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Thirteen Ghosts

Thirteen Ghosts

List Price: $14.97
Your Price: $11.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: i'd like to give it a zero
Review: This movie was not only bad, it was insulting. A family inherits a glass house and discovers that it's really a death trap designed by the devil. Oh and their are some extremely ugly, exteremly angry ghosts in it.
The character of the nanny was a huge step back for black actors. She was dumb, loud and at one point does a turntable rap effect. She also spend the whole movie cursing, whinning and rolling her eyes and showing her teeth. Had this been made in 1921 all this would be excusable but for 2001 it was shocking.
As for the rest of the movie there are too many plot holes and poor dialouge to make it worth your while.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Flashes of Excellence, but still a B-Movie
Review: Ah yes, the ever-popular B-movie. This movie is exactly that, and as with all B-movies, there will be those who like it, those who don't, and those who thought it was okay but were generally bored.

Trying to put all these somewhat conflicting reviews into perspective, I would say that the plot has a couple of unique twists, the house is great, and there is a death I hadn't seen before. If the twists, the house or the death didn't hold your interest or intrigue you, then you quickly lost interest and either became bored, or didn't like the movie at all.

The story is relatively simple, and some parts of it parallel other horror movies. A ghost-hunting relative (in this case, an uncle) dies (there's a twist here), leaving a huge mansion and a lot of money to a relatively poor relative. The poor relative moves his family along with assorted hangers-on and intruders into the relative's house. The deceased relative had ulterior motives for wanting his heir to move into the house (which I won't talk about - there have to be some surprises), and miscellaneous acts of gory violence ensue.

I understood early on that the ghosts appearing and disappearing even when wearing the special glasses was an ability that the ghosts had, but they had to appear to cause physical events. However, the popping in and out, which was initially interesting, became annoying. Some of the early manifestations had some level of scare factor. Most especially the bath tub scene and one scene in the basement; afterward the affect was diluted as you became numb to ghosts popping in and out.

The concept that the ghosts in the basement were there to power a portal to hell was interesting, along with the technique the uncle used to unleash the ghosts and direct them to their appropriate locations.

There was a lot of acting horsepower in this movie, including Tony Shalhoub, Shannon Elizabeth, F. Murray Abraham, Matthew Dillard, and Embeth Davidtz (who also starred in "Matilda", if you can believe that). In general the acting was decent, though I struggled a couple of times with Tony Shalhoub's struggle to accept Matthew Dillard's insistence that supernatural events were occurring in the house; it felt a bit artificial. Even with all that horsepower, the real star of the movie was the house, a conglomeration of glass, antiques, Latin inscriptions, and, of course, ghosts. There were several flaws with the house. First, the scenes of the central engine were shown time after time, and ultimately began to feel like filler since it didn't really advance the plot. Second, you never really knew where you were in the house other than in general terms, so while the house was big, the immensity was conveyed only when looking from the outside. Third, just how did Embeth Davidtz get into the house after it appeared to close up? Her answer seemed more than a stretch...something the director made up while having a martini.

This movie had a lot of potential. The basic concept was solid, and the acting horsepower unusual for a B horror movie. However, while there were flashes of excellence, overall the movie delivered only part of the goods. Those flashes of excellence pushed the movie into a 3-star rating, thus making it watchable. Forgive the parts of the movie where it drags or has plot implausibilities.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Weird
Review: I liked this movie simply because it was strange. It was a normal predictable horror movie with a typical bunch of characters thrown into a situation together, trying to fight for survival. I really don't mind that as long as the characters mesh well. The only character I really didn't like was the *nanny*. She seemed to be a filler role in the film, without much purpose. I considered her the whiner of the bunch.
I loved the concept of the whole movie, mainly because I hadn't heard of the idea before.
It's hard to make a movie with a new subject matter anymore, so i give the writer a lot of credit for that alone.
Amy Davies

