| 13 Ghosts | | Cast : | Tony Shalhoub, Shannon Elizabeth | | Director : | Steve Beck | | Studio : | Warner Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | October 26, 2001 | | DVD Released Date : | February 03, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 29, 2005 | | Summary | Not for the faint of heart | Content
 | This was a very good horror movie, admittedly not like the Ring or other movies.Many twists in it and is recommended. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 26, 2005 | | Summary | A very Entertaining Movie | Content
| Thirteen Ghosts appeared as if it would be a high tech scare fest, filled with creepy visuals, a good plotline, and lots of gore. My expectations could not have been more wrong.
The movie chronicles the story of a small family who falls apart after the mother dies in a fire. Along with their mother, all of the family's possessions go up into flames, leaving them to be a struggling family with strong ties to one another.
Another storyline opens up, when a psychic ghost hunter (Matthew Lillard, in one of his most poorly acted roles ever) is hired to capture ghosts for an evil man. Of course, you can tell he is evil because his name is Cyrus. Cyrus collects ghosts for a purpose that is unforeseen at the beginning of the movie.
Within the first sequence, Cyrus dies in a ghost hunting accident. And wouldn't you know it? He leaves his whole fortune, complete with his creepy ghost collection house to his last remaining family members. You guessed it, the family I referred to earlier are the lucky recipients of the house.
From here on, excitement and terror ensue. Oh wait, no they don't. Absolutely no excitement or terror ever even peeks it's head onto the screen. What does peek it's head onto the screen are bad one-liners from the token black girl (of course there's the standard "DAMN! I ain't chillin wit y'all whiteys no mo'"), horrible acting from everyone on screen, and clichéd cheesiness pulled right out of every bad horror movie.
What seems like too soon, the movie shifts from a what could've been a scary horror film into a "Let's kill those ghost bastards! Who's with me?!" film.
And to top it off, only 3 people die! ONLY 3!!! Yes, in the opening sequence more people are killed, but they are not characters of any significance, they are just the "shocking opening sequence day players." And even if lots of the main characters did die, it wouldn't have mattered, because every one of them pissed you off anyway. They were all annoying, and most of the time I was either praying for one of them to die horribly or for Shannon Elizabeth to take her clothes off. Neither of which happened.
The highest point during the movie was when I farted really loud and everyone around me started laughing. Naturally, I raised my arm to let everyone know it was me.
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| Rating | | | Date | May 21, 2005 | | Summary | Decent Flick, More Sci-Fi Than Horror Though | Content
| "Thirteen Ghosts" features Tony Shalhoub, F. Murray Abraham, Embeth Davidtz, Shannon Elizabeth, and Matthew Lillard. It also features Rah Digga and a host of non-speaking(mainly growling and shrieking) ghosts. The plot is very interesting. It seems that Cyrus Kriticos(Abraham) has become a collector of dead souls. He utilizes the psychic abilities of Lillard's character to seek out twelve specific souls that he plans to use in a grand and devious scheme to take over the world.
When things go wrong for Cyrus, he sets into motion a series of events that bring his hardluck nephew(Shalhoub) and his two children to a wonderfully designed glass house that they "inherit" from him. Of course, all of this is part of the plan to take over the world. Tagging along are a lawyer, the housekeeper(Digga), Lillard, and Davidtz' character who is something of an ecto-lover(think PETA for the dead).
The house and it's lifeless guests are the real stars of this flick, just as the asylum in "House on Haunted Hill" and the ship in "Ghost Ship." All of these flicks bear the production of Dark Castle, who have become known for their slick gore and wonderfully evil CGI. The best ghosts, to me, were "the Jackal," "the Hammer," and "the Angry Princess." All of the ghosts, however, are done flawlessly by the FX team.
