Raw Story

‘Ghost Stories’: What does ‘Ghost Story’ actually mean?

‘Ghost stories’ are movies made by people who have seen ghost stories, often in the form of haunting photographs, and they are a staple of popular culture.

The idea is that if you have witnessed a haunting, you can experience it in your own personal way and perhaps not be able to repeat the experience.

The term was first used by film-maker Peter Bogdanovich in a 1992 episode of the cult TV series, ‘Hoarders’, but the popularity of the genre and its accompanying meme, ‘Ghosts’, have sparked a new movement and spawned countless memes.

‘Ghost story’ was coined by filmmaker and film-writer James Wan in 2015 and it is a term that has been used by many to describe stories they have heard from ghosts, spirits or paranormal phenomena.

‘The word is a big thing in this country,’ says James Wan, who co-created the hit show ‘Hook’ with director James Wan.

‘I’m not saying there’s a ghost story, I’m saying there are ghosts.

And if you know the right stories, you know how to get there.’

Wan says that if a person has seen something, it is almost always a ghost, not a ghost that haunts them.

‘If you have been in a movie, or seen a story, or read a book, then it’s very likely that there’s ghost,’ says Wan.

Wan’s ‘Ghost’ film, released in 2015, won three Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director.

‘It was a real eye-opener for me,’ he says.

‘We were trying to do something that we hadn’t done before.

But we weren’t trying to make a movie about ghosts, or about ghosts that haunt, or what it’s like to be haunted by a ghost.

We were trying something completely new, which was to do a movie that was completely non-scripted.

So we didn’t even have a script.’

The film was shot entirely on location in Los Angeles, with many shots shot from a helicopter, which would then be used to film in real-time.

‘Hooked’ followed the story of a former FBI agent who is haunted by an old friend who haunts him.

‘He’s like the ghost of your own past, he’s the ghost that’s haunting you,’ Wan says.

The film, which won awards including Best Director, was a hit with critics and has been nominated for 11 Oscars including two best picture nominations.

Wan says the inspiration for ‘Ghoststories’ was his friend and co-writer Stephen Chbosky, who had written a book about ghost stories called Ghost Stories.

‘When I first read Ghost Stories, I thought, “Oh, I’ve read this book, this is going to be a good idea”,’ he says, laughing.

‘But I couldn’t write it and it didn’t come out until a couple of years later.’

‘The ghost story is something that people have talked about for ages and that’s where the term ghost comes from,’ says director James McQuarrie, who is producing the film.

‘There are a lot of movies that have ghosts and ghosts are scary, and so is a ghost.’

He added: ‘We wanted to take a very different approach and we didn´t want to be in the same mould as a ghost movie.’

‘Honey Boo Boo’ and ‘The Exorcist’ star, Rosamund Pike, says the word is still used by a lot, but is ‘just getting the word out’.

‘I love it, it’s my favourite term,’ she says.

Rosamun Pike stars in ‘The Honey Boo Boo’, in which she plays a young girl haunted by the ‘unbelievable’.

‘You can just hear it and feel it, like you’re in a film set,’ she said.

Rosalind Russell, who played the witch Hazel in ‘Hoo-Hoo’ and is now a TV actress, agrees.

‘People say that the term is used all the time, but it’s just getting the name out there,’ she tells us.

‘So I hope that the word gets out there.’

‘Ghostbusters’ stars Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy are among the many celebs who have shared their experiences of being haunted by ghosts.

‘You have to love that, it just makes you feel good, it makes you want to laugh,’ Wiig told ET in 2015.

‘And I think that’s the only thing that makes me feel good.’

McCarthy told ET that when she was a kid she was haunted by her grandfather.

‘Every Halloween you go to your house and you hear him screaming, and he’s screaming like he’s in a trance,’ she told us.

McCarthy, who was 13 at the time of her grandfather’s death, told ET: ‘I was really scared to death.

I was just so afraid that my grandfather was going to die.

And I don’t think that anyone could have told me that. So