थर्टीन घोस्टस

"Thir13en Ghosts" does have a certain charm, if only for its silliness. Maybe there's nothing particularly special about a visual effects-laden movie in which a family inherits a haunted house, but the movie definitely has its moments, namely when the lawyer "splits". Tony Shalhoub, Embeth Davidtz, Matthew Lillard, Shannon Elizabeth, Alec Roberts, Rah Digga and F. Murray Abraham are all able to turn in neat performances, even if the whole movie is pretty outlandish. I would recommend the original version more, but this one isn't bad. Perhaps its little more than a way to pass time, but a cool one at that. Acceptable for what it is.

It doesn't rely on too much splatter and it doesn't try to startle you out of your seat every two minutes so that immediately makes it better than the average horror flick. The ghosts were unusual enough to be memorable and there was not a lot of familiarity to the plot. This was very nearly an excellent film with a solid cast and very good effects. Five or ten more minutes of scary interaction between the ghosts and the children(if you can call Shannon Elizabeth a child) would have made the movie much better. I call it a near miss which is as good as most horror fils can aspire to.

The only problem i found about "Thirteen Ghosts" is that it is not scary. It has the elements to be a horror movie, the ghosts, the gore, but it is not frightening at all.

So this film can be a real party pooper if you're watching it with the lights off at your girlfriend's house waiting for her to grab your arm through the hard scenes, or expect to enjoy having some nightmares about it. But, omitting that--yeah, i know it's hard to omit that a movie labeled as "horror" is not scary--, i judge it as a very interesting film. The production design is great; the glass house is a state of the art, away from your typical haunted house, looking both luxurious and somehow creepy at the same time. That innovation, carried out with such a splendid result, is worth my applause. So is the decision to make the ghosts be real actors in the set, not digital freaks. Human monsters, even if having to go through 4+ hours of make-up sessions, even if having to use a double amputee actor to play a particular ghost, are the film's best trump card. There are good ideas in this film, and they're very well developed. It doesn't deserve a bad score.

This is a chiller remake with grisly horror, genuine chills and shocks . When Cyrus Kriticos (F. Murray Abraham) , a very rich collector of unique things dies, he leaves it all to his nephew and his family. All including his house, his fortune, and his malicious collection of ghosts. As reclusive Dr. Zorba has died and left his eerie mansion to his penniless nephew Cyrus Zorba (Tony Shaloub) and his sons (Shannon Elizabeth , Alec Roberts) . Along with the house, the Zorba family has also inherited the occultist's collection of 12 ghosts (Laura Mennell as The Bound Woman , Kathryn Anderson as The Withered Lover , Craig Olejnik as The Torn Prince , Shawna Loyer as The Angry Princess , Xantha Radley as The Pilgrimess , Ernst Harth as The Great Child , Laurie Soper as The Dire Mother , Herbert Duncanson as The Hammer), who can only be seen through Zorba's special goggles.The house suddenly closes itself and they encounter trapped inside and soon supernatural creepiness begin frightening the hosts . Then they'll spend a ghastly night in the spooky house with killings-laden history . The family members, their lives at risk upon the discovery a strange book that lies hidden somewhere in the house , they receive aid from unexpected woman (Embeth Davidtz) as the threat to their lives is revealed .

This eerie story contains bit good fun with grisly killing , relentless horror and lots of blood and gore. The chiller version packs genuine chills and terrifying deaths such as a horrible quartering . It's silly but amusing fun and with an excessive use of computer generator FX and special make-up in charge of Robert Kurtzman , Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero . The monstrous ghosts are the real stars of this production , being rightly realized by means of an excellent make-up and magnificent special effects . Some scenes are clumsily shot but the movie has some good moments here and there , the illogical parts in the argument are more than compensated for the excitement provided by the creepy ghosts . The film was lavishly produced by Dark Castle , production specialized on terror genre and in charge of Joel Silver , Robert Zemeckis and Gilbert Adler ; both of them have produced successful terror movies dealing with eerie tales about horror , grisly killings and lots of blood and gore such as ¨House of haunted hill¨, ¨Return to house of haunted hill¨ , ¨Gothika¨, ¨Ghost ship¨, ¨House of wax¨ , Whiteout¨ , ¨Splice¨ , ¨The reaping¨ , ¨Orphan¨ , among others . The motion picture was professionally directed though without originality by Steven Beck who subsequently filmed ¨Ghost ship¨.

The film resulted to be an acceptable but inferior remake from superior ¨13 ghosts¨ by William Castle . It was plenty of gimmicks, leaps from the screen and surprises descending on cinema-goers such as hidden wires and others . Of course the biggest film about this astonishing story is this vintage 1960 classic version rendition by William Castle that was starred by Charles Herbert as Buck Zorba , Jo Morrow as Medea Zorba , Martin Milner as Benjamen Rush , Rosemary DeCamp as Hilda Zorba and Donald Woods as Cyrus Zorba .

The movie is fine. It could have been so much more. It's all right there for the taking. They're remaking everything so why not remake something they could truly improve upon? So my review of this is that it's fun, but you'll feel that there is a lot of lost potential with this. I give it a 6, but it could've been a classic! That's the hardest part to take in when you think about the movie.