rebirth bolt down up in rom - coms ( see : a young Robert Downey , Jr. in Chances Are ) , existential dramas ( likeCloud AtlasandI Origins ) , and , perhaps not surprisingly , Bollywood movies . But horror movies have also used the theme , putting a sinister spin on the idea of past lives rising up tohauntthe present .
With the recent reveal that there ’s a remake ofAudrey Rosein the Hollywood pipeline , we decide to revisit these ninespooky moviesabout people who ’re confronted with the fact that the life they ’re currently living is n’t their first time on Earth .
https://gizmodo.com/12-movies-featuring-ghosts-youd-actually-want-to-hang-o-1829901322
Sarah Michelle Gellar’s eye color shifts in 2006’s The Return.Image: Universal Pictures
1. Audrey Rose
Might as well start here , with this woo - woo dramatic event that ’s getting its own reincarnation of sorts , with ascript in the works from film producer Chloe Okuno . Audrey Rose come out in 1977 and is establish on the novel by Frank De Felitta ( he also wrote the book that was accommodate into predatory - ghost saga The Entity ) , with acclaimed directorRobert Wise(The Sound of Music , West Side Story , The Haunting , The Andromeda Strain , Star Trek : The Motion Picture ) behind the crystalline lens .
The biggest name in the cast is none other than Anthony Hopkins , circaMagicand The Elephant Man ; he plays Elliot Hoover , a grieving father whose pursuit to find meaning in his vernal daughter ’s tragic death leads him down some mystical corridors — and right to the doorstep of a posh NYC couple whose precocious daughter , Ivy ( Susan Swift ) , just might be the renascence of his dearly departed Audrey Rose .
If that sounds like an awkward set - up , it is . The parents are understandably like , “ Who is this spook ? ” at first , while poor Ivy ’s frightful nightmares — which seemingly force her to re - live Audrey Rose ’s death in a fiery cable car chance event , over and over again — commence to take a physical toll . Eventually , the movie segues from feisty - feely Exorcist rip - off to courtroom drama , and Ivy go through even more agony until the moment when … sorry , gon na mar a 42 - year - honest-to-god movie … she really dies while regressing into her past life under court - ordered hypnosis . The motion picture sample to give Ivy ’s plight apparitional meaning by ending with a quotation mark from the Bhagavad Gita , but the whole thing is just kind of too cheerless to salvage at that point .
2. Reincarnation
Takashi Shimizu , creator ofThe Grudgefranchise , keeps to the supernatural with 2005 ’s rebirth , a picture show that coalesce vengeful ghosts , sinister bird , rightful - crime enthrallment , and horror filmmaking itself — and also makes purpose of a real - living give up location , the historical Aso Kanko Hotel , a topographic point that gives off some seriousShiningvibes .
https://gizmodo.com/the-grudge-director-addresses-ju-on-creators-absence-an-1838947260
When an ingenue ( Yūka ) gets cast in a much - anticipated new pic from famed repulsion director Matsumura ( Kippei Shiina ) , her delight in obtain her expectant break is tempered — severely — by the fact that the project seems … cursed . The movie , called Memory , is based on a real - life history mass murder that come about decade prior , years before she was even born , and yet she ca n’t shake the flavor that she was present for the murders . That feeling of dread get worse once Matsumura starts building sets that are exact replicas of the hotel ’s Department of the Interior — and then insists that the entire mold and crew take a airfield trip-up to the real law-breaking scene to get in the proper headspace for the movie .
While past and present begin to scramble together for the actress , other random people — let in a college student who ’s singular enough to track down the massacre ’s only survivor — also start to get flashback they ca n’t explain . Suffice to say there are no well-chosen endings for any of Reincarnation ’s former soul trapped in young body — but on the upside for the consultation , the movie does manage to unfurl a few surprisal as to who ’s really who in the end .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qY2pskUnA0
3. The Return
Speaking of The Grudge franchise , 2006 ’s The Return stars Sarah Michelle Gellar as Joanna , a unsatisfied woman who starts to distrust the unsettling visions she ’s been having since puerility — mostly involve a faceless dude who menaces her with taunts of “ Hey , sunshine”—are actually somebody else ’s memories , a woman who manifestly met a uncollectible ending and has some unfinished business to advert to on this side of the velum . workplace take Joanna to a pocket-sized townspeople in Texas , where thing palpate so eerily familiar she set about doing some detective workplace , guide by nothing but her own déjà vu .
The Return is n’t technically a rebirth flick — it eventually raise to be more of a slip of someone - swap , as Joanna puzzles together her strange connective to the dead woman . The Return was an other feature for director Asif Kapadia , who endure on to accomplish greater celebrity for his documentaries , including the late Oscar - winning Amy . Despite some effectual elements — the great Sam Shepherd take on Joanna ’s father for some reason , and the cinematography keep to a washed - out palette that feel tonally appropriate for Joanna ’s haunt state of mind — The Return is more of a meandering meditation on heartache than the supernatural thriller its merchandising would have you to think .
4. Daughters of Satan
Magnum , P.I. was still a few years down the line for Tom Selleck , but his character still gets to force a red-faced sports motorcar ( and disport a epicurean mustache ) in this 1972 low - budget affair . He play Jim Robertson , a Manila - based American museum conservator who impetuously buy a house painting because it reminds him of his Department of Energy - eyed wife , Chris ( Barra Grant)—though she ’s intelligibly taken aback when she sees it , considering it show a morbid witch - burning with a woman that look just like her being torment at the stake .
https://gizmodo.com/10-horror-films-that-contain-equally-horrifying-works-o-1832198507
But in Daughters of Satan , witchery soon proves to be more than just aesthetic inspiration , as sure digit ( initiate with an alarmingly orotund Rottweiler ) slip out of the painting and into existent life . Chris presently start see voices and acting funnily , and Jim begins to distrust a confederacy is underway — especially when another painting , featuring his precise likeness as a Wiccan hunting watch , come to light . Will the pursuit of retiring - life payback win the day , or will Jim and Chris be able to overcome their torrid story ? Unfortunately for these two , it ’s operose to defeat any obstruction when Satan ’s pulling the strings .
5. Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Francis Ford Coppola ’s take on the classic lamia story offer a reminder that if you live long enough — for case , over 400 years — you will eventually re - encounter a screw one who took her own life after mistakenly believe you ’d died in conflict . This is what happens for Vlad Dracula ( Gary Oldman ) when he spots a photograph of Mina Harker ( Winona Ryder ) and realize she ’s a dead ringer for his long - recede Elisabeta and get over her down in Victorian London .
https://gizmodo.com/keanu-reeves-and-winona-ryder-might-actually-be-married-1828447534
Of course , there are complication : She ’s already taken , and he ’s a lamia . Despite those obstacle , they come pretty near to spending timeless existence together as bloodsuckers , but in the end , her enduring love is what at long last frees him from damnation . So it ’s still a happy closing , really .
6-7. The Mummy, The Mummy Returns
talk of classical fiend , the 1932 Mummy has a alike “ reincarnated love ” plot full stop , in which a long - numb mellow priest , Imhotep ( Boris Karloff ) , fakes his way through Egypt circa-1932 while he explore for the reborn reading of his beloved princess . As destiny would have it , she ’s live and well in Cairo as Helen Grosvenor ( Zita Johann ) , who takes nearly the entire movie to recall her past life in ancient Egypt and save up her present life in the process .
Decades later on , The Mummy Returns ( which is sic in 1933 , but came out in 2001 ) would borrow element of this storyline , resurrect a version of Imhotep ( played by Arnold Vosloo in the 1999 The Mummy and this sequel ) whose earthbound orders of business include awakening the soul of his beloved Anck - su - namun ( Patricia Velásquez)—and there ’s less resistance this meter around , because her reincarnated cast is already part of an Imhotep - worshipping cult . There ’s a flock more CG , though .
8. The Reincarnation of Peter Proud
J. Lee Thompson — who channelize the original Cape Fear and the final two first - wave Planet of the Apes movies — helmed this 1975 oddity based on the book by Max Ehrlich , who also wrote the screenplay . The title of respect is a minuscule shoddy because Peter Proud ( play by Michael Sarrazin ) is n’t the person who ’s reincarnated , it ’s a guy named Jeff Curtis ( Tony Stephano ) , who drowned when his married woman ( Margot Kidder ) clobbered him with an oar after a lakeside argument .
Though decades and the entire United States separate the two man — Peter ’s a flower child - ish California college professor , Jeff was a preppy - ish Massachusetts lawn tennis pro — Peter ’s incredibly vivid dreams ( consummate with sleep - talking in an unfamiliar , thick interpreter ) send him on a fact - finding seeking , lest he go crazy combat the other person in his head . He get over down Jeff ’s widow , who ’s been living with her arcanum for year and is none too thrilled to meet him , and her daughter ( Jennifer O’Neill ) , and finds that he can “ rub out ” his recur vision if he re - hold out them in real life . It ’s an effectual strategy , but a foreboding one — see as how we already have intercourse that Jeff , who we learn through flashbacks was habitually unfaithful , met a rather violent demise .
Though it ’s kind of long - wind , The Reincarnation of Peter Proud has a morsel more to chew on ( and far fewer jeopardise children , though Peter does affect up a Romance language with Jeff ’s daughter , which seems … wrong ) than its fellow seventies renascence saga Audrey Rose . And it ’s also been tapped fora rumour remaking , from Se7en writer Andrew Kevin Walker and director David Fincher .
9. Dead Again
Kenneth Branaghdirects and co - stars ( with then - married woman Emma Thompson ) in this 1991 murder mystery that ’s really more neo - noir than repulsion . But it does contain a horrific execution - by - scissors - souse - into - the - pharynx , a particularly cinematic case of amnesia , and a love so powerful it reunites two soulfulness across the divide of sentence .
In the present day , Branagh meet a former cop turned P.I. with a kinky affinity for antiques and a not - so - original playboy attitude toward women . He meets Thompson when she becomes his modish typeface : She ’s an amnesic plagued by incubus that feel suspiciously like memories . In Dead Again ’s late-1940s plot line , which is return in crisp black and white , Branagh act a moneyed German - born composer frustrated by his inability to find success in America , at least until he meets and wed a beautiful piano player ( Thompson ) . Their happiness is dead - lived thanks to that darned scissors murder , which kills her and sends him to death row .
The truth of what really happened that flaming night decades ago becomes a life - or - death spare-time activity for both character , and it ’s an entertaining race to the finish even if Dead Again ’s twists are n’t all that surprising . The best part about revisit this photographic film is the cast ; plain Branagh and Thompson are great in their dual roles , but you also getDerek Jacobias an eccentric junk - shop class owner who dabble in hypnosis , Wayne Knight as a cheerfully crummy lensman , Andy Garcia as a suave newswriter , and — expert of all — Robin Williams as a former shrink turn grocery store possessor , who shows up in a couple of memorable scenes to drop some profound theory about karma and quitting smoking .
For more , make certain you ’re following us on our Instagram @io9dotcom .
Gary OldmanHorrorKenneth BranaghThe MummyWinona Ryder
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