Rating: 
Summary: Characters become stereotypes
Review: Horror movies are not necessary gore and spooks tied together with a slim plot with only the idea of getting the audience to jump. The horror movie can have great writing. In this film, the background story for Tony Shaloub's family was very well done and acted. You couldn't help but believe they felt the pain of loss.Tony Shaloub is a great actor, but his reputation for playing quirky follows him. I found it hard to distance him from his past characters and focus on this one. He does a gallant job however. A distant uncle has captured the spirits of different people to fulfill the necessary materials to open a door to the beyond and bring himself power. The ghosts are trapped in a special house, which has been willed to his nephew (Tony Shaloub). The different spirits are very spooky, and the grimoire is very well done. You will get involved with the story, but some of the other characters seem a bit too stereotypical, as if the producers thought a horror movie had to have them. For instance, one of the spirits rips Shannon Elizabeth's shirt. I would recommend renting this one rather than adding it to your collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Good movie, with good sound
Review: Not a super freaky movie but it's good. It has real good sound effects as well as visual effects. There are a few jump in your seat parts but not to many, so it's good for the people who don't like real scary movies. The movie is about a family who finds out that they have been left a large amount of money from a dead uncle. Also a large house. They go to see the house but soon find that they are in the middle of a haunted house that houses 12 killer ghosts that want them dead. Why the title 13 ghosts you ask? You will have to see the movie to find out!! It's worth it, sit back grab some popcorn and turn the volume up on the system and enjoy!!
Rating:
Summary: Could Have Been Better!!!
Review: This movie started out ok with some blood and violence. But then it went downhill from there. This family that has nothing left to live for after there mother/wife was burned to a crisp in a house fire, inherits this house made out of glass from their uncle. Well they get there and they figure out that there are ghosts in the basement that want to kill them. Then it got into this boring crap that went on and on!!! This is just not the perfect movie!!! It was ok!!!
Rating:
Summary: You WROTE the backstories, why not FILM them?
Review: Thir13en Ghosts (Steve Beck, 2001) Hey, Hollywood. Listen up. Se7en got away with it. That's enough movies with numbers substituting for letters in the title, all right? Just based on that, I was prepared to crucify this movie. The title screams out "we're doing a remake, and we want to make it... hip." Gah. The first thing you must do when watching this film is forget that William Castle made a movie called Thirteen Ghosts. Despite Beck saying in the DVD extras that they did use the original script and just change it a bit, the two look about as much alike as do Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Twins. Consider them two entirely different movies. Once you do that (and get by the soundtrack, which is simply nauseating), this is actually a fun little movie. While it succeeds only in minor ways in being creepy (it's certainly not in the same league as The Eye), the effects are well-done enough that it does succeed in a few places. Arthur Kriticos (Tony Shalhoub, of Monk fame) is a pretty depressed guy. His wife Jean (Kathryn Anderson, a stuntwoman by trade) was killed in a fire six months ago, his kids Kathy (Shannon Elizabeth from American Pie) and Bobby (Alec Roberts, recently of Traffic) are driving him crazy, the nanny (the annoyingly named Rah Digga in her screen debut) isn't helping matters, and they're broke. Or so they think. The youngest lawyer on the planet, Moss (JR Bourne, doing better here than in Aftershock-honest), shows up to let Arthur and family know that Arthur's eccentric uncle Cyrus (F. Murray Abraham) has died, and left Arthur and crew his rather odd house. And a couple of Cyrus' business partners, Dennis (Matthew "Shaggy" Lillard) and Kalina (Embeth "Ash's Girlfriend" Davidtz), though none of them knows that yet... You never know what you're going to get from a movie containing Matthew Lillard, and this one is no exception. His performance is strong, but that may only be because the rest of the performances by the main characters here are so weak. F. Murray Abraham is convincing as the epitome of evil in the long opening scene, but other than that, the movie almost begs you to concentrate on the house and the ghosts instead of the plot. When you do that, this movie becomes everything the miserable The Haunting (Jan de Bont, 1999) was not. The architecture is gorgeous, the ghosts are nasty-looking and deeply disturbing (and a few, most notably Shawna Loyer, have gained their own fan clubs). And really, it's a horror film. How much depth of plot do you want? The main actors are capable, and that's really all that's required for a movie of this caliber. It's standard Hollywood fare. And admit it, you want the house. Much of the reason the ghosts are so much fun in this movie, according to the extras, is that the ghosts all had full backstories written for them. One wonders if we'll end up getting movies about them. (Seems the production company would be remiss not to at least make one about the Angry Princess-and more of a naked Shawna Loyer could not be a bad thing-but I want to know about the Jackal...) Good, for what it is. ***
Rating: 
Summary: Glad I didn't buy it!
Review: From the moment this movie started I could tell it was going to be a dud. Sure enough, that's how it ended up. The only thing I liked about this movie was some of the costumes/effects that were used for the monsters and such. However, the acting, storyline and just about everything else was a major let down. I gave this movie 2 stars for the simple fact that Shannon Elizabeth was in it (hot), and that some of the costumes were nicely done. Don't waste your money on this one, it's so bad you can even spot camera men and guys who hold the microphone boom in several shots.
Rating:
Summary: Watch The Original Instead
Review: This uninspired remake is terrible. You should buy the original 1960 version instead. Or at least, watch the 1960 version first, then you may like this film somewhat better.
There are nifty improvements in this newer version, such as the glass walls and the ghosts being imprisoned in their own rooms...but I still found it FORGETTABLE and TYPICAL...
