25 Best Near-Death Experience (Afterlife) Movies Ever

We would all like to know what happens in the afterlife with us or with our loved ones, and movies on this list try to explain those moments or near-death experiences in a way we could maybe comprehend. Some are comical, some are tragic, and some are just completely unrealistic, but these are the best near-death, or if you would like to call them afterlife movies ever.

So without revealing more, we are bringing your 25 best near-death movies of all time. Check them out below.

The Shack (2017)

The Shack is the story of a father whose daughter Missy was abducted during a family outing and killed. The only thing left, a bloody dress, was found by police in an abandoned hut in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, the grieving Mack receives a strange message, an invitation to visit that same Shack.

He hesitates, but still leaves and experiences an encounter with God himself or, more precisely, with the Holy Trinity portrayed in the form of a large cheerful black woman Elouise (Father), a physically not very attractive lower man of Arabian features (Son) and a gentle Asian Sarayu (Holy Spirit).

Enter the Void (2009)

Oscar and his sister Linda have just moved to Tokyo. Oscar is a petty drug dealer, and Linda works as a stripper at a nightclub. But one night Oscar is ambushed by a police officer and killed. While this seems to be his end, it is not. Oscar refuses to leave this world and, like a ghost, remains present to protect his sister.

Heaven Is for Real (2014)

In the film, Greg Kinnear plays Todd Burpo, and Kelly Reilly plays Sonja Burpo, a real couple whose son Colton claims to have visited paradise during his clinical death. Colton describes the details of his miraculous journey with childlike innocence and speaks soberly about things that happened before his birth… Things he could not possibly know.

Miracles from Heaven (2016)

When Christy discovers that her 10-year-old daughter Anna has a rare, incurable disease, she passionately advocates for her daughter’s recovery as she seeks a solution. After Anna’s strange accident and her dramatic rescue, an extraordinary miracle occurs that completely confuses medical professionals, revives her family and inspires the community.

What Dreams May Come (1998)

Soulmates Chris (Robin Williams) and Annie (Annabella Sciorra) couldn’t be happier than they are. They live in an idyllic marriage and have two beautiful children. Unfortunately, after a while, a severe tragedy befell them. Both of their children lose their lives in a car accident. Overwhelmed by this, they somehow recover, but shortly afterward Chris dies in another car accident.

Chris wakes up in Paradise and realizes that Paradise is something he could never have imagined. As his personal guide, Chris gets Albert (Cuba Gooding Jr.), the first doctor he worked with. Albert helps him see his children again, making Chris happy. But in everyday life, his wife Annie is desperate. Having lost two children and a husband, Annie reached for a desperate move and takes her own life. Unfortunately, by this act, she does not go to Paradise. Now Chris, who can’t find happiness without his wife, goes with Albert to Hell, to save his wife from the curse, until she is aware of what threatens her.

Spirited Away (2001)

Ten-year-old Chihiro and her parents are on their way to their new suburban home when her father decides to take a shortcut. This shortcut will take them to an unusual otherworld, at the same time fascinating and frightening, in which parents turn into pigs, and Chihiro meets ghosts.

Defending Your Life (1991)

Successful American entrepreneur Daniel Miller (A. Brooks) accidentally dies in a car accident after returning from work. Unaware that he is dead, he suddenly finds himself in an unknown city which turns out to be the place of the “last judgment”, that is, a kind of “purgatory” for the dead in which they, observing their life actions before the commission, assess whether they deserved to receive a place in paradise.

During the day, in the breaks between the commission exams, Daniel meets the dead who spend time here, and gets closer to Julia (M. Streep), still a relatively young woman who tragically passed away. Can something more develop from their post-earthly acquaintance?

The Sixth Sense (1999)

Dr. Malcolm Crowe (B. Willis) is a respected expert on children’s mental health problems, disorders and illnesses. When he meets little Cole Sear (H. J. Osment), a boy whom other people consider a freak, Cole reminds him of one of his patients, Vincent (D. Wahlberg), the only one he failed to help. Vincent grew up to be a completely upset and disturbed young man, and once he crept into the house of Dr. Crowe and shot him.

