When I think of a piece of fiction with an afterlife, I tend to shy from traditional depictions of heaven and hell, and go for the ones that eschew all that and develop the other side as it's own thing, with it's own laws and rules. I love the way the writer goes beyond tradition to create something new and exciting, even after the final bell has rung.
In The Frighteners, Death is a hell of a way to make a living.
Michael J. Fox plays Frank Bannister, a former architect who gained the ability to see spirits after the death of his wife. He uses a crew of "emanations" to haunt people or, "put the frighteners" on them in order to make money at the time of the movie.
In the world of The Frighteners, you die and there is a tunnel of light, taking you to the next place. If you miss the tunnel, you are an emanation, and expected to stay in your grave until the next chance to go. As an emanation, you decompose as a slow trickling cloud of ectoplasm, and you are stuck as you died, wearing whatever you were wearing at the time. The graveyard, however is guarded by a full on spirit, the ghost of Sgt Hiles(R. Lee Ermee) who can access anything he wore or used while alive and is made "physically Ill" by the sight of Frank Bannister sneaking around his graveyard. Ghosts are tied to this world by their remains, and tend to follow their remains decomposition, if the oldest ghost in Frank's employ, The Judge,(John Astin) is anything to go by.
Beetlejuice Holds that Death is a lot like the DMV.
Tells the tale of the Maitlands, a couple who are crazy in love and die together in a car accident. Their afterlife is a 125 year tour stuck in the house they lived in, and unable to leave due to anything beyond the house being a desert populated by stop-motion claymation sandworms. A handbook for the recently deceased that they find in their possession leads them to an afterlife bureaucracy, where suicides in life become civil servants in death, and help is as readily available as in any other bureaucracy...A masterpiece by Tim Burton.
For RIPD, Death is a Buddy Cop movie
Ryan Reynolds is Detective Nick Walker, Who after being betrayed and murdered by his Partner, is offered the choice of going down or working fothe Rest in Peace Department, hunting down the ghosts that won't go quietly into that good night. Partnered with grizzled and controversial western lawman Roycephus Pulsifer (yeah, Spell check just went off on me there) they uncover a plot to take down the whole system. Oh, and for some reason, Cumin can reveal a host in hiding. And R.I.P.D agents get a disguise so the living can't recognize them. This may be and probably is the only film where Ryan Reynolds is body-doubled by James Hong. Relax Body, folks.
Plus this little Gem
What Dreams May Come lets you choose your own afterlife
There are parts of this film that are painful to me. There is a seemingly disproportionate amount of tragedy heaped upon one family. On the other hand, there is a brilliant performance by Robin Williams. The film is shot on special film stock to be breathtakingly beautiful in the places where it needs to be, and terrible in the places where the visuals require that. It's treatment of suicides going to a hell they make for themselves is chilling, real nightmare stuff. And the people you meet in heaven may not be who you expect, or look like you would expect them to look. But at the end of the day, heaven is what you make for yourself, based upon what you can accept.
And me? What would I choose? I think you could do far worse than an afterlife of your own choosing...
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