Thir13en Ghosts-Thirteen Ghosts (2001)

Directed by: Steve Beck | 91 minutes | horror, thriller | Actors: F. Murray Abraham, Tony Shalhoub, Shannon Elizabeth, JR Bourne, Embeth Davidtz, Matthew Lillard, Alec Roberts, Rah Digga, Kathryn Anderson

After the revival of ‘teen horror’, American cinemas were flooded with horror films. One of these was the film ‘Thir13en Ghosts’ by director Steve Beck. Like the 1999 remake of House on Haunted Hill, Beck’s film is based on stories by author Robb White. The story is not very interesting, but for this genre that does not matter much. Horror films rely on suspense and gory, gory scenes. Acting and logic don’t play a major role, as long as the murders and filth are made inventively enough. ‘Thir13en Ghosts’ has none of these elements.

The opening of the film is quite good. The mysterious setting, a garbage dump where apparently everything is going on, drags the viewer into the story. The suggestion of a dangerous situation is created, this passage only serves to introduce the character Matthew Lillard plays.

From the moment the young actor appears, the film goes downhill. Lillard’s screaming, busy mannerisms quickly become irritating. Apparently this actor had to provide some humor in the print. But the grim playing makes it a torment to watch the movie. The rest of the cast doesn’t do much better. It is incomprehensible that actors such as F. Murray Abraham and Tony Shaloub linked their names to this production. Their talents are out of place, the meager plot, the stupid dialogues don’t do their presence any good. The young actress Shannon Elizabeth tried to come out as a stupid sex bomb with this film of her typecasting. If Elizabeth possesses acting talent, it does not appear in this print. She doesn’t have to do much more than look around anxiously and scream. The biggest difference with her previous roles is that this time she doesn’t undress. Her role is one-dimensional and her sole function is really to complement the female part of the cast. The rest of the cast mainly serves as slaughter fodder or dons the costume as one of the thirteen ghosts.

The entire film exudes the aura of a B-movie. Apparently little effort has been put into the script. With the exception of the set, the house where the story takes place. The interior, with deadly booby traps and traps, is nicely designed. Unfortunately, not much is done with this house, because the ghosts get most of the attention as a scare effect. This choice is wrong. The thirteen ghosts, the ‘bad guys’ of the print, are not convincing. Each monster has its own backstory, that’s what the film says. The viewer hardly notices this, because little attention is paid to the creeps and their history. At once the strangest creatures appear without any depth in their motivation. When a ghost shows up, the camera starts spinning like crazy. This alienating effect does not create the desired tension, but only disturbs. The so-called backgrounds of the ghosts are not used. A shame, because it would have done the monsters good. The scant finish of the creeps does not arouse fear, but rather questions about their origin.

The predictability of ‘Thir13en Ghosts’ is already well on top from the start of the print. Alec Roberts is a child, so according to unwritten Hollywood laws, he cannot be (seriously) injured, let alone be killed. The cast that stays on screen the longest survives. So the ‘bigger’ names among the B-cast. It is immediately clear who survives and who does not. ‘Thir13en Ghosts’ has become a dragon of a movie. Made purely to profit from the revival of horror movies and with no intention of making anything good out of it. The end result is a bloodless horror film, without horror.