Blithe Spirit (1945)
The Ghost Train (1941)
Salt (2010)
The Clairvoyant (1932)
Don't Look Now (1973)
Don't Take It To Heart (1944)
The Dark Mirror (1946)
Beyond A Reasonable Doubt (2008)
Stir Of Echoes (1999)
The Butterfly Effect (2004) ///
The Ghost Train (1941) Enjoyment very much depends on accepting creaky plotting of the original play and exhausting in-your-face theatrics of Arthur Askey. Diverse passengers stranded at a country station face the haunted locomotive with a mix of wartime thrills and comedy.
Salt (2010) Buoyed by a relentless score and continuous action set pieces, an impassively athletic Angelie Jolie is constantly on the run to prove her innocence and prevent global catastrophe. Plot logic is quickly jettisoned, visuals and tight rhythms dominate, an exciting and dynamic ride.
The Clairvoyant (1932) Claude Rains is a stage mentalist who begins to foresee future events, overnight a celebrity, but increasingly tortured by premonitions of disaster and death. Interesting mix of eerie horror, marital drama and social comedy with moments of impressive intensity.
Don't Look Now (1973) Compelling, unsettling tale of unrepentant grief and dread, bracingly shot and jaggedly edited to conjure an ominous, finally horrific atmosphere. Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland are the couple recovering from their daughter's death. Gripping and emotional.
Don't Take It To Heart (1944) Often frantic comedy with a German bomb dislodging a ghost who decides to rectify past misdeeds and corrupt developers. Richard Greene and Patricia Medina supply the romantic core as various eccentrics populate the local village. Fitfully amusing.
The Dark Mirror (1946) Intriguing setup results in fun cat and mouse suspense as Lew Ayres delves into the Freudian textbook to work out which of Olivia De Havilland's twin sisters is the murderer. Moody lighting and Dimitri Tiomkin's unrepentant score amps up the melodrama.
Beyond A Reasonable Doubt (2008) The visuals and design are slick, yet a lack of atmosphere and energy only muddies the convoluted plot and can't develop empathetic characters. A reporter sets out to prove shady DA Michael Douglas is corrupt, but even final twist feels flat.
Stir Of Echoes (1999) There's texture and a grounded atmosphere to the blue collar Chicago neighborhood where ghosts are physical as well as literal. Past secrets are gradually dug up by a mournful, psychic Kevin Bacon, a story always involving if not quite delivering on potential.
The Butterfly Effect (2004) Time travel and time altering storylines have such an inherent fascination that jettisoned logic and narrative cohesion is forgiven. As unbalanced Ashton Kutcher finds he can alter past events, but find no happy endings, a swift, enjoyable table without lingering in the mind.
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