Thir13een Ghosts is a production of Dark Castle Entertainment; a company founded by Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis to rework the films of William Castle the legendary producer/director/conman who became known in the late fifties for his horror movies. Thir13een Ghosts is the second in the series following last year`s The House On Haunted Hill. In Castle`s 1960 original a group of strangers all seeking a fortune are trapped in a haunted house. In this version, it`s a family trapped in house they inherited from notorious collector of artefacts and ghosts Cyrus Kriticos, F. Murray Abraham. The family consists of recently widowed grieving father Arthur, Tony Shalhoub, daughter Shannon Elizabeth and young son Alec Roberts and Nanny, Rah Digga. But there`s more, there`s Cyrus` assistant, Matthew Lillard and his former adversary Embeth Davidtz. Unfortunately the ghosts are still in residence....In a nod to Castle who used gimmickry to sell his films to audiences the ghosts in this film can only be seen when wearing special glasses. Castle`s film had special effects which could only be seen when wearing special glasses. This rather unspectacular film creates zero scares - maybe I`ve seen too many good horror films, it`s a debut feature from special effects art director Steve Beck who`s gone to town on the visuals but light on plot and character. There are some overly ripe performances - guess who - and some lacklustre ones - same. Not a classic of the genre.
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