Cautiously approaching Cole, dr. Crowe gradually learns the boy’s terrible secret: he sees dead people and they turn to him. He lives in constant fear of everything he sees and of what the dead ask of him. “Maybe you should listen to them,” Malcolm advises him. On the next opportunity, Cole obeys him: the recently deceased girl Kyra (M. Barton) hands him the box that her father should get.

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Joe Pendleton (W.Beatty), the top playmaker of the American football team, wakes up in heaven, where he realizes that an inexperienced celestial companion (B. Henry), for whom this was his first task, mistakenly took him to heaven thinking that Joe in a time cycling crash in collision with a car.

Heavenly authority, Mr. Jordan (J. Mason), tries to correct the mistake in person and returns to Earth with Joe. But Joe’s body is already cremated and he has to find someone else’s body where he will settle. He rejects a number of proposals to eventually, but only temporarily, accept the body of wealthy industrialist Farnsworth who was poisoned by his wife (D. Cannon) and her lover, and the wealthy personal secretary Tony Abbott (C. Grodin).

He did this by staring at Betty Logan (J. Christie), who came to Farnsworth to ask her to withdraw one of her projects that would endanger the health of the people of her area.

My Sister’s Keeper (2009)

The entire Fitzgerald family is battling a serious illness of their older daughter Kate (Sofia Vassilieva). Her younger sister Anna (Abigail Breslin) is an ideal donor and has done many tests, transfusions and surgeries since her earliest childhood. However, Anna also begins to suffer from teenage problems and makes a reckless decision that brings discord and sadness into the family. Will these decisions seal the fate of her own sister?

The Lovely Bones (2009)

The plot takes place in 1973 in a small town in Pennsylvania where 14-year-old Susie Salmon (Saorsie Ronan) lives with her parents and younger sibling. Her carefree childhood was brutally interrupted when her neighbor George Harvey (Tucci) lured her into a specially built lair.

Soon after, Susie discovers that she is no longer alive, that she has fallen victim to Harvey’s perverted instincts. He then refuses to cross over to the “other side” and instead wanders like a ghost through a world over which he no longer has any influence. So she can’t stop her pain-stricken parents from breaking up the marriage, nor can she help police detective Fenerman (Imperioli) solve her murder. Meanwhile, her younger sister Lindsey (McIver) grew up, and thus became the subject of Harvey’s interest.

Ghost Town (2008)

During a routine surgery, Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais) is clinically dead for a moment, and that current experience allows him to communicate with the dead when he comes back to life. But when the dead realize that Pincus can see and hear them, they begin to haunt the self-sufficient dentist, asking him for various services.

Fortunately, the recently deceased businessman Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear) offers to keep the dead troublemakers away from the dentist if he does him a small favor – preventing his wife, now a widow, Gwen (Téa Leoni) from marrying the annoying lawyer Richard Campbell) whom Frank perceives as a pervert who wants to marry Gwen for money.

A Ghost Story (2017)

With A Ghost Story, acclaimed director David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Pete’s Dragon) returns with a singular exploration of legacy, loss, and the essential human longing for meaning and connection. Recently deceased, a white-sheeted ghost (Academy Award-winner Casey Affleck) returns to his suburban home to console his bereft wife (Academy Award-nominee Rooney Mara), only to find that in his spectral state he has become unstuck in time, forced to watch passively as the life he knew and the woman he loves slowly slip away.

Increasingly unmoored, the ghost embarks on a cosmic journey through memory and history, confronting life’s ineffable questions and the enormity of existence. An unforgettable meditation on love and grief, A Ghost Story emerges ecstatic and surreal—a wholly-unique experience that lingers long after the credits roll.

Beetlejuice (1988)

When Barbara and Adam Maitland, a young and in love couple, were killed in a car accident, they found themselves in the form of ghosts in their beautiful farmhouse in New England. It took them a long time to realize that they were no longer alive and that they were just ghosts, but in the end, they still rejoiced that they were together and that they would continue to live in peace in their house. But the peace is short-lived: the embarrassing New York yuppie family, the Deetz, buy a house and intend to completely redecorate it.

The Maitlands use all the means at their disposal as ghosts, study the ghost manual carefully, but are too fine and too harmless to ward off an intrusive family. So they turn to the spirit of Betelgeuse (Beetlejuice) for help. He is a specialist in exorcism – the exorcist of living people. But Beetlejuice is an even bigger temptation than Deetz’s.

