October is coming. I will be reading Something Wicked This Way Comes for the 40th time. I will be looking for something good to watch on Halloween. Here is a list of 13 great Ghost Stories. I expect you to email me your lists so I can put them here.

• The Uninvited (1944) – by far the best ghost movie. It has a good story and is not just some scary special effects.
• The Innocents (1961) – based on Henry James’s Turn of the Screw
• The Haunting (1963) – based on Shirley Jackson’s chilling The Haunting of Hill House.
• Blithe Spirit (1945) – Wonderful screwball comedy involving dead people. My Dad saw the stage play in London during WW2 when he was stationed in England.
• 13 Ghosts (1960) – I saw this with the special glasses in the Rockland Theater in Nyack and it scared the hell out of me.
• Topper (1937) – I actually liked the TV show better. Cary Grant made a great ghost, though.
• The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) – The most romantic story in the list. You’ve got to love Gene Tierney.
• Ghost (1990) – Sappy, but I like the crazy guy on the subway.
• The Shining (1980) – Here’s Johnny! Way over the top, but still a scary story.
• House on Haunted Hill (1958) – One word: Vincent Price.
• The Canterville Ghost (1944) – has one of my mother’s favorite actors, Charles Laughton.
• Poltergeist (1982) – Perhaps too slick, but a cool ending and the clown was cool.
• Hold That Ghost (1941) – best Abbot and Costello movie.

I didn’t like The Sixth Sense. I wanted to put one of the Laurel and Hardy ghost movies, but I can’t remember the name. There were too many Stephen King ghost stories and I disliked most of them. Others choices that I did not list might be any of the many Christmas Carol movies. I think there are a lot of great Japanese ghost movies, but I haven’t seen any. I have not seen Blair Witch or other modern movie because I don’t have a DVD player, I don’t rent movies, and I don’t go to the little cramped things that pass for movie theaters around here.