Thank you for your patience as I took care of the number of projects I had in October. Now that there is a little bit less of an issue with time, I can return to writing for all of you.
I thought that since we just celebrated Halloween, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day, it would be nice to rank the best movies about the afterlife.
To be clear, I am not ranking these movies on how well they ascribe to Catholic orthodoxy. Some of these movies have very different views of what happens after we have shuffled off this mortal coil than what the Church says. These movies are simply being ranked on their quality and their qualification that they be about some kind of life after death. That last part means that in order to qualify, the movie must be ABOUT the afterlife. There are number of fantastic movies like Somewhere in Time or Titanic that have elements of the afterlife in there. But they are not major parts of the plot or the theme, so they are not on this list.
10. Defending Your Life
This is a unique film. The concept is that after you die, you are placed on trial to see if you have overcome fear in your life. If you have, you move on to a higher level of consciousness. If not, you are reincarnated. The story centers around a thoroughly average man played by Albert Brooks. This version of the afterlife is simplistic in its wish fulfillment (e.g. all food tastes amazing and you never get too full). What makes this film even more interesting is that Brooks' character falls for a woman played by Meryl Streep. This breaks through the established convention of the movie to an incredibly satisfying finale.
9. The Frighteners
I remember being shocked the first time I saw this film. It does an amazing job of transitioning from Ghostbusters-like horror/comedy to an outright horror film. The story centers on Michael J. Fox as a man who is part fraud/ part actual psychic who gets caught up in a real ghostly mystery that could spell doom for everyone he knows. You can see how adept Peter Jackson became at visual storytelling and how this translated later into The Lord of the Rings
8. Chances Are
This film is so effortlessly charming, thanks in no small part to Robert Downey Jr.'s performance. In this movie, he plays a man who gets reincarnated and finds his wife 20 years later and rekindles the romance. But things get incredibly complicated with how her life has moved on. It is a nice, feel-good movie that has some of my favorite performances by Cybill Shepherd and Ryan O'Neil.
7. Flatliners
This was such an original concept (the first movie, not the remake). 5 medical students decide to induce death to be resuscitated soon after so that they can explore whether or not there is an afterlife. Not only did it capture the raw competitiveness of medical school, but it explored the afterlife in a truly unique way. The last act devolves a bit into too much sentiment, but the journey to get there was strong enough to be invested in the end.
6. Exorcist III
This is one of the scariest films I have ever seen. And what it implies about the afterlife can be horribly disturbing. But the movie does it so effectively. The soul of a serial killer (who may be attached to a demon), has possessed the body of the priest who died at the end of the first Exorcist. That priest's soul is trapped in torment in that body as the serial killer continues to do his evil work. This is not a film for the easily frightened. It is masterfully written and directed by William Peter Blatty. Everything puts you on edge until the very end.
5. Ghost
This movie received a nomination for Best Picture at the Academy Awards and it was well deserved. It does such a good job of embodying that Scriptural ideal of "love stronger than death." Sam (Patrick Swayze) dies and cannot leave behind his love (Demi Moore), and must communicate through psychic Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg) and solve his own murder. The movie makes you yearn for the simply things we take for granted, like reaching out and touching the ones we love. It's image of damnation is so incredibly terrifying. And the last line of the movie still haunts me: "It's amazing, Molly. The love inside, you take it with you."
4. Scrooged
Even though this is traditionally a "Christmas movie," the supernatural element, particularly regarding death and judgment, are essential to the story. There have been several iterations of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, but few have captured its pure, life-changing ecstasy of the Christmas spirit. This movie is a wonderful Memento Mori to remind us that this world is not our home and that the only thing we take with us is the love we give away.
3. Field of Dreams
I think that you and your father ever shared a game of catch, this movie would resonate with you in a way that it does not with me. Nevertheless, the movie is so powerful that it breaks through my deficit in this traditional father/son activity and still strikes at the heart. Kevin Costner plays a farmer who hears a voice and receives a vision to build a baseball field in his corn field. The movie is one whose logic is completely fluid. There is almost never any kind of rational explanation for anything that happens. But the emotional truth that runs throughout the entire movie becomes the structural glue that binds everything together until the final, touching conclusion. For many people, the final scene may be the most cathartic moment in movie history.
2. Ghostbusters
It's Ghostbusters.
1. Dead Again
This is the story of a woman with amnesia (Emma Thompson) who thinks that she is the reincarnation of a murdered musician who was killed by her composer husband (Kenneth Branagh). This woman gets involved with a private detective who also might be the reincarnation of her husband. This movie is one of the best mystery/thrillers that I have ever seen. It is charming, funny, scary, and shocking. I witnessed an entire theater jump simply because someone said the name "Margret." It explores the idea of reincarnation and karma and how it would affect something like love and murder. A fantastic film!
Honorable Mentions:
Hamlet (1990 and 1996)
Coco
Beetlejuice
Almost an Angel
Made in Heaven
Always
Ghostbusters 2
Just Like Heaven
Heaven is for Real
What Lies Beneath
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