Amayha Dycus
ENGL 1102-03
Essay on Cohen’s Theses
Ghost Nearly Always Escape
Every scary movie with a monster ends with a traumatic event. Which many believe the monster is destroyed and will never return again. But as the audience we know nine times out of ten the monster escapes. So it is safe to say that the monster always escapes, except for some rare occasions. When the monster escapes it creates an “aww moment” for the audience because everybody cannot wait to see what happens in the next movie. Having the monster escape creates a desire for the audience to return to see the next movie or even see that same movie again. So what movie doesn’t have a monster escape, not very many if you think right off the top of your head. That is why I will be focusing on the topic that monsters always escape.
After doing my research, I decided to focus on ghosts rather than the broad topic of monsters. Ghost are said to be souls of deceased humans that did not get into Heaven or Hell and are stuck on Earth. Majority of the time, they reside in The Veil, but sometimes they appear in a physical dimension (Supernatural). Based on all the information, I have chosen to compare my thesis to these three movies: Insidious, The Gallows, & Poltergeist.
As for the movie, Insidious, I plan to focus on the ending with the father, Josh. As a child Josh was haunted by an old woman that would only show up in pictures. The older he got the closer the old woman got in the pictures. Until one day a paranormal investigator, Elise, vanishes the ghost. It is not until years later that Josh ghost returns, when his son is trying to be possessed by a demonic ghost. Josh must enter The Veil to find his son and bring him back to reality. Once he finds his son and gets him back Josh is confronted by his past ghost. Trying too fight her off, Josh becomes possessed. But it is not until Elise takes a picture of Josh and sees the old woman instead of him. This movie shows that even when you think a ghost is gone for good because a paranormal investigator vanished it, is not always the case.
An even more recent scary movie that just came out is The Gallows. A student, Charlie Grimille, at Beatrice High School is accidentally hanged and killed after a prop malfunction in the production of The Gallows. Twenty years later, on October 28, 2013, the school attempts to put on the production again. The main character, Reese Houser, gets some stage fright, so he and his friends decide to prevent the show from happening. They break into the high school the night before the performance to destroy the set. But all along, Charlie has other plans in store for these kids. After each kid is brought down by Charlie, two are left standing, Reese Houser and Pfeifer Ross. Reese realizes that Charlie wants him because of what Reese’s dad did, so Reese begins to recite the ending of the play. Pfeifer and Reese kiss and Reese makes his way to the gallow, where he hangs himself. At the end of the movie, two police officers enter the Ross’s house to find Pfeifer Ross, Charlie’s Daughter, and Alexis, Charlie’s high school girlfriend sitting on the bed. One of the officers yells “where is Charlie at” and both ladies look at him and say we do not say that here. When the officer turns to yell for his partner, Charlie appears in the background and gets him. After everything that happened in the school with Reese dying in order to let Charlie rest in peace, Charlie still returns to kill again.
But there are some instances, when the ghost is really vanished for forever. In the movie, Sinister 2, the ghost named Bughuul is destroyed and can never return to the physical world. Following the events from the first film, a mother and her two sons move into a country home with an abandoned church in the back yard that has death written all over it. When a former deputy realizes the demonic ghost is back, he races against time to save the innocent children from being abducted.
To end it all off is the Poltergeist. After moving into their new home, the Bowen family experience weird things on the first night. They hear strange noises in the walls and their son Griffin finds a box of clown dolls that were left at the house. Late at night, lights and electronic devices start turning on and off, as some unseen force appears to move through the home. With everything going on Griffin is awakened, and he finds Madison talking to an unknown presence inside the television. As the night passes and another one begins, Amy and Eric leave their children home alone. While away, Amy and Eric find out that their home was built on top of a cemetery, but the bodies were moved to a better neighborhood. Back at the house, a clown attacks Griffin and Kendra enters one of the rooms and the floor cracks and corpses’ hands emerge and begin pulling at her feet. Madison is then lured into her closet and becomes lost in The Veil. The further her bedroom becomes the more she is dragged into the darkness by ghost. When Eric and Amy return Madison is still missing. Eventually they hear her voice coming from the television. This is when they bring in the paranormal research department in for help. The investigators realize that this haunting is a poltergeist. Later Carrigan explains that Madison could be a possible psychic, able to communicate with spirits. More information is released about the home they bought. Carrigan then informs them that the poltergeists are trapped and angry because only the headstones were moved to the new cemetery, but the bodies remained. Later Griffin enters the portal to save Madison because he feels as if it is his fault. He finds Madison but the poltergeist tries to destroy their rope but it does not work and they both escape. The family gets in the car and begins to drive off but the poltergeist pulls them back toward the house to try in take Madison again. After the poltergeist loses its host once it still returns to get it again. No matter how hard a victim or prey tries to get rid of a ghost, they always seem to escape and return for revenge.