Ghosts are rarely so spectacular or frightening as they appear in movies and TV shows.
We'll skip the obvious cartooning of ghosts in Casper, the Friendly Ghost. Both of the Ghostbusters movies, while fun to see, are not related to genuine hauntings, either; ghosts do not glow green, they do not "slime," and they cannot be sucked into a container and stored. And the tongue-in-cheek view of the afterlife in Beetlejuice is strictly for laughs.
There are other movies that attempt to tell a ghost story. For example, while it may provide a chill, John Carpenter's The Fog is ghoulish fiction, not related to real ghost encounters.
Dated and as preposterous as the true story behind it, The Amityville Horror spins a melodramatic tale of whole cloth, providing "a good scare" but nothing we can use for reference.
Tim Burton's stylish Legend of Sleepy Hollow is dazzling, but the headless horseman is not ghost-like. Generally, you cannot summon a ghost any better than you can command lightning to strike. Ghosts do not kill people, and trees do not bleed. That movie is fun, not fact.
The Blair Witch Project isn't really a ghost story, but the conclusion provides a fine moment when the audience ponders, what IS this? as we do when faced with the paranormal. Otherwise, the movie missed many opportunities for a genuine scare. (For more about the Blair Witch, read this two-part article, at this topic.)
There are some elements of truth in the "Christmas Carol" variations, based on Dickens' story. Spirits do seem to navigate--or sometimes pause in--time. However, I've yet to meet a ghost encumbered by chains or physical restraints of any kind. And, the only timetable they use is their own, not the tolling of the local churchtower.
Likewise, some presentations of the ghost in Shakespeare's Hamlet and MacBeth are accurate. The Bard provided suitably unsatisfying ghosts of these late kings, exactly as they would be in real life.
The only movie with a consistently fact-based presentation of ghosts is The Haunting, the original black-and-white version featuring Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, and Russ Tamblyn. Every element in that movie is presented realistically, if you assume that Eleanor is mentally ill and causes the final scene in the car herself.
Although dated and sensational, The Legend of Hell House, with Roddy McDowell, also shows consistent facts about ghosts and ghost hunting, except that there is absolutely no documentation to show that a ghost ever killed anyone.
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