Thir13en Ghosts (2001)

This haunted house chiller is the second feature from Dark Castle Entertainment, the mid-budget outfit put together in 1999 to remake the cheesy horror genre pictures of William Castle by his daughter, Terry Castle, and producers Gilbert Adler, Robert Zemeckis, and Joel Silver. Financially ravaged and widowed by a fire that is consuming him with guilt, Arthur Kriticos (Tony Shalhoub) is left to raise two kids on his own: beautiful teenager Kathy (Shannon Elizabeth) and grade school student Bobby (Alec Roberts). Good news suddenly drops into their lives when a lawyer visits and reveals that they have inherited a lavish home from a late uncle, Cyrus (F. Murray Abraham), an eccentric ghost hunter. The Kriticos family moves into the remote house only to discover its odd secret: the dwelling contains a state-of-the-art, elaborate system of moving glass walls that trap spirits inside. Soon the ghosts, which can only be seen through the use of special high-tech spectacles, are loose in the elaborate contraption and are none too thrilled about their predicament. With the exits sealed, the family members try to learn the secret of Uncle Cyrus' bizarre mansion and survive supernatural assaults with the help of sassy housekeeper Maggie (Rah Digga), neurotic psychic Rafkin (Matthew Lillard), and Kalina (Embeth Davidtz), an activist championing the civil rights of ghosts. The eyeglasses through which the spirits can be viewed in Thirteen Ghosts (2001) were part of a ballyhoo gimmick involving pairs of spectacles handed out to audiences for screenings of the 1960 original, which was presented in "Illusion-O."

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Review By Jason Buchanan

The epitome of style over substance despite some interesting concepts left over from the original, this loose remake of the William Castle classic exists for no other reason than to get the characters in an admittedly awe-inspiring haunted house and unleash a baker's dozen of supernatural baddies. This in itself may not be a bad thing when it comes to horror films over-test-marketed for maximum public consumption, though the addition of some of the sappiest sentiment ever committed to celluloid and an embarrassing performance by the usually reliable Tony Shalhoub render this spectral fiasco especially laughable. As with The Haunting and The House on Haunted Hill (both 1999) remakes, this version of 13 Ghosts gives new meaning to the concept of CG-overkill. The house itself and production design are truly inspired; like the glass that forms its foundation, though, the film is ultimately rendered a transparent practice in forced fear. Internalizing the gimmick that Castle used to promote the original, characters flee from ghosts which, while often striking in appearance, seem to exist solely for the sake of ever-exhausting "jump-scare" cues that become increasingly tiring as the film wears on. The all-out auditory battering of the viewers induces more pain than fear, rendering the film at times physically painful.