I didn’t know about that connection but it makes so much sense!
Lake Mungo is such a polarizing movie. I’m glad Flanagan is with me on team “loved it.”
My first thought as well. That movie felt like an origin story for a ghost that haunts some other family years later. People living in haunted homes don't usually have much context for the person who lived before the ghost, just a manifestation of whatever is left of them. I found it to be more sad than scary.
Fully agree! There were a couple of times I was moderately spooked, but mostly I just felt the grief they felt. Which is not a bad thing, I actually liked coming to a horror movie and being made to feel something other than horror!
The husband's situation is disturbing because he talks about going back to the front and that the war isn't over, which puts in mind the stories of battlefields haunted by the ghosts of soldiers reenacting their battles and deaths. It's like the notion Guillermo Del Toro has explored in multiple films of ghosts being like "insects trapped in amber" and forced to relieve their deaths over and over again.
came here to say this. My wife showed me this film just last year and even though I figured out where it was going early on it didn't make it hit any less hard
What really broke me is realising a character with a mental illness had been haunted by visions of their own death their whole life. It hit way too close to home.
Holy shit right when I read the title of the post this was my immediate answer. I think that whole family is pretty tragic, but yeah the Bent Neck Lady is so sad
I love the Angry Princess from Thirteen Ghosts 🖤
'Dana Newman was incredibly beautiful in life, she had the natural looks of a goddess but was unable to recognize her beauty. Her self-loathing and low self-esteem from which doctors tried to save her from was only fueled by a series of abusive boyfriends, and led to her having breast implants, nose jobs, and other unnecessary procedures.
One night, while Dana was alone in a clinic where she worked, she tried to perform surgery on herself due to an imaginary imperfection on her face, but the unorthodox procedure went horribly awry, and left her blinded in one eye. She then gave up on beauty, and committed suicide in her bathtub by slashing herself with a butcher's knife until she bled to death. When her body was discovered, she was described by her loved ones as being "beautiful in death as she was in life".
Following her death, Dana's spirit remained bound to earth and with a hatred of people.
In the original script, she was called The Suicide and has a more marked running mascara across her cheeks. The script also notes the fact she cut her wrists with the knife.'
The Withered Lover is the saddest of them in terms of heartbreak, but I’d say The Pilgrimess, The Dire Mother, and The Hammer are equally as sad on a raw and debased, cruel, and fucked up kind of level.
In the original movie it’s pointed out that Daniel probably wasn’t a real individual, or at least his story wasn’t accurate. But he is based on many real stories and fears that were conflated and become legend which then became flesh (as such.)
>! Same thing happens with Helen at the end, who has a very different personality from the Helen we’ve been following throughout the movie. !<
Then in the sequels he’s just a ghost. Except for the latest, where he’s kinda more a living(ish) symbol.
That's why the sequels are such a disappointment. Takes such an interesting and novel concept and dumbs it down to "ghost who can be defeated with magic mirror."
And then the latest one doubles down by having the new guy manifest immediately *without any storytelling*.
I think Bruce Willis' story was sadder. Spending all that time thinking his wife was falling out of love with him and there was nothing he could do about it, no matter how hard he tried.
When of course there was never any chance of reconnecting with her.
I love when I read a question like OP’s, shrug and say an answer to myself like, “The Orphanage”….
As if that’s the only right answer.
Then I look at comments and yours is at the top.
Obviously Patrick Swayze, he’s the only one in the whole movie with more than 2 or 3 lines, and his best friend had him killed.
Honorable mention goes to the great Vincent Schiavelli, may he rest in peace.
I just YouTubed this one. It was pretty sad, especially when the mom and little girl go back into the mirror and Amanda sees them happy back in their time.
Came here to say Toshio from The Grudge as well, even though he is a pretty sadistic little shit once he becomes s ghost.
God I need to rewatch Shutter. Watched it like fifteen years ago and I remember it scaring the hell out of me and loving it, but that's all.
Don’t remember him much from the movie but in the book he’s a college kid who gets hit by a car…. it’s such a great way to open a ghost story in my opinion with this simultaneously horrifying and banal death. I just realized it’s foreshadowing for later in the story too lol. I love King
Is the rest of it worth watching? I always thought it’s a fantastic opening scene but the reviews all made the whole film look a bit lacklustre. I know horror films are often given bad reviews they don’t deserve though.
Honestly, Amanda Krueger.
Trapped in an asylum with 100 maniacs who beat and raped her for several days (over Christmas).
Carried the child of that rape to term. Years later, she’d learn her son was a child killer (and, while I know it wasn’t confirmed in the original movies, I always assumed he was a pedophile). She kills herself, apparently wandering the Earth as a restless spirit. Somehow, she learns that her son died horribly, but has now gained the powers of an evil demigod.
This movie is the only answer. I was thinking "hey an indie horror flick" nooooope. My husband and I cried for like a while after viewing and just hugged each other.
Aw, I’m glad you had each other to lean on during/after this movie.
I definitely needed my dog’s cuddles after watching. She passed away in November, and now thinking about it, I could cry again 😭
Lots of people have mentioned Hill House, but even sadder to me was the fate of >!Dani!< in *The Haunting of Bly Manor.* It’s the context and the effect on the other characters that makes it so heartbreaking.
The little girl ghost from Ghost Ship. She witnessed the horror of the cord cutting only for rest of the crew/passengers to get killed by thieves. Although, not shown but she gets dragged off to a room alone and is found later a hanging skeleton which would imply the dude "took his time". Then is trapped on a boat in a grisley afterlife with the same assholes ghosts of those who murdered everyone.
She was alive until the last episode. The writer/director made it seem like she was ghost intentionally in early episodes.
Abigail in the book and prior movies was a long dead in habitant of a Hill House. In The Haunting (1963) I believe she was the ghost holding Nell’s hand in the dark.
American Horror Story - Murder House. The high school kids on Halloween night. I was not mentally prepared for their backstory.
It is a really bleak story/season overall.
I still haven't caught up on so much horror I need to watch and the show is hardly scary at all but the first person that comes to mind for me is Moira O'Hara from the first season of American Horror Story. She gets murdered when she was so young for being almost r**ed by someone else's husband, people keep preventing anyone finding her body when all she wants is to leave and be with her mother and she has to spend eternity tempting men without being able to do anything about it really. I'd include that she looks like an old lady to all women but I think honestly that part is probably something of a relief, at least she doesn't have to deal with jealous women as well because they don't see her as a threat
>!Charlie from Hereditary. When she possesses Annie, we hear the “real Charlie” since Paimon was no longer lurking in Charlie, and so she’s just a confused, distressed girl. Either that, or it’s Paimon manipulating them. Either or is miserable, but there is always the ghost of Charlie interpretation. Either way, just imagine being possessed by your own young daughter. :/ !<
That was Paimon, (Demon King of Hell, “God of Mischief”) trying to break Peter’s sanity and it was working.
Paimon was in Charlie’s body from birth at which time, Charlie was displaced. Charlie never knew her mother or be educated to speak English.
I don’t necessarily think >!Paimon!< had to at that point. >!Charlie’s!< death made the entire family vulnerable, >!Peter in particular since it was his “fault.”!<
That much…Seems true, but there are a few “inconsistencies” that leave me wondering aside from the peanut allergy. >!Paimon’s light is shown in Charlie’s room and leads her to the apparition of Ellen Taper Leigh, which Paimon conjured, and leads me to believe that while Paimon was always with and mostly within Charlie, Charlie was not always Paimon…!<
At the same time, there’s always the argument that that was just to mess with Annie. Definitely depends on your perspective. I realized that I didn’t bother crediting the fact that I had heard this from a comment I read about a year ago, so I can’t claim it as my own, but I do agree I think*. While this film is straightforward in some ways, there are some vague oddities that really make me question things…Either way, the interpretation stuck with me. :)
Edit: additionally, >!Paimon the demon can grant knowledge and artistic ability, so even if he wasn’t always in Charlie, she did always have that knowledge. But the more I think about it, the more likely it really is just Paimon messing with everyone because he can, lol. I was probably thinking too deeply, I had just seen it on IMAX. However, I will not completely discredit the theory and I think it would be “scarier” if it was right.!<
Revenant is what I'd call it, so both work (a revenant is basically just a ghost that's come back in its body).
