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Thirteen Ghosts
Chosen by Sam
When Cyrus Kriticos, a very rich collector of unique things dies, he leaves it all to his nephew and his family. All including his house, his fortune, and his malicious collection of ghosts!
Directed by: Steve Beck
Starring: Tony Shalhoub, Shannon Elizabeth, Embeth Davidtz
“Thirteen Ghosts is an amazing movie and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. Even on a recent rewatch, it held up far better than it had any right to! “
Sam
Check out Lilyn’s review of Thirteen Ghosts
Thirteen Ghosts is one of the few movies that I think has improved on the original in a lot of ways. However, the promotion of the original 13 Ghosts was really fun. In the original, you had two sets of glasses. A red pair for seeing the ghosts “if you were brave enough“. If you were of a more timid nature you could use the blue lensed glasses to make them ‘go away’, so to speak. The DVD I bought came with them and they’re fun to use. I liked that they kept the original intentions and didn’t just make a flat black and white copy. If you’d like to check out more of Willam Castle’s gimmicks to rep his movies you can check out my recent Focus on the Frightful: William Castle (self-promo over, lol)
The plots share the bare bones structure with each other. The Zorbas (the Kritikos family in the 2001 movie) inherit a mansion, much more luxurious and nefarious in the 2001 movie. Various ghost shenanigans ensue to harass or help the family.
I think using the glasses to see or not see the ghosts was interesting but at the same time, while the ghosts were unique, the glasses put you at a remove from them so they weren’t very scary.
I like both movies pretty equally (will we get an Original vs. Remake soon? We’ll see!) but for very different reasons. The ghosts in each are really the stars of the movies but the ghosts in Thirteen Ghosts have so much more personality (despite rarely saying anything). The particular one that freaks me out is Breaker the Juggernaut. If you’re familiar with the movie you’ll know what scene I’m referring to.
As Sam says above, it holds up so well even this long after so it’s still worth a watch. I suspect because it actually goes pretty light on the CG (if I recall correctly) so the effects don’t look as dated as other movies from the same timeframe.
Check back every day through the month of October for our Halloween Cover Countdown n2020 – Come back tomorrow to see what Eliza has in store for you!
GracieKat was the first co-host of Sci-Fi & Scary, Lilyn’s partner-in-crime, and sub-head of the Kali Krew. She reviews horror books, movies, and games for the site. She also does a weekly Focus on the Frightful feature, and is the site list-maker. She is also in control of the Sci-Fi & Scary podcast which will relaunch soon.