Synopsis
With the passing of his uncle, Arthur and his family inherit all he left behind. Everything from a beautiful and intricately designed manor to the evil which is locked away in the basement. On the day of their arrival, the evil is unleashed and now they must find a way out before it's too late.
Thoughts
Is it just me, or was the end of the 90's and early 2000's the start of the horrific insurgence of remaking movies? Not only remaking them, but if it was a horror film, filmmakers thought it was more than necessary to add an incredible amount of blood and gore as if that alone would save it from being ridiculed for being remade.
Movies have been being remade for the longest time, but definitely more so this millennium. To keep with the overall theme for the month let's list a few horror remakes: Evil Dead (2013), The Crazies (2010), The Last House on the Left (2009) and The Hills Have Eyes (2007). That's literally not even a fraction of the movies that have been remade, retooled, re-imagined or even completely ruined over the past decade. I love the excuse that the director wanted to deliver a new "vision" for the next generation. There are endless excuses to why a film was remade, but there's nothing we can really do about it I guess. Just suck it up and hope we a few good ones out of it.
Thir13en Ghosts is part of what seems to be the start of the endless remake period. Not to say we've been getting a lot of original material, but remakes have flooded the market. The original, 13 Ghosts, was a decent horror film from 1960. It even had a nice little gimmick that helped advertise the film. The remake is definitely loosely based off the original. Pretty much just the premise of the original was used which can either be a good or a bad thing. For this, it's not a bad thing really.
For 2001, following up a previously remade William Castle film, House on Haunted Hill, it held its own. The acting isn't top notch, but you get to see Tony Shaloub before he dedicates his life the USA series Monk. You also get to see Shannon Elizabeth take a shot a more serious role opposed to her work on American Pie. Matthew Lillard, well, he's still Matthew Lillard and I don't think that's ever going to change. I'm not sure if I can ever take him seriously. He just has a goofy demeanor about him in all his films. Maybe one day we'll be surprised. Oh yeah, how can I forget another rapper turned actress, Rah Digga...and we're just going to leave it at.
If you leave out the really cheesy, at one point kind of stereotyping humor, you actually have a decent movie here. The make-up is fantastic. All the ghosts look incredible. This really is the main reason to see Thir13en Ghosts, if anything. Mute the movie and put some music on in the background and just enjoy the visuals. If you are however interested in seeing it, you should probably enjoy cheesy humor, predictable twists and Matthew Lillard. Just to clarify, I enjoy Matthew Lillard, I just think he's one dimensional.
IMDB: 5.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 3.4/10
WeFLM: 4/10
Come for the house. Stay for the ghosts.
-kp
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