Category talk:Films about the afterlife

There's a significant difference, thought it's not always easy to pin down, between "life after death" and "reincarnation". The former involves one's supposed continued existence after dying, i.e., losing one's physical body permanently (see Afterlife). The latter involves getting a new body of one's own and resuming life on earth; this is generally considered not the same as "possession" (wherein you enjoy the use of someone's body while they're still alive but don't have full control over what you make their body do).

In Ghost (1990), Sam Wheat continues his "life" connected to the earthly plane (but not appearing to anyone, so not technically a ghost) although he does freak out Karl by messing with his computer, and a cat seems to notice him once. He briefly takes over Whoopi Goldberg's character's body (with her explicit permission), so that wouldn't be reincarnation: more like she's channeling him.

Anyway, in a film about life after death, most of the supernatural action would take place in an unearthly realm like Heaven or Hell, or somewhere on the way to one of those. If they come back to earth and are seen, I'd say that's more of a ghost story. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir has nothing about a spiritual realm. The sailor dictating his life story is always seen in the lady's house or in the village.

I thought about saying ... about the afterlife but that seemed biased toward asserting that "the afterlife" really exists; while ... about life after death seems to leave the question open. --Uncle Ed (talk) 04:31, 14 February 2012 (UTC)