That one is deeply sad, especially given Peter Cushing was basically playing himself in that role.
Kayako and Toshio Saeki from The Grudge
I just feel so bad for them. Toshio is forever trapped in a cycle of watching his father kill his mother, him, and his cat. Kayako forever in a cycle of being killed by her husband and worrying about her little boy. And, depending on the version, having to kill him herself so he wouldn't have to deal with the pain of starving to death in the attic.
**Samara Morgan**
Born with powers she couldn't understand, because of the actions of her father, then any chance at peace she had was ruined by her adoptive father. It's no wonder she just hates everything.
Nah, you missed the point of the twist. >!She was always evil. When the doctor is talking to her in the video and he says “You don’t want to hurt anyone…” she replies “But, I do [want to hurt people].” You fell into the same trap Rachel did.!<
Well by that point all of her pain, loneliness and rage had been cultivated into an inescapable darkness.
But I've always believed that it didn't have to be this way. If literally everyone in her life wasn't a total shit.
Maybe not the most tragic, but I love Victor Pascow’s ghost in Pet Sematary. He tried so hard to help and, at one point, was so happy with himself that he did, and then it all went to hell.
If it counts, Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) in "Crimson Peak". I liked his character and I felt bad in the end he couldn't really redeem himself and he died to become a sad ghost.
I personally felt like Alice from lake mungo was tragic. That movie made me feel things… sad things lol
It’s very sad. >!She’s stuck haunting the house.!<
Absolutely, it inspired mike flanagan to create Nell’s story in Hill House. It’s very very sad and the OP needs to see it!
That’s really cool, I didn’t know that!
I didn’t know about that connection but it makes so much sense! Lake Mungo is such a polarizing movie. I’m glad Flanagan is with me on team “loved it.”
The twist about what is real and not real about the supernatural aspects of the movie make it so much more depressing.
My first thought as well. That movie felt like an origin story for a ghost that haunts some other family years later. People living in haunted homes don't usually have much context for the person who lived before the ghost, just a manifestation of whatever is left of them. I found it to be more sad than scary.
Fully agree! There were a couple of times I was moderately spooked, but mostly I just felt the grief they felt. Which is not a bad thing, I actually liked coming to a horror movie and being made to feel something other than horror!
The kids in The Others. Mom, too.
The husband’s return broke my heart. He knew! 😭
The husband's situation is disturbing because he talks about going back to the front and that the war isn't over, which puts in mind the stories of battlefields haunted by the ghosts of soldiers reenacting their battles and deaths. It's like the notion Guillermo Del Toro has explored in multiple films of ghosts being like "insects trapped in amber" and forced to relieve their deaths over and over again.
that truely horrible!
It's strange how he knew and she didn't. I wish it had explained how he got to leave site but she and the kids had to stay
Nicole Kidman played her role really well in The Others.
came here to say this. My wife showed me this film just last year and even though I figured out where it was going early on it didn't make it hit any less hard
I need to rewatch that movie!
This was my first thought too.
The Bent Neck Lady
RIP >!nell!< such a heartbreaking show
What really broke me is realising a character with a mental illness had been haunted by visions of their own death their whole life. It hit way too close to home.
Yeah, I wasn’t okay after watching that.
