Top 10 Afterlife Movies: From Eternity To The Seventh Seal

10 Best Movies About The Afterlife, Including Eternity

Miles Teller and Larry and Elizabeth Olsen as Joan looking at each other in Eternity

By Shawn S. Lealos Published 23 minutes ago

Shawn S. Lealos is an entertainment writer who is a voting member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. He has written for Screen Rant, CBR, ComicBook, The Direct, The Sportster, Chud, 411mania, Renegade Cinema, Yahoo Movies, and many more.

Shawn has a bachelor's degree in professional writing and a minor in film studies from the University of Oklahoma. He also has won numerous awards, including several Columbia Gold Circle Awards and an SPJ honor. He also wrote Dollar Deal: The Story of the Stephen King Dollar Baby Filmmakers, the first official book about the Dollar Baby film program. Shawn is also currently writing his first fiction novel under a pen name, based in the fantasy genre.

To learn more, visit his website at shawnlealos.net.

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Eternity is a romantic fantasy comedy that follows a woman who dies and ends up realizing she has to decide between her two former lovers to spend eternity with in the afterlife. This isn't the first time Hollywood has taken audiences into what the afterlife might look like, as the earliest versions were in some classics of the Golden Era.

Movies that go into the afterlife often deal with someone who must figure out what their next step should be after death. Whether they are on their way to Heaven or Hell, are stuck in purgatory, or have to remain as a spirit on Earth all depends on the story. The best movies about the afterlife leave the viewers thinking.

Eternity (2025)

Miles Teller looking on as Callum Turner holds Elizabeth Olsen's hand to his chest in Eternity 2025

Eternity is a brand-new movie about the afterlife starring Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, and Callum Turner. It follows Larry and Joan, who were married for 65 years, before dying a week apart from each other. However, in the afterlife, they both have a decision to make. Joan's first love, Luke, is also there and has been waiting for her.

Larry and Joan have to decide where they plan to spend eternity, and they can't go back once they make their decision. If they mess up, they could end up entering the void. The problem is that Joan must choose between Luke, who was her first love and died in the war, or Larry, with whom she spent her life.

The movie plays out like a romantic comedy. In Screen Rant's review of Eternity, it was called "charming and wildly entertaining" with a non-conventional narrative that causes it to lose some of the heart it could have possessed.

The Lovely Bones (2009)

Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon in a hat in The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones is about what happens when a person can't cross into the afterlife. Based on Alice Sebold's novel, it tells the story of a teenage girl who is abducted and murdered by a child predator. He hides her body, and her family never learned what happened to her. However, the girl can't move on to the afterlife.

Directed by Peter Jackson, Saoirse Ronan stars as the murdered girl, as her ghost tries to find a way to make contact with the living to lead them to her body so her parents and loved ones can finally find closure. She also wants to ensure that her murderer (Stanley Tucci) is brought to justice.

The movie received mixed reviews, but it also earned critical acclaim, with Tucci nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. It is a nice twist on a supernatural ghost story, with the ghost being an innocent girl who wants to find a way to move on to the afterlife and ensure her parents find closure in her death.

What Dreams May Come (1998)

Robin Williams as Dr Chris Nielsen in What Dreams May Come

Based on Richard Matheson's story, What Dreams May Come stars Robin Williams as a pediatrician named Chris Nielsen. When his two children die in a car crash, and then he dies four years later, it leaves his wife a widow. However, Chris doesn't know he died and lingers on Earth, confused as to why no one will speak to him.

Like The Lovely Bones, this has a ghostly spirit unable to move on. Chris' attempts to contact his wife causes her pain, so he move to a Heaven he created in his imagination. When his wife dies by suicide, he must find a way to save her soul so she can join him and not go to Hell.

What Dreams May Come stands apart from other movies about the afterlife in that it seems more concerned with the visual effects, showing a magnificent look at the afterlife. The film won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects and also earned a nomination for Best Art Direction.

Beetlejuice (1988)

Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) with his arms around a worried Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis) in Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice is a lot more fun supernatural movie when it comes to other, more serious looks at the afterlife. In this film, the afterlife is mainly shown in two aspects. One was a waiting room that was clearly influenced by the horrors of the DMV. The second was a horror landscape that saw scary demons threatening to consume the dead.

The movie sees a dead couple summon the poltergeist Betelgeuse to rid their home of the new residents who moved in and threatened to change everything about their home. However, the new resident's daughter (Winona Ryder) can see the ghosts, and Betelgeuse takes interest in the girl, deciding he will take her as his bride.

This is not so much about moving on to the afterlife, but it is a movie about how the afterlife might not be the best place to end up, especially when the dead have their beloved home to live in, as long as intruders don't come in to ruin everything.

