense
— The Innocents
— and possibly Don’t Look Now
posted by profreader at 10:07 AM on November 1, 2021

Nothing is quite like The Witch, but you could check out Oculus (not usually a big Mike Flanagan fan but this one creeped me out).
posted by cakelite at 10:15 AM on November 1, 2021

I was going to recommend Oculus as well! It’s one of my favorite modern ghost movies, along with The Ring and Ju-On: The Grudge.
posted by ejs at 10:19 AM on November 1, 2021

Well if it scares Michael Hordern it scares me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYjtxHHjZ00 (M.R. James' 'Whistle and I'll Come'). Only 40ish mins though.
posted by aesop at 10:27 AM on November 1, 2021

Perhaps Crimson Peak?
posted by wuzandfuzz at 10:33 AM on November 1, 2021

maybe The Others?
posted by Julnyes at 10:41 AM on November 1, 2021

I watched The Devil’s Backbone for the first time this season and I think it’s a good tonal fit—isolated folks, gloomy/moody palette and a true ghost story. Also has that period piece spookiness as it’s set during the Spanish Civil War.
posted by assenav at 11:11 AM on November 1, 2021

Yes, The Others would work well with The VVitch.

I'd also suggest Paranormal Activity. Like The VVitch, the story is small and doesn't involve a lot of special effects. There's also a suggestion in Paranormal Activity that it's Micah (the husband) whose pride leads to disaster, much as the father in The VVitch. (NB: choose the "theatrical cut" of Paranormal Activity, not the "alternate cut." Partly because of gore, and partly because the "theatrical cut" sets of the situation for the mostly excellent Paranormal Activity 2.)

There's also Thir13en Ghosts (2001, not the original 1960 version). There's some gore, to be sure, but lots of ghosts and a really oddball "haunted house" which deserves a special prize for the design.
posted by SPrintF at 11:22 AM on November 1, 2021

Like everyone else, I immediately thought of The Others.

Another one that might work is El Orfanato.
posted by LionIndex at 11:26 AM on November 1, 2021

Ari Asher's Midsommer echoes The VVitch perfectly. There's pagan sexuality and human sacrifice, and some ancestral ghosts. The artwork is gorgeous, the ending very akin to the themes in the Witch. Horror in the broadest of daylight.
posted by effluvia at 11:40 AM on November 1, 2021

This is probably too obvious, but Hereditary? Also by A24, I watched both it and VVitch last weekend and they have families unravelling due to supernatural evils but very different settings. No sexual violence, yes gore.

(also, a bunch of A24 movies are free on Kanopy, see if your library subscribes!)
posted by momus_window at 12:50 PM on November 1, 2021

His House would be a good match for The Witch, I think. It's contemporary, but has a similar feeling of isolated domesticity going wrong. Very definitely a ghost story.

I also thought of Saint Maud, which is very good but less of a match (more demonic possession than ghosts, and comes down a little more firmly on the "mundane explanation" too)
posted by Ballad of Peckham Rye at 12:51 PM on November 1, 2021

I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House, perhaps? It's got a very similar frustrated/repressed vibe to everything.
posted by Scattercat at 1:30 PM on November 1, 2021

If you do go with The Others try very hard to watch with a good surround sound audio system if you can. It really ramps up the creepiness.
posted by sevenless at 2:50 PM on November 1, 2021

How about The Babadook? While not technically a ghost, I think it would definitely qualify as a haunting. (PS This movie plus the Witch are my 2 fave horrors).
posted by ikahime at 3:00 PM on November 1, 2021

It’s not quite right, but The Changeling with George C. Scott is a striking and unique ghost story. Also, the early 2000s Japanese Dark Water (I can’t vouch for the English language version) is pretty good and, like The Witch, pretty ambiguous.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:57 PM on November 1, 2021

I also came in here to say Crimson Peak, but The Others is a strong choice too.
posted by verbminx at 5:01 PM on November 1, 2021

My horror expert friend recommends The Vigil.
posted by gideonfrog at 6:16 PM on November 1, 2021