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Decent horror movie with good special effects
Review: The film has a lot of tension and is totally creepy. The story is nothing special as is the acting but the concept of a glass house haunted by 13 ghosts is very good with cool special effects (I haven't seen the original Thirteen Ghosts). The suspense levels are fairly high and the frights come from the look of the ghosts. I thought the ghosts were well designed and realised with some of them being freaky like the Jackal, but it would have been more useful had their background been included in the actual movie to see some depth in their characters instead of watching it on a separate ghost files on the DVD. Also, the ending was a bit disappointing and could have been better, still it flowed with the story.
Overall, if you are looking for an entertaining movie with good special effects, then Thirteen Ghosts is just the film for you. It's pretty suspenseful and the ghosts are awesome!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Nothing New!
Review: In my opinion, this film its no scary. Dark Castle Enterainment produce this film, and also produce The House on Haunted Hill, so both films are allmost the same. This one, is more boring, because it doesnt make you belive that the things that happen are "true". The music its not good, and maybe the sounds are scary. I think the story is good, but they dont make a good film.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Entertaining and spooky.
Review: This movie has it's moments, it is spooky and keeps you on your toes. The house is really wierd and somewhat over the top. Overall it is not bad but not great either.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Ghosts, Good. Cast, Bad.
Review: Thirteen Ghosts is one heck of a horror movie. Forget the cast and their characters (Annoying kid, and why did Shannon Elizabeth's character have to be so fake and obsessed with bathrooms?), tune in for the actual 13 ghosts and great directing shots given by Steve Beck. Suspense and minorly frightening imagery is displayed throughout. The imagery is flashy -- not subtle -- but it's pulled off very well. The ghosts are all greatly done. The interesting supplement on the DVD explaining each ghost's backstory is a great addition to the DVD.

Pardon me for saying to forget about the cast. Half of it does work. Rah Digga as the nanny, Maggie, is here for the one liners. I found her funny and cared for her most as a character. Embeth Davidtz (Kalina) is one of the antagonists, and her twist around in the movie wasn't all that surprising, but she played her part fairly well. Matthew Lillard was on and off the whole, but his performance was enjoyable. What was off was Shannon Elizabeth's performance. Was she meant to be playing a 12 year old? Her all too goody show at the beginning just threw me off. And the little kid, egh...I won't bother.

Thirteen Ghosts has great horror qualities when it comes to suspense, imagery, and scares. But it seemed to fail with its cast (Not including the ghosts, who were great). And the DVD is a good buy with great animated menus and awesome supplements.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Meh
Review: I went to see this with a friend expecting a good horror it wasn't too bad but it could've been better. I admit nice touch on the special effects but the story line was a little lacking. One character is supposed to be dead turns out he's alive and faked it but we saw him with his throat torn out!
The plot is a little confusing but it's not bad for a horror movie.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Bit Awkward
Review: This movie started out pretty weak and ended on a halfway decent note. Tony Shaloub seemed somewhat half hearted in his performance but the movie picked up the pace with some great special effects and memorible monsters. Overall a pretty good flick, something to watch in the dark with your favorite friend.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It is not genre defining, but it is fun
Review: Thirteen Ghosts is not a horrible movie. It is not a great movie, neither. It is a decent, love-will-prevail story which pits a father and various stragglers against a murderous group of ghosts as said group searches for his (lost) children.

Do not put much weight on what reviewers who gave this movie a bad rating say -- even the top 500 reviewers. They obviously expected way too much from a movie which was not all that good to begin with. Most famous horror movies aren't good by design [NOTE: that is not to say Thirteen Ghosts is a horrible movie]. They are famous for being so pathetic. Stephen King even admits this in Danse Macabre (a book he wrote on the subject of horror films and writing in which he analizes the horror genre; a book most of the reviews obviously decided not to read). He then goes on to say that any true fan of horror, including the casual viewer, develops a taste not for exceptionally great flicks, but for standard or poor ones. Why? Because they do not require you to think. They require you to sit back, watch, and possibly be entertained. Thirteen Ghosts is not Ghost Story, the Others, Sixth Sense, or any of the various "intelligent" movies that often draw the viewer in not by horror, but by plot twists (The Others, both the original and remake, is an excellent example of this).

If you are a casual viewer who wants a FUN movie with an interesting take on the ghost story niche, Thirteen Ghosts is a solid buy. It has a fair amount of drama, large amount of bump-in-the-night chills, and a decent story lifted from the 1960s version (which combines technology and magic with the standard fare of cat-and-mouse ghost stories which have neither). Thirteen Ghosts is by no means a horrible movie you will laugh at in three or four years. It has solid acting and special effects (a rare combination in the horror genre), although Shannon Elizabeth has a tendancy to be a little too "charactery." Luckily she plays no major role and is absent from quite a bit of the movie.

For the hard-core horror fan, this movie may or may ot be for you. It depends on how seriously one takes the genre and movie in general. Do not go into this expecting the 6th Sense. This movie has a few plot twists of varying degrees of predictability, but not enough to keep you interested. Unless, you know, focusing on the story, special effects, and overall creepy mood is your goal. If that is the case, there might be hope yet that this genre will not die a horrible death in a sea of thriller movies cloning one another.


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