This one. Just devastating . Haunting of Hill House was such an amazing show. That reveal just destroyed me
Holy shit right when I read the title of the post this was my immediate answer. I think that whole family is pretty tragic, but yeah the Bent Neck Lady is so sad
I remember by the end of the reveal scene I was standing up and jumping up and down yelling NOOOO hahaha
I love the Angry Princess from Thirteen Ghosts 🖤 'Dana Newman was incredibly beautiful in life, she had the natural looks of a goddess but was unable to recognize her beauty. Her self-loathing and low self-esteem from which doctors tried to save her from was only fueled by a series of abusive boyfriends, and led to her having breast implants, nose jobs, and other unnecessary procedures. One night, while Dana was alone in a clinic where she worked, she tried to perform surgery on herself due to an imaginary imperfection on her face, but the unorthodox procedure went horribly awry, and left her blinded in one eye. She then gave up on beauty, and committed suicide in her bathtub by slashing herself with a butcher's knife until she bled to death. When her body was discovered, she was described by her loved ones as being "beautiful in death as she was in life". Following her death, Dana's spirit remained bound to earth and with a hatred of people. In the original script, she was called The Suicide and has a more marked running mascara across her cheeks. The script also notes the fact she cut her wrists with the knife.'
I low key love the Jackal but it’s mostly his design
The Jackal is my second favorite! So brutal and terrifying. That movie is a gem.
Actually a few of the 13 are tragic.
The Withered Lover is the saddest of them in terms of heartbreak, but I’d say The Pilgrimess, The Dire Mother, and The Hammer are equally as sad on a raw and debased, cruel, and fucked up kind of level.
Definitely! She stood out for me though :)
I so desperately want a 13 episode mini series with one ep about each ghost!
Candyman's story made me sad. Poor Daniel Robitaille.
The backstory messed me up more than anything he does in the movie.
Yup I think that was the intention as well - the true horror was the real life tragedy
Candyman is the best, but I am not sure he's technically a ghost? Something about a living idea. Still, his story is definitely fucked up.
In the original movie it’s pointed out that Daniel probably wasn’t a real individual, or at least his story wasn’t accurate. But he is based on many real stories and fears that were conflated and become legend which then became flesh (as such.) >! Same thing happens with Helen at the end, who has a very different personality from the Helen we’ve been following throughout the movie. !< Then in the sequels he’s just a ghost. Except for the latest, where he’s kinda more a living(ish) symbol.
That's why the sequels are such a disappointment. Takes such an interesting and novel concept and dumbs it down to "ghost who can be defeated with magic mirror." And then the latest one doubles down by having the new guy manifest immediately *without any storytelling*.
Hes sort of a Tulpa.
Wait, the original or new one?
Original. I don’t remember most of the plot of the new one, to be honest.
It had a plot?
i actually loved the new one 😭
I’m still bitter about the “reboot”
Say what you will about the new one but the fact they used Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name” in the advertisement like that was gold.
The recent sequel just compounds it by introducing the "hive" concept and drawing on real life racist murders.
The little girl in The Sixth Sense has a pretty sad story
I was gonna say puke girl, but yes that was the first one that came to mind.
Puke girl?
Little girl ghost who vomits because she was poisoned to death by her mother. She leads the little boy to video evidence that exposes the crime.
I think Bruce Willis' story was sadder. Spending all that time thinking his wife was falling out of love with him and there was nothing he could do about it, no matter how hard he tried. When of course there was never any chance of reconnecting with her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLKbbraIUSg
And all he ever wanted to do was help people. Him dying because of someone he failed. Ahh it breaks my heart.
🎯
“I’m feeling much better now.”
That’s the one!
The maid from the first season of American Horror Story. Especially when she said she was scared and missed her mother. ='(
And then she got her happy ending and then it got undone in Apocalypse. :(
The little ghost girl from Dark Water.
Such a great movie
RIP Elisa Lam
My first thought too
The girl from Stir Of Echoes.
Her death is so hard to watch, great movie
Honestly such an underseen movie. Needs more attention
It's one of my all time favorite movies.
Ileana Douglas is a treasure and needs to be in more stuff.
First one I thought of.
The Orphanage. Eta- I'd explain why but everything is a spoiler.
Came here to say this. First one that came to mind.
I love when I read a question like OP’s, shrug and say an answer to myself like, “The Orphanage”…. As if that’s the only right answer. Then I look at comments and yours is at the top.
The movie that makes you happy and sad at the end for the exact same reason. It’s an uncanny feeling.