A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

After miraculously surviving a jump from his burning plane, RAF pilot Peter Carter (David Niven) encounters the American radio operator (Kim Hunter) to whom he has just delivered his dying wishes, and, face-to-face on a tranquil English beach, the pair fall in love. When a messenger from the hereafter arrives to correct the bureaucratic error that spared his life, Peter must mount a fierce defense for his right to stay on earth.

Always (1989)

Pete is a Canadian airplane pilot. His girlfriend Dorinda is also a pilot, and also works as an operator at a fire defense center.

In extinguishing actions Pete often takes risks having full confidence in his skill. One day it betrays him and he dies on a mission. He returns to this world as a ghost to give advice to his heir who falls in love with Dorinda.

Hereafter (2010)

George (Matt Damon), an American from a working class family, has had a special connection to death since childhood. On the other side of the world, French journalist Marie (Cécile De France) experienced a close encounter with death that shook her everyday life.

A London schoolboy, Marcus (Frankie and George McLaren), desperately seeks answers when a person very close to him dies. Their lives will intertwine in search of the truth and forever change their minds about what may exist after death.

Ghost (1990)

Sam (Patrick Swayze) and Molly (Demi Moore) are a happy and in love couple who enjoy every moment together. At work, Sam discovers irregularities in the bank accounts of his friend and colleague Carl (Tony Goldwyn) and reports it to him and offers to study the case. But Carl takes the investigation upon himself.

One evening in a dark alley, after returning from the theater, Sam and Molly are intercepted by a thief (Rick Aviles) who kills Sam. But Sam’s spirit doesn’t leave this world, it stays with Molly. He soon learns that his murder was planned by Carl and that Molly is in mortal danger. He tries to warn his girlfriend, but she doesn’t see or hear him. The only person who can feel his presence is the spiritual medium Oda Mae (Whoopi Goldberg).

This Is the End (2013)

Six friends remain trapped in the house after a series of strange and cataclysmic events destroy Los Angeles. As the world completely turns upside down, the lack of supplies of water and food as well as mutual intolerance threaten to destroy their friendship.

After Life (1998)

Satoru Kawashima (S. Terajima), Takuro Sugie (N. Takashi), Takashi Mochizuki (Arata) and Shiori Satanaka (E. Oda) are in charge of the recently deceased people they receive in their offices and tell them that within three days they must choose one event from your life that you consider most important.

The event will be reconstructed and filmed by the officers and their team, and the dead will take it with them to eternal life, where they will forget everything but the event. It is not easy for many people to remember and decide on the most important event, and especially problematic are 70-year-old Ichiro Watanabe (T. Naito) and 21-year-old Iseya (Y. Iseya).

Over time, it is revealed that the funeral directors of the detachment are people who could not or did not want to choose the most important event in life and start eternal life with it, so they were met by the funeral service. Among them, 22-year-old Mochizuki, who is actually seventy years old, is especially close, but as he died as a 22-year-old, he remained the same, and 18-year-old Shiori.

Coco (2017)

Despite a stunning family ban on music, which has lasted for generations, Miguel dreams of becoming a great musician like his idol Ernesto de la Cruz. In a desperate attempt to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in a fantastic, colorful Land of the Dead following a mysterious chain of events.

Along the way, he meets the charming con man Hector and together they embark on a magnificent journey of discovering the true story of Miguel’s family history.

All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)

An animated adventure about a dog Charlie who returns from paradise among the living to take revenge on his enemy Carface. In his plan, his friend Ichi and a girl from the orphanage who can talk to the animals help him.

Truly Madly Deeply (1990)

Once upon a time there were two people in love, their names were Nina and Jamie. They were even happy enough to be able to live happily ever after, (not often the case) and then Jamie died. Nina is left with a house full of rats and handymen, a job teaching foreigners English and an ache that fills the night sky.

Tuesdays with Morrie (1999)

A journalist finds himself questioning his own life when his best friend, a dying man, offers him some very powerful wisdom and advice for coping in relationships, careers and society.

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

After George Bailey (James Stewart) wishes he had never been born, an angel (Henry Travers) is sent to earth to make George’s wish come true. George starts to realize how many lives he has changed and impacted, and how they would be different if he was never there.