To help you along with the movie (and to make it more fun), I am going to post the 13 ghosts backstories for your enjoyment. This is the ones that the studio provided for each ghost and actually ‘fleshes’ them out a bit more (rimshot). These were created Howard Berger, the make-up designer, concept artist Bernie Wrightson, and director Steve Beck.
Here ya go:
The Juggernaut - Breaker Mahoney was a massive, seven-foot tall serial killer. Horribly disfigured, he towed stranded motorists back to his junkyard and brutally murdered them - he would literally rip them apart with his bare hands and “break” them into as many pieces as possible. When the local authorities finally tracked him down, the immensely powerful man was impossible to subdue physically. But, as Breaker finally discovered, all men are “breakable” - and he bit the dust when the cops pumped him full of lead.
The Hammer - George Markley was a happy, honest blacksmith in the 1890s - until the local townspeople wrongfully accused him of stealing and drove him out of town. Enraged, George snapped and tracked down the ten people responsible and hammered them to death. The townspeople finally captured him and dragged him back to the blacksmith shop where he received a brutal form of frontier justice - they drove nails into his body and chopped off the blacksmith’s most prized possessions, his hands, and left him out for the crows to pick over his dying body.
The Jackal- In 1908, Ryan Kuhn was a deeply disturbed psycho patient of Borehamwood Asylum. He was locked up for his insatiable appetite for women – to attack and bite them! After years of unrelenting imprisonment with his arms stretched back in a straightjacket and his body twisted grotesquely, his limbs grew horrid in shape. He hated any kind of human contact and was horrified if anyone came near. When a fire broke out in his wing of the Asylum, everyone but Ryan escaped. People still talk about how he ran away from rescuers yelling “keep away!!” - preferring to face a fiery uncertainty than to let anyone touch him.
The Torn Prince- In 1953, Royce Clayton was Valley High’s baseball superstar, wearing his letterman jacket everywhere he went. Everything was handed to Royce on a silver platter, and he felt untouchable. But this cocky James Dean wannabe went too far one night. He challenged the local greaser to a drag race and thought he had it in the bag. But he didn’t brake in time and ended up the star in a fiery wreck instead - never to crack a bat again.
The Angry Princess- Dana Newman was a psychotic beauty that never believed she was beautiful, always searching for perfection, not a single strand of hair could ever be out of place. Famous for her insane tantrums, they called her “Beauty the Beast”. Finally giving up on achieving perfection, she took her last beauty bath and slashed her own wrists. When they found her, they all said that she remained as gorgeous in death as she did in her wasted life - even covered in hundreds of self-mutilating slash marks.
The First Born Son - Little Billy Michaels loved to dress up like his heroes, the cowboys on TV. The seven-year-old never listened to his mother, and his father dubbed him “Billy the Brat”. But his parents never disciplined him, and little Billy always just did what he wanted. And now Billy’s sorry that he never listened to his mom who suggested that he not play Cowboys and Indians with a real bow and arrow - and that he not shoot the arrow straight up into the air the way that his buddy little Danny did.
Dire Mother - Margaret Shelburne was a shy woman who could never stand up for herself - probably because she was only three-feet tall. She was imprisoned by a band of gypsy lumberjacks – forced to live in a cage as their freak show version of entertainment. But her secret union with Jimbo, the man they said had the “iron swing” with his mighty axe, produced her pride and joy - her giant three hundred pound son who she raised to reap revenge on the gypsy lumberjack camp that imprisoned her.
The Great Child - Margaret Shelburne’s giant son, Harold, was spoiled and smothered from infancy by his mother, who raised him to be her protector and to carry out vengeance on those who imprisoned her. Harold took to Jimbo’s iron axe with a passion and was soon felling rows upon rows of giant redwoods. But, he soon graduated to human lumber, yelling “Timber!” every time he chopped a gypsy lumberjack at the roots. After slicing his way through the camp, both mother and son were finally killed by a torch-waving mob that wanted to put Harold through the wood-chipper, but despite repeated attempts they couldn’t manage to stuff his giant body into the chute
The Withered Lover - She was a loving mother and wife. Outgoing and smart, everybody’s favorite PTA mom, she devoted all of her time to her family. Her husband loved her and her kids adored her, although her daughter grew up too fast, she wanted her son to remain a child forever. When the freak accident occurred, she died while racing to save her kids - her dreams of a happy home snuffed forever.
The Bound Woman - Susan LeGrow was the prom queen and cheerleader, the envy of every girl in school. She won an academic scholarship to state college but decided to stay in town and marry Chet, her high school sweetheart. But the after-prom party turned bad, when Chet caught Susan in Billy Bob’s arms. No one really knows what happened that night, but they found her a week later, buried beneath the football field’s fifty-yard line, strangled to death.
The Pilgrimess - Miss Isabella Smith was a young lady without family who decided to take the journey from England to the new colonies across the Atlantic in 1675. But once she settled in a small New England town, her separatist ways isolated her from the tight-knit townsfolk. When the town’s preacher accused her of witchcraft, she denied it as a matter of course. But the town turned against her - much livestock had mysteriously died that month and only a witch could work such magic - so Isabella was sentenced to death in the stocks.
The Torso - Jimmy “The Gambler” Gambino never learned his lesson. The constant scammer and gambler, he always had a knack for landing on his feet. Larry “Three-Times” always warned Jimmy not to get in over his head, his head, his head. But The Gambler didn’t listen and he lost his shirt in a big poker game with a made guy. He would have bet his wife and kids if he had any, but, since he didn’t, he ran off - welching on the bet. The mob caught up with Jimmy and made an example of him. Actually, several small examples, each wrapped in cellophane.
Nice eh?
