Review – 13 Ghosts

William Castle once again works his gimmick magic on what would otherwise have been a fairly mediocre movie. The plot here is some trivial gothic silliness about a family that inherits a haunted house. The only thing that stands out is a fascinating bit of casting, with Margaret Hamilton playing a housekeeper who may also be a witch. The gimmick is Illusion-O, sort of a hybrid of the red/blue 3D process in which ghosts are visible in the red lens but not (or very nearly not) in the blue. It isn’t Castle’s finest moment, but it’s kinda clever. The DVD release features one side with Illusion-O and one side without (though I expect watching it without the gimmick wouldn’t be as much fun). Castle originally intended for audiences to watch the special sequences through either a red or a blue filter, but not both at once. I got the movie via Netflix, and it didn’t come with a viewer at all (so I can’t say what you get if you buy the disc). However, I had an old pair of 3D glasses from the theatrical release of Nightmare on Elm Street Part 6, and they seemed to work okay. Indeed, the half red half blue effect gave Illusion-O a strangely psychedelic feel. Mildly amusing