wraith

The original Beetlejuice, which starred Michael Keaton as an obnoxious wraith hired to help scare away a house's pretentious inhabitants, was released back in 1988.

From BBC ● Dec. 24, 2023

This Diana, a pale wraith who clutches at her children like she needs them to keep her tethered, is a bird in a luxurious trap; we see the eating disorders, the mental illness, the misery.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 4, 2021

Finally back home, she was … weird — an insomniac “wandering around the House at all hours like a soundless wraith… In the morning her children sometimes found her unconscious in unexpected places.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2020

No such strategies can keep the Lyceum’s own pervasive Mina, the vengeful wraith of a murdered girl who haunts the theater, from infiltrating Bram’s thoughts.

From New York Times ● Jun. 16, 2020

The assault slows as the last wraith circles us.

From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir

There’s not a single shot of a healthy human being in the movie, only wraiths filmed in sickly shades of pink, red and blue.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026

The protagonists are a couple of paranormal investigators, Red and Antea, who are trying to clear the tormented wraiths out of a haunted settlement.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 11, 2024

"All my energy has been well and truly sucked out of me like I've been kissed by a dementor," Paolo says referring to the soul-consuming wraiths in the Harry Potter stories.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2023

The tales boil down to the problem of balancing empathy with self-assertion—of both practicing kindness and expressing your own needs, and all while the people around you are behaving like wraiths or aliens.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 17, 2018

It was late summer, when tornadoes ride up and down the state every night like wraiths, and sometimes attack the towns looking for hobbits, who are really just kids.

From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri