13 Ghosts Reviews

Cyrus Zorba (Donald Woods) and his wife, Hilda (Rosemary De Camp), are the parents of young Buck (Charles Herbert) and college-age Medea (Jo Morrow). Barely keeping their heads above water financially because Cyrus' job at the Los Angeles County Museum doesn't pay much, the family is delighted to learn that Cyrus's eccentric uncle has left them his huge, gloomy mansion. Lawyer Ben Rush (Martin Milner) regrets to inform the family, however, that the former owner collected ghosts--11 of them, to be exact. Cyrus dismisses this nonsense and moves the family into the mansion, which comes with its own dour housekeeper, Elaine (Margaret Hamilton). Soon after the family's arrival, the ghosts--including No. 12, the dead uncle--start to wreak havoc on the house and the family is warned that there will be one more death, bringing the number of spirits to 13. Who will it be? THIRTEEN GHOSTS was another gimmicky William Castle movie. This time the audience draw was "Illusion-O," facilitated by a pair of red- and blue-colored glasses. When the ghosts appeared, a blue tint was imposed on the black-and-white film so viewers could choose either to see the ghosts by looking through the red "Ghost Viewer" portion or remove the spirits by looking through the blue "Ghost Remover" portion. Unfortunately, the effect is lost on the home video release, which also clumsily edits out William Castle's introduction explaining how to use the Ghost Viewer device. Gimmick or no, the film is really rather silly and not particularly scary.