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13 Ghosts

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 24 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 97 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Robb White (story)
Neal Stevens
Richard D'Ovidio
Directed by: Steve Beck
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 26, 2001
DVD: April 2, 2002
Running Time: 88 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
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.)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Staff (Not Credited)
The result is a Halloween movie in horror limbo.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf
This bloody stab at William Castle's 1960 gimmick flick substitutes chaos for chills.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The physical look of the picture is splendid. The screenplay is dead on arrival. The noise level is torture.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Charles Savage
The set design of Thirteen Ghosts may have been expensive, but its thrills are cheap.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Tries to combine humor with ghostly horror but excels at neither.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Offers so much frenetic fast cutting to so little purpose that it becomes an ordeal.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Paul Malcolm
A brutish affair replete with sliced bodies, a diced storyline and enough clanky dialogue to wake the dead.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 97 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Joseph P gave it a7:
Not scary, then again, what movies are? The acting was rather poor, and there were more than a few plot holes. Not really holes in the basic evil machine requires certain souls, I liked that, felt really interesting. More, they were problems in how it was executed, why they were released one by one, why the uncle didn't control more to keep it from getting out of hand...The spells controlled the ghosts, they don't seem to be scary if you have a means to control them. I loved the design in the ghosts and the house. The little things, the odd symbols that resembled the ghosts, the glasses looked cool, although lacked any story on why they worked (should have had symbols on it, would have been perfectly acceptable). The ghetto black chick was annoying, could have been omitted entirely and would have been better. The ghosts didn't succeed to kill anyone important until the end, effectively making them look less scary than they should have been. The individual stories the ghosts get are interesting, and should have at least been summed up in a sentence to give something cool to it. The glass house was cool, not scary. Not freaky, it allowed you to see the ghosts, but since the characters only saw a ghost if it was in the same hallway or in its cell, that defeats that purpose. The glass house takes away the "this could happen to you" aspect that makes things freakier. The ratings this movie gets that are below 4 are completely useless. This movie didn't make anyone stand in line for a ticket, and it didn't get any rewards, but it was a decent movie and deserved to be acknowledged as decent. Over all the special effects were nice, (if not a bit overplayed on the sparks when a ghost hit anything) This movie was not scary, I thought it was entertaining, the acting is a bit overplayed, but the interest lies in the ghosts and the house. The acting isn't horrendous, it's not terrible, it's ok. The ghosts are all interesting looking, but not scary. The story has problems, but has good points too. Not a scary movie, it's rather entertaining. The people who say it's the worst movie they've ever seen have probably only seen maybe 6 of the best films ever made, in which case most other films fall short anyway...Also that black chick was annoying. This is a decent movie, not great, but worth watching in my opinion.
Sarah F gave it a7:
I didn't find it that bad.. I have not seen the original, so I can not compare, but I did like it.
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.