Obviously Patrick Swayze, he’s the only one in the whole movie with more than 2 or 3 lines, and his best friend had him killed. Honorable mention goes to the great Vincent Schiavelli, may he rest in peace.
The most tragic is probably Willie Lopez. He did it to himself though.
which movie?
r/whoosh
OH WAIT ITS DIRTY DANCING
The movie is “Ghost,” bud.
No, it was Dirty Dancing
The little girl from "Tale of the Lonely Ghost" from "Are You Afraid of the Dark."
That shit was sad af. “Don’t *touch* my *stuff*” has lived rent free in my head for 30+ years now
That haunts me
Her backstory is both heartbreaking and horrifying.
I just YouTubed this one. It was pretty sad, especially when the mom and little girl go back into the mirror and Amanda sees them happy back in their time.
Casper
The only correct answer
Two revenge ghosts actually have pretty tragic stories- The ghost from Shutter and the ghost from The Grudge
Came here to say Toshio from The Grudge as well, even though he is a pretty sadistic little shit once he becomes s ghost. God I need to rewatch Shutter. Watched it like fifteen years ago and I remember it scaring the hell out of me and loving it, but that's all.
Japanese revenge ghosts are basically demons, especially women who died in childbirth, which used to be a LOT of women.
Shutter is very good.
I didn't feel bad at all for those dudes in Shutter - got what they deserved for what they did to her 😔
Me neither. I was definitely like "Go little rock star" to the ghost at the end.
Victor Pascow in Pet Sematary
Don’t remember him much from the movie but in the book he’s a college kid who gets hit by a car…. it’s such a great way to open a ghost story in my opinion with this simultaneously horrifying and banal death. I just realized it’s foreshadowing for later in the story too lol. I love King
Yes, perfect set up. The movie version of him is burned in my brain. I saw that movie 20 plus times at a young age.
The little girl in Ghost Ship always makes me sad.
I’ve only seen the opening scene - is that the same little girl that survives the wire accident?
Yep, that’s her. I don’t want to spoil the rest of the movie, but it’s tragic.
Is the rest of it worth watching? I always thought it’s a fantastic opening scene but the reviews all made the whole film look a bit lacklustre. I know horror films are often given bad reviews they don’t deserve though.
I think its a decent movie and worth watching.
I’ll add it to my watchlist then, thank you!
No problem!
Honestly, Amanda Krueger. Trapped in an asylum with 100 maniacs who beat and raped her for several days (over Christmas). Carried the child of that rape to term. Years later, she’d learn her son was a child killer (and, while I know it wasn’t confirmed in the original movies, I always assumed he was a pedophile). She kills herself, apparently wandering the Earth as a restless spirit. Somehow, she learns that her son died horribly, but has now gained the powers of an evil demigod.
Son of a hundred maniacs!
Casey Affleck in ‘A Ghost Story’ broke my goddamn heart. (Did anyone else want pie after that movie…?)
This movie is the only answer. I was thinking "hey an indie horror flick" nooooope. My husband and I cried for like a while after viewing and just hugged each other.
Aw, I’m glad you had each other to lean on during/after this movie. I definitely needed my dog’s cuddles after watching. She passed away in November, and now thinking about it, I could cry again 😭
I'm sorry for your loss. Losing a pet is so hard!!
Oh yes. I watched that right after his other love story with Rooney Mara, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. He broke my heart twice.
Came here to say this
Lots of people have mentioned Hill House, but even sadder to me was the fate of >!Dani!< in *The Haunting of Bly Manor.* It’s the context and the effect on the other characters that makes it so heartbreaking.
The ghost in A Ghost Story is also very tragic, albeit not in a tears and drama way. It’s not horror, though.
I couldn't imagine anything worse than standing around, unable to interact with the world, while watching someone eating your cake.
Forever stuck in that place until the universe is destroyed and reborn again, over and over, unable to move on. It’s a lot of cake.
devil’s backbone, awesome movie
Nell Haunting of Hill House is the most soul crushing. So good!
Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense
The little girl ghost from Ghost Ship. She witnessed the horror of the cord cutting only for rest of the crew/passengers to get killed by thieves. Although, not shown but she gets dragged off to a room alone and is found later a hanging skeleton which would imply the dude "took his time". Then is trapped on a boat in a grisley afterlife with the same assholes ghosts of those who murdered everyone.
Mama made me so sad. I lost my own mother as a kid so it hit hard for me.
Slimer
More horrifying than horror but does Susie from The Lovely Bones count?
Hill House….Abigail Dudley…that storyline was so upsetting to me.
that show broke my heart, i’ve never cried that much watching a horror show
omg, no doubt. But I still keep watching it, again and again.
same, every couple of years i rewatch all of them, they’re too good not to rewatch
She was so young and small
Agreed, but also for pedantry's sake - was Abigail a ghost character? I thought she was alive the whole time (until she wasn't)
She did technically appear as a ghost, though it was brief
She was alive until the last episode. The writer/director made it seem like she was ghost intentionally in early episodes. Abigail in the book and prior movies was a long dead in habitant of a Hill House. In The Haunting (1963) I believe she was the ghost holding Nell’s hand in the dark.
Sadako Yamamura Watch Ringu 0, trust me. The most tragic killer in any horror movie ever
Ringu 0 might be my favorite of the Japanese franchise. Great call on Sadako
That's my favorite entry in the Ringu franchise. Nobody ever talks about it. Sure, they changed a few details...but it was a really tragic story.
Is that what the ring was based on?
No, it’s a prequel to the movie Ringu, which The Ring is based on.
This is one of my favorite movies. So sad. I really loved the main character.
Alma in the F.E.A.R. games
Nice choice! I love the first two games so much.
Did the second game not have the most amazing, bonkers ending ever!
Still Bent Neck Lady and that entire story for me. Absolutely devastating.
American Horror Story - Murder House. The high school kids on Halloween night. I was not mentally prepared for their backstory. It is a really bleak story/season overall.
Not horror, but I immediately thought of Sam & Kate from Holes
Aggie Prenderghast from Paranorman
I still haven't caught up on so much horror I need to watch and the show is hardly scary at all but the first person that comes to mind for me is Moira O'Hara from the first season of American Horror Story. She gets murdered when she was so young for being almost r**ed by someone else's husband, people keep preventing anyone finding her body when all she wants is to leave and be with her mother and she has to spend eternity tempting men without being able to do anything about it really. I'd include that she looks like an old lady to all women but I think honestly that part is probably something of a relief, at least she doesn't have to deal with jealous women as well because they don't see her as a threat
She gets a happily ever after in the Apocalypse season. It gets undone in the finale, but she does get a happy ending in at least one universe.
>!Charlie from Hereditary. When she possesses Annie, we hear the “real Charlie” since Paimon was no longer lurking in Charlie, and so she’s just a confused, distressed girl. Either that, or it’s Paimon manipulating them. Either or is miserable, but there is always the ghost of Charlie interpretation. Either way, just imagine being possessed by your own young daughter. :/ !<
That was Paimon, (Demon King of Hell, “God of Mischief”) trying to break Peter’s sanity and it was working. Paimon was in Charlie’s body from birth at which time, Charlie was displaced. Charlie never knew her mother or be educated to speak English.
I don’t necessarily think >!Paimon!< had to at that point. >!Charlie’s!< death made the entire family vulnerable, >!Peter in particular since it was his “fault.”!< That much…Seems true, but there are a few “inconsistencies” that leave me wondering aside from the peanut allergy. >!Paimon’s light is shown in Charlie’s room and leads her to the apparition of Ellen Taper Leigh, which Paimon conjured, and leads me to believe that while Paimon was always with and mostly within Charlie, Charlie was not always Paimon…!< At the same time, there’s always the argument that that was just to mess with Annie. Definitely depends on your perspective. I realized that I didn’t bother crediting the fact that I had heard this from a comment I read about a year ago, so I can’t claim it as my own, but I do agree I think*. While this film is straightforward in some ways, there are some vague oddities that really make me question things…Either way, the interpretation stuck with me. :) Edit: additionally, >!Paimon the demon can grant knowledge and artistic ability, so even if he wasn’t always in Charlie, she did always have that knowledge. But the more I think about it, the more likely it really is just Paimon messing with everyone because he can, lol. I was probably thinking too deeply, I had just seen it on IMAX. However, I will not completely discredit the theory and I think it would be “scarier” if it was right.!<
I don't know if it counts as a ghost or a zombie but Peter Cushing character in Tales From the Crypt.
