Film

Ghost Stories

Name: Ghost Stories
Genre: Horror
Released: 2020
Cast: Janhvi Kapoor, Surekha Sikri, Vijay Varma, Sobhita Dhulipala, Sagar Arya

Other titles called Ghost Stories: the 2018 film.

Four of India's most acclaimed directors — Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Karan Johar — each take a short story in this Netflix anthology, unofficial sibling to Lust Stories. It trades jump scares for slow dread: grief, motherhood, apocalypse and domestic rot curdling into something uncanny. Inevitably uneven, it rewards viewers who like their horror literary, patient and a little unresolved rather than loud and tidy.

TMDb rating

2.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy slow-burn dread, and the jolt of moving between four unrelated chills suits you more than one sustained story would.

Skip it if you want one continuous scare that builds across the evening, since the mood and quality shift with each new director and cast.

What it asks of you: Just under two and a half hours split into four separate blocks, so expect to settle in, then reset your attention each time a new story begins.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Tumbbad2018

A gorgeous, patient Indian horror film about greed and a monstrous buried god — visually staggering, genuinely unsettling, and proof Indian horror can be arthouse-grade.

But Slow build, more myth and dread than scares, demands real patience.

Bulbbul2020

Netflix India's gothic feminist fable, drenched in red light, turning folklore into something furious and beautiful — the closest cousin Ghost Stories has.

But Heavy on metaphor and pace; the central twist is telegraphed fairly early.

Hereditary2018

Family grief curdling into something monstrous, an agonising slow burn building to one of the decade's most talked-about horror endings.

But Relentlessly bleak, glacial first half, not something to half-watch.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Ghost Stories

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Dead of Night1945

Ghost Stories borrows its very shape — separate directors' tales inside one frame — from this 1945 film, which invented the format decades before Kashyap or Akhtar picked it up.

The original portmanteau horror film — five uncanny British tales bound by a frame story, elegant and unnervingly cool rather than gory.

But Black and white, stagey pacing, no scares by modern standards.

The Babadook2014

Grief and motherhood made literal monster, claustrophobic and quietly devastating — one of the smartest psychological horrors of its decade.

But More sad than scary in the traditional sense; emotionally heavy going.

Stree2018

An Indian horror-comedy smash mixing real folk-dread with sharp satire and big laughs — same DNA as Ghost Stories, wildly different mood.

But Comedy tone might jar if you're after something purely unsettling.

XX2017

A horror anthology directed entirely by women, four distinct tones stitched together with eerie stop-motion interludes, genuinely creepy in places.

But Uneven segment quality — some ideas land harder than others.

V/H/S2012

Scrappy American found-footage anthology, several directors, wildly uneven in the best way, with nasty little shocks throughout.

But Shaky-cam aesthetic dates fast, quality swings hard between segments.

Creepshow2019

A loving, comic-book-styled horror anthology series, campy fun mixed with real dread and great practical effects — easy to dip into.

But Tone lurches between silly and serious; budget effects show occasionally.

A Ghost Story2017

A strange, hypnotic meditation on grief and time told from a literal sheet-ghost's point of view — haunting rather than scary.

But Almost no dialogue, extremely slow, will frustrate anyone wanting plot.

Kwaidan1965

Same shape — folk-inflected ghost stories under one title — but Kobayashi swaps the grime and nerves of Ghost Stories for painterly stillness, showing how differently anthology dread can be staged.

Four Japanese ghost tales shot like moving paintings, trading jump scares for colour, silence and dread — a masterpiece of restraint.

But Nearly three hours, deliberately slow, theatrical staging may feel alien if you want visceral horror.

Tales from the Crypt1989

Both stitch together separate short horror stories under one banner, but this swaps mood and metaphor for splatter and punchlines — the same anthology engine dressed in trash instead of art-house restraint.

A gleefully trashy horror anthology series hosted by a wisecracking puppet corpse, full of gory twist endings and pure pulp fun.

But Campy, dated effects, tonally the exact opposite of Ghost Stories' hushed dread.