Thirteen Ghosts Review

When ghost hunter Cyrus Kriticos is killed, he leaves his house and fortune to his nephew, Arthur, and his two children. Entering the dream home, they and two rival ghost hunters activate a machine that unleashes 12 vengeful ghosts.

by William Thomas |
Published on
Release Date:

15 Mar 2002

Running Time:

91 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

Thirteen Ghosts

When ghost hunter Cyrus Kriticos (Abraham) is killed, he leaves his house and fortune to his nephew, Arthur (Shalhoub), and his two children. Entering the dream home, they and two rival ghost hunters activate a machine that unleashes 12 vengeful ghosts.

Unfortunately, this remake of William Castle’s 1960 movie is a senses-assaulting mess. To give producers Robert Zemeckis and Joel Silver their dues, its physical look is tremendous, with the glass mansion-cum-ghost prison a superb horror setting. But director Beck discards Castle’s signature cheeky verve, saddling the film with a poor script rife with hilarious exposition, a literally painful sound design and uniformly bad acting.

Worst of all, it’s not scary, as the myriad of flash cuts and incessant crashes attempt to distract from the glaring weaknesses.

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