A Ghost Story for Halloween Countdown 2025
A cinema ghost and a scripture ghost!
Time for a scary movie and scary scripture passage. This week: a ghost story!
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Scary Movie: The Shining (1980)
There’s been a lot of ink spilled on The Shining — enough to fill an entire elevator!
Much of the film is a “slow burn,” meaning it builds tension slowly over a long time rather than jumping at you over and again, trying to scare you out of your chair. Instead, it tries to get you to slink down into your chair with that sinking feeling. When we get to the last bit of the film, Wendy Torrance (Shelly Duvall) finds herself face to face with a rash of jump scare moments with ghost after ghost.
What’s effective here is that the tension has built up for both her and us as the audience for over two hours. She’s survived some harrowing behavior from her husband, Jack (Jack Nicholson), and now finally the full extent of the supernatural presence at the Hotel Overlook is exposed. Wendy turns down this hall and finds a bloody elevator, she peeks into that room and finds a… well, I still don’t know what that bear costume thing is. I kind of don’t wanna know, either, because I think the truth will be more disturbing than anything I can come up with on my own. In each case, we witness the pure terror on her face, the utter confusion and desire to be anywhere but there.
I don’t know what I would do if I saw a ghost. I hope I’d be chill. But, if I’d been chased around a creepy old house for a few hours first, and my kid was being stranger than weird, I would probably freak out over an apparition, too. Maybe that’s what makes these ghost scenes from The Shining so creepy. Sure, they’re special effects and weird and not particularly scary. But Shelly Duvall’s masterful reactions make us feel the fear. In a ghost story, it’s the powerful human performances that sell the ghosts.
Scary Scripture: Matthew 14:22-33
Jesus… is a ghost?!
Kinda.
We get this moment in the Gospel of Matthew where the disciples don’t recognize Jesus coming across the water to them. One calls out, it’s a ghost. Then, one jumps out of the boat. Here’s the passage:
22 Immediately he made the disciples get into a boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25 And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”
28 Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he noticed the strong wind,[b] he became frightened, and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
The disciples have a similar experience to Wendy, in that a lot happened before this moment that built tension, and it may very well describe their fear. In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 14, Jesus and his disciples learn that Jesus’s cousin (relative in some manner, but “cousin” will do for now) John the Baptist has been assassinated, murdered by the state, almost on a dare. Jesus is grieved, and the disciples witness this, likely unsure what to do or feel.
Then, just when Jesus is trying to have a private moment to be with his grief, the crowds come, and he heals them and feeds them. It’s a miracle moment, but I also wonder how tense was Jesus’s face during all of this? Was he able to set aside his grief for a while to be with the people, or could they tell? Could the disciples tell what was just under the surface?
Finally, Jesus does get his private moment to grieve and the disciples are on the boat. They’re caught in a storm, scary enough, and then over the surface of the water comes the vision of a figure. All of this tension has built and now they’re convinced it’s a ghost. Jesus identifies himself and Simon Peter goes out to him. He struggles with his faith in that moment, and one of the great miracles Jesus does here is not about pulling Simon Peter up onto the surface of the water with him, but in his breaking the tension, in his demonstration of faith in Simon Peter, in his bringing peace to his soul.
After rising tension, we all just want a little bit of peace.
Scary Phobia: Phasmophobia
If you have a fear of ghosts, that’s calls phasmophobia, and it can be triggered by reading or watching a ghost story, or the cultural beliefs of your household growing up, or other negative experiences. It can bring anxiety, panic attacks, or worse. Peace to all who may have this sort of fear, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
I also hope you never have a fear of writer’s block like Jack had in The Shining.
And to be clear, this is not how I write R-Rated Movie Club and it is not how I respond to my amazing, funny, clever, smart, beautiful wife when she asks me how life is going.
But it is a very creepy scene in a great scary movie.
Your turn!
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The Halloween Countdown continues… if you dare…
Glad you’re here today, Dear Reader. God’s peace and good movies to you!