為什麼大家會怕鬼?鬼到底是什麼樣的東西?是以何種形態存在的,讓全世界的人都為之聳動卻又愛不釋手?在回答這些問題以前,套句老話:「你相信這個世界上有鬼嗎?」中國人根深蒂固的鬼神信仰支撐著龐大的社會體系,從小說、電影、漫畫、藝術圖像、到電視節目都有鬼的蹤跡,也讓研究者從小就不排斥這類型文本。本研究共選取三部華語鬼電影,以語藝學中的敘事批評,分析電影中欲傳達何種敘事意涵說服閱聽眾,並且加入存在主義之觀點共同檢視鬼電影的社會意義。 研究結果發現,鬼和人的角色形象相輔相成,縱使鬼的「放蕩不羈」破壞社會和諧,卻是人類內心「自由」的展現。現實世界中沒有人可以證明鬼的存在,但是電影當中的在世者從一般的日常生活中遭受到突如其來的巨變,甚至危及到生命危險時,不得不重新思辨生命的重要性。在三部影片中所描繪的人鬼形象,相對的呈現出「人類自我意識的啟蒙」,讓毛骨悚然的鬼片成為人類面對內心恐懼的一把鑰匙。再者,生命的有限性讓死亡成為個體必然的終點,但是本研究以存在主義解釋鬼片的敘事意涵,除了揭示現代人隱慍的內在情感,也期望閱聽眾用不一樣的角度看待鬼片當中的生死議題,因而獲得不一樣的生命意義。 Why are people afraid of ghosts? What does it look like? And how could it be provocative to humans in an unknown form around the world? Before answering these questions, the old saying goes: “do you believe that ghosts exist on earth?” Chinese people's spirit beliefs incorrigibly supporting the whole social system, we could learn it from novels, movies, comics, art images, and television programs which reveal the ghosts’ features. It also becomes my interests of discovering the ghost contents. This study has selected three Chinese ghost movies to analyze the narrative implications of the movie contents which convinced audiences by the rhetoric of narrative criticism, and survey of the social significance of ghost movies with view of existentialism. The results found that the role image of men and ghosts are complement to each other. Even if the “bohemian” of the ghosts could destroy the harmony of the society, they represent the “freedom” in men’s mind. No one can prove the existence of ghosts in the real world, but we must review the importance of our life when the sudden upheaval came to damage our daily life or occurring life-threatening danger. The depicted image of the men and the ghosts in the movies, we could find out that “the awakening of human self-consciousness.” It’s also a key that makes the ghost movies become an object in order to reflect men’s fear. Furthermore, the limitation of life make an individual live toward to death. The study tends to explain the narrative implications with existentialism, and reveals the hidden moods of modern people. The purpose of the study is to display the issue of live and death, and expect the audiences would gain their meaning of life.