City Of Angels (1998)

Nicholas Cage as Seth with Meg Ryan as Maggie in City Of Angels

City of Angels is an American romantic drama that's a remake of a brilliant German film by Wim Wenders called Wings of Desire. The movie follows an angel named Seth (Nicolas Cage) who watches over humans and is assigned to Los Angeles, California. Seth's job is to appear before those close to death and lead them on to the afterlife.

However, Seth loves humans, and he wants to become human himself when he falls in love with a human woman named Maggie (Meg Ryan). He receives the eventual permission to become human so he can join Maggie and live a human life with her, but there is no turning back. The film ends in tragedy, so be warned.

Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage are excellent in their roles, and this is a real tearjerker, similar in style to later movies based on Nicholas Sparks novels. It is a film about how, sometimes, even those in the afterlife might want a chance to become human once again.

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Warren Beatty as Joe in a football game in Heaven Can Wait

Heaven Can Wait is a movie about the afterlife that's an adaptation of a 1938 play of the same name. Warren Beatty stars in and co-directed the film with Buck Henry, where he plays a backup quarterback for the Rams who is taken from his body by an overzealous guardian angel when he was supposed to have survived.

Joe heads to the afterlife, but when he realizes he's not supposed to die for another 50 years, he convinces them to allow him to return. However, since his body was already cremated, he ends up returned to the body of a multimillionaire whose wife murdered him. He wants to return to football, but has to get in shape first.

This plays out like a fantasy comedy, as Joe does everything he can to get back onto the football field and regain the life he unfairly lost, but with several obstacles in his way.

Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006)

Shannyn Sossamon as Mikal driving a car with Patrick Fugit as Zia in Wristcutters: A Love Story

Wristcutters: A Love Story is a dark indie comedy about the afterlife reserved for people who have died by suicide. Based on a short story by Etgar Keret, the film stars Shannyn Sossamon, Patrick Fugit, and Shea Wingham as three people who have died by suicide and are now together at this afterlife way-station.

This afterlife is grim and depressing, with dim colors, no stars, and the people here do not possess the ability to smile. However, soon, there appears to be a way out of this afterlife, and the three set out to find a way to not only escape from this drab existence but also possibly find a second chance at life.

While there was every chance for a movie with these themes to fail miserably, Wristcutters: A Love Story ended up as a critically acclaimed success and has become a cult classic over the years since its release.

The Book Of Life (2014)

Manolo in the afterlife in Book of Life

The Book of Life offers a beautiful look at the afterlife for all ages. Directed by Jorge R. Gutierrez and produced by Guillermo del Toro, the film's story follows a bet made by the rulers of the Land of Remembered and the Land of the Forgotten, on whom a woman named Maria Posada would end up marrying between two options.

The film is based around the Day of the Dead, and is one of the most beautifully animated movies concerning this Mexican holiday about the afterlife. The story is told in a bookend with two people in a museum explaining the story to the children, before the ending reveals it was the two rulers of the lands of the dead.

The animated film was a huge success, with an 83% Rotten Tomatoes score and a decent box office take. It also earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Animated Feature Film.

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)

Bill and Ted with Death in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

For anyone wanting to see a broad comedy based on the afterlife, there might not be a funnier movie than the 1991 sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. While Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure saw the two slackers travel through time to pass their high school history project, this one actually sees them die.

Of course, this is a slacker comedy, so it doesn't get that deep. Instead, Bill and Ted end up realizing they have a chance to return if they can defeat Death in a game. The games they choose are Battleship, Clue, Electric Football, and Twister, and they win every game. It's an obvious spoof of the classic, The Seventh Seal.

The best part was when they got a chance to go to Heaven, but still needed to get back to Earth. Here, they needed to explain the meaning of life, which they did by quoting the classic Poison song, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn." It remains a cult comedy classic.

The Seventh Seal (1957)

Bengt Ekerot as Death in a black hooded cloak in The Seventh Seal (1957)

The best movie ever about the afterlife is the Ingmar Bergman classic, The Seventh Seal. During the Black Death in Sweden, a medieval knight returns home and wants to make it to his castle, returning to his wife. However, Death is waiting for him on the shore, and he challenges Death to a game of chess, betting on his life.

Max von Sydow plays the knight while Gunnar Björnstrand is Death, and the game is simply a way for the knight to get back home one last time to see his wife before he dies. Along the way, he meets others, and this quest eventually becomes the dance of death in the iconic final scene of the film.

The Seventh Seal is a classic in the history of cinema and is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made. It is also a brilliant movie about the afterlife, and what a person would do to make it back home one last time before crossing over.

Movies
Eternity

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