The mischeviousness of ghosts

[David]

I have been thinking for this for some time. I suppose as a whole movie/entertainment ghost manisfestations are mischevious... in a story sense - evidence to back this up include:

The uncles in Casper the Friendly Ghost
Many of the ghosts in Ghostbusters movie
Games like Luigi's mansion (boo ghosts and other boogaboogaboo ghosts that pop up scare Luigi, are zapped by his vaccum/light gun and dissappear)

The question is, in these sources, do you think an agency like the Haunting Committee was set up.. or were they all "Freelance" (Casper) ghosts or "Enslaved for a purpose" (Ghostbusters where they basically were the power conduit for Zuul)

Also, in the films where there are obviously "malevealent" ghosts or spirits, i.e. polterguiest, Evil Dead, to a certain extent The Shining (depending if you think the caretaker went off his trolley or really was controlled by another power) were these just victims to their own emotions, puppets or really part of a "Haunters Committee" that is to the ghost world the Cigarette Smoking Man was to the FBI agents in the X-files?

Bizarre topic I know, but its something thats been floating around my head...

[Kitty Kitty]

Well it's really pretty much a case by case issue..

Like 13 ghosts they were all hunted down, trapped, and enslaved for a purpose... Though these would be your more malevolant spirits as opposed to mischievious ones.

I think MOST movies or entertainment venues would have them as freelance, with the majority of the balance as that enslaved bit.

The concept of a hunting commitee or the like isn't something I can offhand remember encountering before. Though then again, you could also argue that depending on the nature and method of the "enslavement" of the spirits, any power / organization / etc which somehow bound ghosts to serve it for whatever purpose fills basically the same criteria.

I mean, you figure if we (the ghost master) weren't in the picture, our ghosts would all still be freelance and doing whatever they normally did. So in a sense, we're just another example of various powers that enslave ghosts for their own ends

And the caretaker did go nuts in the shining, but the reason he did so was the power present in the hotel, and it was DEFINITELY haunted.

You have to read the book to really understand the thing.. the movie did an ok job, but there's SO much left out. But even in the movie, bear in mind the kid and the old man can see the ghosts too, not just the dad.

-Kitty

[ScaryRabbit]

Interesting idea, freelance ghosts, ever seen Beetlejuice?,in that movie they had a ghost civil service. Beetlejuice himself was a freelance scarer in the movie, he was definately mischievious.
Most stories that people send me are of ghosts that have a mischievious intent, so maybe its not just in entertainment as most of these stories are from people who claim to have witnessed real disturbances.
One story i recieved was about an old house in the cotswolds, for years the owner claimed a ghost shared his house with him, this spectral pest would hide important household items in odd places, cause electric apliances to switch on and off, move furniture, even singled out his wife as a target for pranks such as turning dresses and other items of clothing, locked away in a wardrobe, inside out over night.
Laughter was heard on several accasions when the victim of the prank discovered the odd accurance.
Imagine relaxing and watching tellevision with a hot drink on the coffee table, only to find out that when you take a sip of the freshly made, piping hot coffee(made only seconds before), its now stone cold.

[暁美ほむら]

To best honest, if I were a ghost and had Kinesis power, I would also use these powers to scare people every day

[暁美ほむら]

Another possible reason for this is ghosts can get power from the fear of humans, after scaring people ghosts will be stronger