This post is all about making it easy to decide what kind of ghost movie to watch or add to your collection and I'm doing it by the way I choose movies - what sort of ghost movie am I in the mood for? So, I've categorized and helped you find the perfect fit for your mood and some of the titles fit into a couple categories, as well, which makes it a no-brainer to decide what to watch if you're in the mood for a couple categories and they contain a common movie or two.
"Oh Crap! My House Is Haunted"
The Changeling: A widower rents a beautiful old historic home and discovers it's haunted by an unsolved murder decades ago.
The Conjuring: A couple of paranormal investigators/spiritual helpers assist a family with a haunted farmhouse.
The Entity: A single mother is tormented by an evil demon that abuses her.
The Evil: A couple buy a big old place to renovate and when their friends come to help, they are trapped within the murderous home.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir: A widow chooses to raise he daughter at an isolated seaside cottage that has the spirit of a crusty sea captain inhabiting it.
Ghost Ship: A team goes on board an abandoned ship to salvage it only to find it's haunted.
Grave Secrets: The Legacy of Hilltop Drive: A family is tormented in their suburban home by ghosts.
The Innocents: A woman goes to a country estate in England to be a nanny to two unusual children only to wonder what is haunting the place.
Insidious: A family moves into a very troubled haunted home.
The Others: A woman and her children in a lonely estate begin to wonder if they might be haunted.
The Orphanage: A woman moves her children into an old children's orphanage building and her son begins to interact with something.
Paranormal Activity: A couple starts to be taunted by some paranormal activity in their home and decide to film it.
Poltergeist: A family in a new suburban home are tormented by the other side.
The Ring: A woman investigating a mysterious videotape's origins gets involved a haunting terror.
The Shining: A husband, wife, and child become caretakers at a huge hotel in the snowy mountains for winter where the husband begins to act strangely.
Something Evil: A family moves into a country home and the wife begins to experience the unexplained.
Thirteen Ghosts: A family inherits an awesome home only to find it holds 13 ghosts within.
The Uninvited: A brother and sister get a home on the British coastline only to find it haunted by someone from the past.
What Lies Beneath: A wife thinks her home is haunted as her husband terrorizes her.
"Not Too Scary"
Beetlejuice: A couple who pass on and haunt their home, want the new owners out.Ghost: A man dies and comes back to haunt the love of his life.
Ghostbusters: A ragtag team of researchers starts ghost busting and then the town becomes attacked by spirit forms right and left.
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken: The village fraidy cat wants to be a reporter and has to spend a night in a haunted house.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir: A widow chooses to raise he daughter at an isolated seaside cottage that has the spirit of a crusty sea captain inhabiting it.
The Haunting (1963): A team is put together by a parapsychologist to check out the most haunted home in the area.
The House On Haunted Hill: An eccentric wealthy man and his estranged wife have a party at a haunted mansion, offering the guests money to stay the night.
The Innocents: A woman goes to a country estate in England to be a nanny to two unusual children only to wonder what is haunting the place.
The Others: A woman and her children in a lonely estate begin to wonder if they might be haunted.
The Stone Tape: A group of researchers renting an old historic building to run experiments, end up experimenting with an interesting concept on how ghosts haunt.
The Uninvited: A brother and sister get a home on the British coastline only to find it haunted by someone from the past.
The Woman In Black: A lawyer travels to an old abandoned estate where he finds out the villagers are being tormented by spirits.
"Paranormal Investigations"
The Awakening: A post WWI woman goes around proving ghosts don't exist until she runs into one on an historic old boy's school. Death of a Ghost Hunter: A team of ghost hunters run into more than they bargained for.
The Entity: A single mother is tormented by an evil demon that abuses her.
Ghostbusters: A ragtag team of researchers starts ghost busting and then the town becomes attacked by spirit forms right and left.
The Haunting (1963): A team is put together by a parapsychologist to check out the most haunted home in the area.
Knocking On Death's Door: A married couple ghost hunts in a haunted home and run into a mystery.
The Legend of Hell House: A team is put together by a parapsychologist to check out the most haunted home in the area.
Prince of Darkness: A university team comes to a church basement to examine something evil.
Poltergeist: A family in a new suburban home are tormented by the other side.
The Stone Tape: A group of researchers renting an old historic building to run experiments, end up experimenting with an interesting concept on how ghosts haunt.
Thirteen Ghosts: A family inherits an awesome home only to find it holds 13 ghosts within.
"Gothic/Romantic/Atmospheric"
The Awakening: A post WWI woman goes around proving ghosts don't exist until she runs into one on an historic old boy's school. Dead Silence: A man's wife dies after he receives a ventriloquist doll in the mail, now he must go find out how she was murdered and if the doll was involved somehow.
Death Watch: Soldiers hide out in the enemy's abandoned fort, or is it abandoned?
The Fog: A fog rolls into a beach community and the ghosts of the past want vengeance.