Had the film's story been a little spookier, I'd have given it four stars. As a matter of fact, I feel that it qualifies more as a sci-fi flick than a true horror story. The ghosts are wonderful, the action is slick, the acting is good(though Elizabeth is too old to be playing such a young and enthusiastic teen), the house is a wonder to look at, and much like the rest of Dark Castle's flicks, it doesn't run too long. Dark Castle knows when to put a stop to the horror that they crank out, and that's rare in Hollywood these days.
The disc's special features, primarily the short biographies of the ghosts, are pretty good. There isn't too much to fish through, but the quality of the features is what matters. I rarely look at the extras, but the biographies add quite a bit to the flick.
So, if you like stylized gore, any of the other flicks by Dark Castle, or genuinely want to watch a pretty slick flick, I recommend "Thirteen Ghosts" to you. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 02, 2005 | | Summary | Nice house, too bad about the people. | Content
| 13 Ghosts 2001: 4/10 Fantastic set design and creative character (ghost) make-up effects cannot save this overloud, over edited mess. The cast ranges from the where is my paycheck crowd (F. Murray Abraham and Tony Shalhoub), disappointedly clothed (Shannon Elizabeth about 10 years too old to play virginal teenagers and cutie Embeth Davidtz), and remarkably irritating (Alec Roberts playing a little boy you wish would just die. Matthew Lillard in his the most irritating role ever and that's saying something. And female rapper Rah Digger channeling every offensive black maid stereotype and inventing a few new ones. Come to think of it a black maid is so 1960's anyone who is anyone has a European au pair.) Yes the good old black maid stereotype, Digger is apparently channeling Beulah from Party at Horror beach She exclaims she ain't washing no windows (It's an all glass house) and for you film historians out there she doesn't birth no babies either. The rest of the comic relief is at about the same level. With Lillard practically imploding on his performance in a mad dog style that has to be seen to be believed and underutilized Davidtz stuck with the laughable task of playing an environmentalist ghost protector. On the plus side the ghosts are very well done however they don't have nearly enough screen time and look a bit like the cast of Hellraiser is moonlighting. The set design with a giant glass house with beautiful Latin writings on the walls is where the movie shines. I guess in a haunted house movie the ghosts and house are the real stars. It's simply a shame they had to include the plot and characters. Truth be told it would have been a better movie without them. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 20, 2005 | | Summary | A Unique Ghost Flick! | Content
| When i saw it at theatres, I liked it and knew I would. When I got it on dvd I watched it again being reminded of how good it was. This movie isn't horrifying, it isn't a slasher, and it's definitely not the best thing out there when you think of ghost movies. You can't compare this to the original old 13 Ghosts, black and white version. I never saw it but I already know, they're two opposite films. Both great in their ways.
The glass house... which was a perfect theme for this movie I thought. It's better then that other movie, that was actually called The Glass House(Leelee Sobieski). The scenery of the locked rooms, glass rooms, and the house shifting opening doors to the locked thirteen ghosts... was highly imaginative I thought, and very exciting to watch.
For someone to complain about the faults for this movie is completely ridiculous. Especially when you say Matthew Lillard can't act... repeating yourself twice. There is a part in this movie where you do see the directors face, reflected off the glass in a shot. Something that you can complain about but it got me laughing. (Watch when Tony Shalhoub punches Matthew Lillard down... halfway through the movie when they're locked in the one room full of books. Right when they both fall to the ground and Tony askes Lillard "Why? why?". You'll see the reflection right behind them in the glass.)
The actors, as different as they looked, as frustrating they did get you... they all delivered their parts. Matthew Lillard isn't that bad... and as wacky/retarded he acts, he fits this movie of locked ghosts perfectly. If you don't like him, and don't like all forms of horror movies then you definitely shouldn't watch this.
If you liked House on Haunted Hill, or if you liked Ghost Ship... or anything by Dark Castle films... then you'll love this movie. I love it how on the dvd they give you the extra feature that introduces you to all of the 13 ghosts and their background history... and how they were murdered! |
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