[5] The Washington Post noted, "'Ghosts' is another new jack swing collaboration with Teddy Riley for a similarly short film.

"[6] Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly, also highlighted those particular lyrics, speculating that "armchair psychologists will have a field day with the words".

[10] Anthony Violanti of The Buffalo News said "'Ghosts'...[is] programmed plastic soul that makes you wonder how someone as talented as Jackson can churn out such tracks".

[11] Jim Farber of New York Daily News said that "Ghosts" and "Is It Scary" "boast a few innovative sounds but no real melodies".

[12] Roger Catlin of The Hartford Courant stated, "The most intriguing pairing is 'Ghosts' and 'Is It Scary' in which he asks those who've only read about him in tabloids if he seems monstrous.

[14] A longtime commentator on Jackson's public life, J. Randy Taraborrelli, gave a retrospective analysis of the album in the biography, The Magic & the Madness.

[15][17][18][19][20] Written by Jackson and Stephen King and directed by Stan Winston, the short film was inspired by the isolation the singer felt after he was accused of child sexual abuse in 1993.

At over 38 minutes long, it held the Guinness World Records for the longest music video until 2013, when it was eclipsed by Pharrell Williams' "Happy".