Despite its sure-fire premise and imaginative set design, this exploitative horror film - which is much less terrifying than the average Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoon - might have boos coming from the audience, instead of the other way around.
Thirteen Ghosts (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:88
Fresh:11
Rotten:77
Average Rating:3.4/10
Consensus: The production design is first rate, but 13 Ghosts is distinctly lacking in scares.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for horror violence/gore, nudity and some language
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:Oct 26, 2001 Wide
Box Office: $41,601,840
Synopsis: 13 GHOSTS, Steve Beck's feature debut, is the second recent remake (following THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL) of a film by 1950s and '60s camp horror king, William Castle. Arthur Kriticos (Tony... 13 GHOSTS, Steve Beck's feature debut, is the second recent remake (following THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL) of a film by 1950s and '60s camp horror king, William Castle. Arthur Kriticos (Tony Shalhoub) is a financially strapped widower struggling to raise two children, Kathy (Shannon Elizabeth) and Bobby (Alec Roberts), after losing his wife in a house fire. A stroke of apparent luck arrives when Arthur learns he has inherited a mansion from his mysterious Uncle Cyrus (F. Murray Abraham). Ecstatic, Arthur whisks the kids and nanny, Maggie (Rah Digga), off to their new home, a bizarre glass and steel structure with strange Latin inscriptions carved on the walls. The family is thrilled, until a psychic and former employee of Cyrus's, Rafkin (Matthew Lillard), reveals that Arthur's departed uncle was a power hungry ghost collector who captured twelve spirits in the house. Arthur is skeptical. But when his children disappear, and Rafkin gives him a pair of special glasses that allow him to view the house's gruesome inhabitants, he believes. In Beck's special effects-laden gore-fest, the two men race against time to find the children as the house's strange internal mechanism begins sealing off the exits and freeing the angry ghosts. [More]
Starring: F. Murray Abraham, Tony Shalhoub, Shannon Elizabeth, Kathryn Anderson
Starring: F. Murray Abraham, Tony Shalhoub, Shannon Elizabeth, Kathryn Anderson, J.R. Bourne, Embeth Davidtz, Matthew Lillard, Rah Digga, Alec Roberts
Director: Steve Beck
Director: Steve Beck
Screenwriter: Neal Marshall, Steve Beck
Producer: Joel Silver, Dan Cracchiolo, Gilbert Adler, Robert Zemeckis
Composer: John Frizzell
Studio: Warner Bros.
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Reviews for Thirteen Ghosts
Ghosts is too distinctive-looking to dismiss out of hand, but it would help to be able to look through a magic viewfinder (or maybe magic eraser) and make its script disappear.
Although not for the faint of heart, it's a potent -- and very tricky-treat.
The experience of watching the film is literally painful. It hurts the eyes and ears.
Lillard is surprisingly restrained (meaning, for Lillard, that we don't see his tongue), delivering his dialogue with heretofore unknown verve and wit.
I kept wishing I were at home, all snuggly in my jammies, watching Castle’s much more fun original.
Does the hammy F. Murray Abraham carry his Oscar with him, just to prove to people he won one?
While far from perfect and containing some developments that come far too easily and/or don't make sense, the film delivers more than its share of macabre funhouse chills and thrills.
A production so mammoth in its stupidity that it took two studios, Warner Brothers and Columbia Pictures, to wrestle it to the screen.
The set design of Thirteen Ghosts may have been expensive, but its thrills are cheap.
This mindlessly chaotic, incompetently made motion picture adds to a long list of 2001 duds.
The best gimmick these folks could offer would be a ticket to a better fright movie like "The Others."
Latest News for Thirteen Ghosts
April 12, 2007:
Sequel Buzz on "Haunted Hill" and "Fast and the Furious"?
For those of you who were desperately waiting to see a sequel to "House on Haunted Hill," your wait is soon over. Also, raise your hand if you're interested in seeing... More...
September 08, 2005:
Dark Lot to Deliver Three New Horror Flicks
Variety reports that Odd Lot Entertainment will launch a genre division known as Dark Lot, and their first plan is to deliver a three-movie series currently known as "The... More...
March 30, 2005:
Paramount Believes in "Superstition"
Seems like screenwriter Neal Marshall Stevens ("13 Ghosts") impressed the Paramount folks with his "Superstition" screenplay. Described by Variety as the... More...
October 22, 2001:
The art direction of that house is clearly amazing... that's one cool-looking set. Will that sell a movie though? ![]()
More...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 15% 15% | The Ugly Truth |
| 98% 98% | Up |
| 36% 36% | G.I. Joe: The Rise of … |
| 52% 52% | The Taking of Pelham 1… |
| 45% 45% | Ice Age: Dawn of the D… |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 45% 45% | Shorts |
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