Ghost: A man dies and comes back to haunt the love of his life.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir: A widow chooses to raise he daughter at an isolated seaside cottage that has the spirit of a crusty sea captain inhabiting it.
Ghost Story: Friends sharing a 50-year-old secret reunite and a ghost wants retribution.
Gothika: A psychiatrist awakens at the mental hospital she worked at, but as a patient.
The Haunting (1963): A team is put together by a parapsychologist to check out the most haunted home in the area.
The Innocents: A woman goes to a country estate in England to be a nanny to two unusual children only to wonder what is haunting the place.
The Orphanage: A woman moves her children into an old children's orphanage building and her son begins to interact with something.
The Others: A woman and her children in a lonely estate begin to wonder if they might be haunted.
The Stone Tape: A group of researchers renting an old historic building to run experiments, end up experimenting with an interesting concept on how ghosts haunt.
Trick R Treat: A series of stories, one of which involves the ghosts of some mentally challenged children who drowned when their bus was driven over a cliff into a lake.
The Uninvited: A brother and sister get a home on the British coastline only to find it haunted by someone from the past.
The Woman In Black: A lawyer travels to an old abandoned estate where he finds out the villagers are being tormented by spirits.
"Evil/Possession/Demons"
Burnt Offerings: A family moves into a beautiful idyllic home in the countryside, but have to take care of the remaining resident. The Conjuring: A couple of paranormal investigators/spiritual helpers assist a family with a haunted farmhouse.
Dead Silence: A man's wife dies after he receives a ventriloquist doll in the mail, now he must go find out how she was murdered and if the doll was involved somehow.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose: When a young woman starts having fits ad doing things that appear possessed, a family wants an exorcism.
The Exorcist: An adolescent girl becomes possessed and needs an exorcism.
Insidious: A family moves into a very troubled haunted home.
The Legend of Hell House: A team is put together by a parapsychologist to check out the most haunted home in the area.
Night of the Scarecrow: A vengeful possessed scarecrow has it in for a town's top citizens.
A Nightmare on Elm Street: A creepy dead murderer terrorizes the youth in their dreams.
Prince of Darkness: A university team comes to a church basement to examine something evil.
The Sentinel: A model moves into a charming old apartment building with quirky residents who have a little something wrong.
The Shining: A husband, wife, and child become caretakers at a huge hotel in the snowy mountains for winter where the husband begins to act strangely.
Thirteen Ghosts: A family inherits an awesome home only to find it holds 13 ghosts within.
Wake Wood: A husband and wife grieve the loss of their child and find a way to bring her back.
"Am I Insane Or Is This A Ghost?/Psychological"
Chernobyl Diaries: A group of thrillseeking friends take a tour of Chernobyl and get stranded with something else present there.Death Watch: Soldiers hide out in the enemy's abandoned fort, or is it abandoned?
The Exorcism of Emily Rose: When a young woman starts having fits ad doing things that appear possessed, a family wants an exorcism.
Gothika: A psychiatrist awakens at the mental hospital she worked at, but as a patient.
Halflight: A grieving author goes to an isolated UK getaway cottage to write as she processes the death of her son but soon wonders if she's insane or visiting a ghost at a lighthouse island nearby.
Let's Scare Jessica To Death: A woman leaves an asylum and goes to a country home where she begins to wonder if she's losing her mind again.
A Nightmare on Elm Street: A creepy dead murderer terrorizes the youth in their dreams.
Session 9: An asbestos cleaning crew sent to an abandoned asylum starts having weird things happen.
The Shining: A husband, wife, and child become caretakers at a huge hotel in the snowy mountains for winter where the husband begins to act strangely.
The Sixth Sense: A man tries to help a kid with the sixth sense to see dead people only to begin to wonder at his own life.
Stir Of Echoes: Following being hypnotized, a man starts experiencing visions and is driven to solve a murder from the past in his home.
What Lies Beneath: A wife thinks her home is haunted as her husband terrorizes her.
"1970s Classics"
The Amityville Horror: A stepfather and his new family move into the home of their dreams to find out it is their nightmare.
Burnt Offerings: A family moves into a beautiful idyllic home in the countryside, but have to take care of the remaining resident.
The Exorcist: An adolescent girl becomes possessed and needs an exorcism.
The Fog: A fog rolls into a beach community and the ghosts of the past want vengeance.
Ghost Story: Friends sharing a 50-year-old secret reunite and a ghost wants retribution.
The Legend of Hell House: A team is put together by a parapsychologist to check out the most haunted home in the area.
The Sentinel: A model moves into a charming old apartment building with quirky residents who have a little something wrong.
The Shining: A husband, wife, and child become caretakers at a huge hotel in the snowy mountains for winter where the husband begins to act strangely.
Something Evil: A family moves into a country home and the wife begins to experience the unexplained.
And here's an upcoming ghost movie that looks wickedly awesome - "The Quiet Ones"
***In a while the second post of the day will be about abandoned Victorian homes***
