13 Ghosts (1960)



Movie Title: 13 Ghosts

Year Released: 1960

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1h 25min

Genre: Horror

Director: William Castle

Writer: Robb White

Starring: Charles Herbert, Jo Morrow, Martin Milner, Rosemary DeCamp, Donald Woods, Margaret Hamilton, John Van Dreelen

Review: When an eccentric uncle leaves his estate to his impoverished heirs, they get more than they bargained for. Their new residence comes complete with a spooky housekeeper, plus a hidden fortune and collection of horrifying ghosts.

13 Ghosts comes from William Castle, B-movie director, producer, and self-promoting showman who loved a good gimmick. This time around the gimmick "Illusion-O" uses a special viewer so the audience can see the ghosts. The "ghost viewers" contained a red filter and a blue filter. The red filter would intensify the ghostly images and the blue filter caused the images to fade away.

The problem his that 13 Ghosts isn't scary or excited or very interesting. The characters are rather bland and the story doesn't really go anywhere except in the last act of the movie when it realizes that something should probably happen. William Castle has made some very entertaining movies like House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler, and Strait-Jacket, it's a shame that 13 Ghosts wasn't one of them.

Stars (out of 4):
       

Fun Fact: Several people call Elaine Zacharides (played by Margaret Hamilton) a witch. Margaret is even carrying a broom when we first see here, which Charles points out. Margaret Hamilton played the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz.



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