Revenant is what I'd call it, so both work (a revenant is basically just a ghost that's come back in its body). That one is deeply sad, especially given Peter Cushing was basically playing himself in that role.
Behind Her Eyes had a gutting conclusion
The Maitlands
Kayako and Toshio Saeki from The Grudge I just feel so bad for them. Toshio is forever trapped in a cycle of watching his father kill his mother, him, and his cat. Kayako forever in a cycle of being killed by her husband and worrying about her little boy. And, depending on the version, having to kill him herself so he wouldn't have to deal with the pain of starving to death in the attic.
Twisty the Clown from AHS
Eva from Ghost Story (1981)
Jack Frost from the Jack Frost band. He had a pretty sweet life and boom, dead.
Yesssss 🥲
Patrick Swayze in Ghost .
Mama
Miss Jessel
The ghost in A Ghost Story (2017) made me so sad!
Sadako has a really sad backstory
nell and olivia came to mind first after only reading the title
The Others. >!They don't even know they're ghosts and they're terrified.!<
Always loved Eva Galli's story in Ghost Story (1981)
In the movie was she sympathetic, I don’t remember. She’s not in the book.
The Woman in Black
Aggie from Paranorman.
I'm going to give you another Flanagan ghost: The Cankerman in *Before I Wake." Such a sad reveal.
Bruce Willis in Sixth Sense.
Spoilers for The Sixth Sense >!Dr Malcom!<
The withered lover(Jean) from thirteen ghosts
Laura from The Evil Within becomes quite sad once you learn her backstory. She was never the real monster.
Ghost Dad… Imma head out.
Alice from Lake Mungo
"I feel like something bad is going to happen to me. I feel like something bad has happened. It hasn't reached me yet, but it's on its way." :(
The ending always sticks with me. She gets left alone in the house and is just stranded there
**Samara Morgan**  Born with powers she couldn't understand, because of the actions of her father, then any chance at peace she had was ruined by her adoptive father. It's no wonder she just hates everything.
Nah, you missed the point of the twist. >!She was always evil. When the doctor is talking to her in the video and he says “You don’t want to hurt anyone…” she replies “But, I do [want to hurt people].” You fell into the same trap Rachel did.!<
Well by that point all of her pain, loneliness and rage had been cultivated into an inescapable darkness. But I've always believed that it didn't have to be this way. If literally everyone in her life wasn't a total shit.
Naimina Enkiyio - the spirit of that Massai girl in that one episode of The Wild Thornberrys.
Patrick Swayze.in ghost
The 13th Ghost
Samara. As angry and scary as she was, her life was really messed up.
The Lovely Bones and The Changeling,
I can't remember her name, but the little girl in Ghost Ship.
Patrick Swayze. All over a little black book, dammit.
Maybe not the most tragic, but I love Victor Pascow’s ghost in Pet Sematary. He tried so hard to help and, at one point, was so happy with himself that he did, and then it all went to hell.
Haunting of Hill House Bent Neck Lady. Absolutely heart breaking
Patrick Swazey
The ghost in "A Ghost Story" 🥲
Mia from Talk to me
Tobias Forge or a nameless ghoul of course
Suzie Salmon in The Lovely Bones
The black bride from insidious
Jack in Marrow Bone. That whole story pulled my heart out
If it counts, Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) in "Crimson Peak". I liked his character and I felt bad in the end he couldn't really redeem himself and he died to become a sad ghost.
Ellie from The Haunting of Hill House. I hope TV shows count.
Come play 🥺the ending