Review – Thirteen Ghosts (2001)

I’m not sure exactly how I ended up not reviewing this the first time I saw it back in 2002. But perhaps the omission was for the best, because upon second viewing I ended up liking it better than I’d remembered. That might have been in part because the first time this remake of an old William Castle movie failed to live up to the standards set by previous Dark Castle production The House on Haunted Hill, while this time around it came at the end of a string of mostly-dreadful horror movies watched in the second half of October, so it was better by comparison. In any event, I got at least some entertainment out of it. Tony Shalhoub stars as a father trying to hold his family together in the wake of his wife’s tragic death. When his eccentric uncle leaves them his mansion out in the woods, they think all their troubles are over. Unfortunately the curious glass edifice turns out to be an ectoplasmic Habitrail, and once the clockwork in the basement gets triggered the place swiftly ends up crawling with dangerous haints. Even though the ghost makeup effects were cheap, I liked the decision to give the spirits distinct “gimmicks” without bogging the plot down with a mess of back story. At best it’s a pale reflection of the themes and art direction of Hellraiser, but even so it’s reasonably entertaining. Mildly amusing