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31 Days of Horror Movies: Thir13en Ghosts



While not a scholar or even a purist, I am somewhat of a film snob. Not a big fan of remakes, specifically when the originals don't need updating. It is therefore an unusual position I find myself in, preferring a remake to an original, and by leaps and bounds. Let's take a look at today's feature...

Thir13en Ghosts

Originally a quaint 1960 film from director William Castle, Thirteen Ghosts was re-imagined in 2001 by Robert Zemeckis, Joel Silver and Steve Beck as full-throttle exercise in terror. The film centers around the Kriticos family. Arthur Kriticos (Tony Shalhoub, before his Monk phenomena) inherits a large, modern house from his uncle, Cyrus (played by Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham). The house is contructed of a maze of glass walls and, it turns out, is a home to several ghosts.

Cyrus Kriticos was a ghost hunter, and his collection isn't comprised of Casper and his friends. Each of the ghosts have a story. A terrible, brutal story. And they're pissed-off at having been incarcerated within the glass walls of Cyrus' abode. Unfortunately, Arthur and his brood are trapped inside the house when the walls begin to move, and the ghosts are unleashed.

I can't express to you how terrifying the ghosts are in this movie, especially given how corporeal they appear to be. Whereas the William Castle original was more akin to a trip through the spook house at the county fair, the remake is like being in a nightmare from which you want desperately to awaken from. And, who knows, perhaps you won't?

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