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13 Ghosts
Warner Bros.


6.8

based on 24 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 94 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for horror violence/gore, nudity and some language

Starring Tony Shalhoub, Embeth Davidtz, Matthew Lillard, Shannon Elizabeth, Rah Digga, and F. Murray Abraham

A state-of-the-art remake of the classic William Castle horror film about a family that inherits a spectacular old house from an eccentric uncle. There's just one problem: the house seems to have a dangerous agenda all its own. (Warner Bros.)

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Robb White (story) Neal Stevens Richard D'Ovidio
DIRECTED BY:	Steve Beck
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 2, 2002 Video: April 2, 2002 Theatrical: October 26, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	88 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Although not for the faint of heart, it's a potent -- and very tricky -- treat.

Baltimore Sun Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

As scary Halloween movies go, Thirteen Ghosts' "Oh, please" factor is pretty darn high.

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

This might be as perfect a new-millennium Halloween creepshow as we can expect.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Oddly comforting in its inconsistent acting and bad monster makeup.

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

It's an event film, all about flash and spectacle, even though the movie itself is void of any real substance.

USA Today Mike Clark

Too distinctive-looking to dismiss out of hand, but it would help to be able to look through a magic viewfinder (or maybe magic eraser) and make its script disappear.

Boston Globe Jonathan Perry

A formulaic script, a tired plot -- and uninspired dialogue all point up the real star. It's the house,

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

This efficient but soulless funhouse ride eschews suspense in favor of frantic scrambling from disturbing specters, like the naked female ghost who lurks around bloody bathtubs.

Variety Joe Leydon

The actors manage to keep from being upstaged by the sets, though just barely. Abraham goes over the top, then further still.

Entertainment Weekly Staff (Not Credited)

The result is a Halloween movie in horror limbo.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

If only half as much attention had been paid to story and character as to set design, the cast wouldn't be playing second banana to a gut rehab.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

13 Ghosts is the type of project that all parties concerned will have to live down for the rest of their lives.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

What follows is very gruesome indeed, though the footage of people being chased by hideous ghosts soon becomes rather dull.

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

This bloody stab at William Castle's 1960 gimmick flick substitutes chaos for chills.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

This film is a messy jumble.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

First-time director Steve Beck hurls a dozen ghosts and probably a million dollars' worth of prosthetic makeup at us for a full 90 minutes, but it's old hat and not a bit scary.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The physical look of the picture is splendid. The screenplay is dead on arrival. The noise level is torture.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The movie's one good performance is given by the house, full of ominous inscriptions, inscrutable chambers, and fiendish machines. The human characters are played with various degrees of manic overacting.

Miami Herald Charles Savage

The set design of Thirteen Ghosts may have been expensive, but its thrills are cheap.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Tries to combine humor with ghostly horror but excels at neither.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Offers so much frenetic fast cutting to so little purpose that it becomes an ordeal.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

All it has in common with the original is a few dumb fun scares. In the new version, what we're left with after the scares is just plain dumb.

LA Weekly Paul Malcolm

A brutish affair replete with sliced bodies, a diced storyline and enough clanky dialogue to wake the dead.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Sad, sorry remake.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 94 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

OBS G gave it a0:
This movie is terrible, sleecht.

G.B.M. C gave it a0:
Wow, by far the worst movie I have ever seen, the negative reviews are soooo right. Sad remake that shouldn't have been made.

Brett T. gave it a6:
eh, it wasn't SO bad, I've seen better, but seriously some of the reviews it got were terrible and it wasn't even that bad of a movie. I give it a 6 out of 10 and a thumbs up.

Gijsa G. gave it a0:
This movie sucks, the screenplay, the actors, the story are all bad. The only way this movie might scare you is because of the poor acting.

Koen K. gave it a0:
By far the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. Everything was bad in the movie, the acting, the screenplay, and the ghost where so fake, that I don't have words for them.

Karel K. gave it a0:
This movie sucks hard, the acting, the story, and it ain't even scary. 0 out of 10.

Bernard B gave it a0:
This is by far the worst movie i have ever seen. There was just nothing good in this movie. 13 ghost sucks.

13 Ghosts Warner Bros.

13 Ghosts
Warner Bros.