Rating:
Summary: Fun Movie
Review: A typical horror movie chalked full of ghosts and guels, 13 Ghosts is an enjoyable monster movie with cool special effects and the commonplace uneffective understory. The real stars are the ghosts, which are very well done. The DVD is boreing to an extent and takes from the buying incentive. A decent buy, but only for horror fans.
Rating:
Summary: Scary!
Review: Creepy house and horrific ghosts combine to make this a scary movie with an original twist. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Not frightening, but very entertaining
Review: William Castle was one of the true geniuses of horror, and Thirteen Ghosts represents a modernized, special effects-heavy remake of his 1960 film of the same name. I would file this effort under C for cool rather than F for frightening, although I suppose many less inured to the tricks of the horror trade might find this film a frightening detour into madness. Thirteen Ghosts offers an exciting, gory, romping good time, and I think the real key to its success is not its plot, acting, or CGI effects; rather, it is the movie's establishment of something different from your standard horror fare. For the most part, all of the action takes place in a single setting, a technological marvel of a house built entirely of glass walls. While the process of shooting scenes in such a highly reflective setting must have been quite a challenge to the crew, the shooting style allows for a more open-ended atmosphere of fear, where things that go bump in the night can appear where you least expect them. Of course, the characters cannot see any ghosts on their own; no, you can apparently only see ghosts by donning a pair of safety glasses. The whole glasses thing is a little shaky, but it stands as a more practical substitute for the 3-D glasses the viewers of Castle's original film were required to wear. The ghosts, for their part, are very well done, especially the "angry princess" who, I have to say, is quite hot (in a bloody, fiendish sort of way). All the madness traces itself to one Cyrus Kriticos (played in an effectively subtle way by F. Murray Abraham). He is a collector of many things, especially ghosts, aided immeasurably by psychic and borderline nut Dennis Rafkin (Matthew Lillard). Rafkin does not discover the real agenda behind Kriticos' capturing of specific, tormented souls until it is almost too late, at which point he finds himself trying to undo the wrong he has done by helping the family of Arthur Kriticos survive Cyrus' designs for them. The always-oddly effective Tony Shalhoub plays Arthur, a man who lost his wife and everything else he has apart from his kids in a terrible fire. The gorgeous Shannon Elizabeth plays his daughter Kathy, but Elizabeth's talents are rather wasted in this role (and there are far too few scenes graced with her presence). The struggling family is overjoyed to learn that weird Uncle Cyrus has left Arthur his estate, and they are as excited as they are intrigued by the new home they come to explore. With glass walls covered with Latin writing everywhere, extremely modern furnishings, and a sense of grade-A rich, eccentric oddness from top to bottom, the family members see the house as a dream come true. Of course, the dream soon becomes a nightmare. There are twelve really, really unpleasant ghosts contained in the basement, and the house turns out to be a machine whose ancient yet modern design serves one specific purpose: to open the gates of hell and grant great power to the man who has wrought this abominable mechanism. Our heroes soon find themselves trapped in the house, accompanied by Rafkin, a mysterious stranger, and the family's stereotypical black, ghost-fearing nanny. They must fight for both their lives and their sanity as each of the twelve ghosts is released and set to the most fiendish of purposes. The ending is a little hokey, I have to admit, but it cannot undo all the fun to be had along the way. The special features are also noteworthy. Along with a look at the making of the film, you get a look at the history of each of the ghosts in the film; frankly, this background material should have been better interwoven into the plot than it was. The special effects are, by and large, quite good. A lot of CGI animation went into the making of this film, and it works amazingly well. The ghosts themselves are substantial creatures, each with a history of its own, capable and more than willing to unleash their own eternal horrors on the desperate human beings walking the halls of the glass prison. The ghosts are also remarkably diverse in nature, each bringing his/her own very special bottle of terror to the party. There are a surprisingly small number of actual deaths to be enjoyed here, but one is rather memorable indeed. While Thirteen Ghosts doesn't really bring a lot of originality to the table, the elaborate place settings its puts in place for its delightfully tainted meal of gore and fright make the experience one that this horror lover quite enjoyed.
Rating:
Summary: Not Your Typical Haunted House Story
Review: If you are expecting a Vincent Price style haunted house, think again. I had heard that it was about a guy inheriting his uncle's haunted house. When I saw the movie, it was so far off from my expectations, I didn't really like it. Having watched it a second time, - without those expectations - I realize that it is really a good horror flick. It is NOT your traditional haunted house kind of story. Go in with the right expectations and I'll bet you'll like it. Tony Shalhoub (the guy who plays Monk on TV) plays Arthur Kriticos, a widower and father of two, he lost everything (including his wife) in a fire and his salary as a math teacher isn't making ends meet. When he is told that he has inherited his uncle's house (the uncle no one liked because he squandered the family fortune), he and the family are ecstatic. They and their maid ... I know, if he has no money how does he have a maid, but she is the comic relief so I'll leave it alone ... they go up to see the house and sign the lawyer's papers. What they don't know is that the uncle squandered the fortune as a ghost collector, and not your garden variety spook either. These ghosts, predominantly, are the meanest of the mean and they CAN hurt you. More than that, he found directions in some ancient grimoire of how to build some elaborate machine to open the eye of hell. The house is not a house at all and the inheritance is really a trap to ensnare Arthur and his family for his uncle's diabolical purposes. Great special effects and an outstanding perfomance by both Tony Shalhoub and Matthew Lillard makes this a good movie for the horror flick buff.
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