"13 GHOSTS"-MORE FUN THAN FRIGHTENING (reviewed by OG)

When Hollywood jumped on the horror bandwagon with Scream a few years ago, it was inevitable that the new trend would start dipping its wick into the realm of supernatural horror. The “haunted house” genre was immediately targeted with The Haunting, a 2-hour crapfest that only managed to scare seven bucks out of everyone’s wallet. It seemed that the idea of the house as place of evil had undergone an unneeded resurrection, only to die a quick death soon thereafter. Then, the underrated House on Haunted Hill was released, revamping the concept with a dark and demonic dense of pacing and art direction, creating some genuinely disturbing moments. The film’s climax, however, suffered from “Hollywood FX-itis”…a not-so-rare condition that believes in a saturation of special effects stuffed into the ending of a flick, as opposed to a decently written finale.

The third stab at this genre comes to us in the form of 13 Ghosts, which picks up where Haunted Hill left off in terms of style and attack. The plot is rather formulaic, with a dead millionaire (played by Amadeus villain F. Murray Abraham) leaving his gigantic and oddly built home to his estranged nephew (played by Wings’ Tony Shalhoub) and his kids who, after losing their mom in a house fire, have been stuck living in a broken down apartment in the ghetto with a live-in nanny (played, in her first role, by rapper Rah Digga). How can they afford a nanny if they’re living at the poverty level? Don’t ask.

As luck would have it, their recently deceased uncle passed away while capturing his last ghost with a team of unlucky trappers and a whiny psychic (played by Scream’s Matthew Lillard), having his throat sliced in the process. Uncle Cyrus, you see, needed to enslave 12 ghosts for a special side project, and the house, of course, is intimately involved. Minutes after our lovely family enters the glass-framed home (with the disguised psychic and a slimy lawyer in tow), the 12 ghosts are mistakenly released, and the flick kicks into high gear.

13 Ghosts delivers in areas that its predecessors couldn’t quite achieve, with director Steve Beck (who has worked with George Lucas’ special effects ILM group) incorporating every fancy film flash technique to give us glimpses of the ghouls that stalk and eventually attack the living. The art direction is fantastic, giving the see-through house an eerie life of its own, and providing an ample setting for the gore fest that follows. Included are the snapping of bodies, a crushed head, and a human cross sectional slice that’ll leave you wondering how the hell they got it past the censors.

13 Ghosts starts off with a bang, and leads the audience into a glorified B-flick that actually delivers. Based on 1950’s William Castle film of the same name, the revamp stays true to the novelty formula Castle would incorporate into his productions. The 50’s version invited audiences to put on special “glasses” that would enable them to see the ghosts, while this update puts the glasses on the trapped family, allowing them to see, in brief and startling flashes, the things that are out to kill them. While everyone delivers in terms of performance (Rah Digga is given the comedy relief role, as is Lillard, who needs to stop showing up in Freddy Prinze Jr. flicks), it’s the ghosts themselves that steal the show. The special effects makeup, provided by the masters at KNB, prevail, giving us 12 effective creatures that carry their own traits and histories.

The film, alas, goes on to suffer from the same “grand finale” treatment that nearly killed Haunted Hill, but it’s still worth a sit-through. There are plenty quick frights throughout its hour-and-a-half running time, and the bathtub scene (featuring the nude ghost of a female suicide victim that suggests breast implants existed in the 17th century) is a memorable one. All in all 13 Ghosts provides a fun and effective gross-out thrill, while not scaring anyone a whole lot. Actually inciting the fear effect in a human being with a film has become nearly impossible these days (with the exception of the Japanese production The Ring), so it’s easy to forgive a film that comes through in entertainment value. And as for who or what the 13th ghost is? Well, you’ll have to find that one out for yourself….

(11.10.01)