Out of all of director William Castle and screenwriter Robb White’s trick ponies, 13 Ghosts is their weakest effort regarding the production proper as well as their in-hand promotional gimmick for the film, the Illusion-O. The shaky plot is barely sustained by all-too-convenient rationalizations given just before a predicament occurs or shortly thereafter as tension is drawn away from the innate terror and is replaced by a placid mystery amid a cast of too happy-go-lucky characters caught amid a barrage of blood thirsty apparitions.
Penniless family man Cyrus Zorba (Donald Woods) has recently inherited a mansion from his late occultist uncle, Plato. However, an odd stipulation in the will states that the Zorba’s must reside in the house lest the estate go to the State. Before three nights pass, the Zorbas realize that the rumors that Plato captured ghosts from around the world and installed them within the house are true. At the suggestion of Ben Rush (Martin Milner), the Zorba’s attorney, the family prepares to leave with the intent to sell before it is revealed that Cyrus’s late uncle liquidated his assets and hid the money somewhere within the house’s confines shortly before his demise. The family decides to remain one last night in order to conduct a séance in hopes of contacting Plato and having him disclose the location of his fortune.
The worst thing for a horror film, aside from not positing a fear-invoking antagonist or dilemma, is not sustaining the tension once created. This is the tragic flaw of 13 Ghosts because Castle looms too long on the ghosts once they are presented (in order to milk his trick glasses, i.e. the Illusion-O, which allows the viewer the option to see the ghosts or to block them from sight), thus diluting the viewer’s apprehension with the implication that the apparitions aren’t terrifying enough to evoke flight. To put it simply, the film moves more fluidly when the mortal cast is present than when the paranormal set is onscreen. (To say nothing of the fact that the director never legitimizes why the paranormal prisoners are bound to the residence.)
To reinforce the notion that Castle knew he had a dead horse on his hands which he attempts to generically compensate for via the Illuion-O, I cite his flaccid characterization, which is downright excruciating at times. For example, Cyrus, drawn to be the naïve, good-natured family man, comes across as innately stupid at best as Ben all but states that he’s operating with ulterior motives. Furthermore, his son, Buck (Charles Herbert), who is in many respects the crux of the film because he is the one who discovers the stashed loot but, like his father, is green in regards to Ben’s insistence that he keep the moola a secret, is excessively annoying as he announces his supernatural sighting, “I saw a lion and a man without a head” over and over again. This says nothing of the eyebrow-raising contrast between the son’s name and the teenage daughter’s title, Medea (played by Jo Morrow). (Apparently, though Cyrus has difficulty recalling his late uncle, given the executor’s archaic label, a recourse back to Ancient times is a family tradition when naming a child.) With this in mind, I suppose it is only part and parcel that Cyrus’s wife, Hilda (Rosemary DeCamp), acts like June Cleaver and sounds like Betty White. What else can be said of a family who becomes aware of a collection of murderous ghosts amid their presences yet nonchalantly moves around them as their son happily inquires, to no one’s apparent chagrin, if anyone is going to be murdered?
Then there’s the poorly contrived, double exposures that are supposed to represent the ghosts as well as the levitating items seen throughout the house that dangle on the all-too-apparent strings they are suspended from. The penultimate insult involves the film’s death scene as it asks too much of its audience as the mechanism for the loss of life, a canopy bed no less, goes beyond the willingness of even the most forgiving viewer.
The highlight of William Castle’s 13 Ghosts is the appearance of Zobra’s witchy housekeeper, Elaine Zacharides (Margaret Hamilton of The Wizard of Oz fame). On that note, if this is all that a production has to boast about, the work speaks all-too-loudly for itself as Castle and White fail, not only to present an entertaining, fun narrative, but become preoccupied by their own gimmick, which should otherwise be distracting us from the downtrodden waste of celluloid rolling before us (to say nothing of perhaps adding to the experience). Sadly, the Steven Beck’s remake stands head and shoulders above its precursor.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
