ince the death of his wife in a fire, Arthur Kriticos (Shalhoub) has tried to make the best of hard times for the sake of his children, Kathy (Elizabeth) and Bobby (Alec Roberts). Their situation seems to be growing more dire every day, until the family gets a visit from a lawyer bearing unexpected news. It seems Arthur's recently deceased uncle Cyrus (F. Murray Abraham) has named him his sole beneficiary in his will. Arthur and his family learn that they are now the owners of an amazing house built by Cyrus himself—an architectural wonder constructed of glass and steel.
The excited family travels along with their nanny, Maggie (Rah Digga), to view their new property. Little do they know that the act of inserting the key into the front door initiates a sequence of events that causes the walls to shift and change, ultimately trapping them inside the bizarre, high-tech structure.
Trapped along with them is Dennis Rafkin (Lillard), a psychic and former associate of Cyrus, who arrives at the house to collect his unpaid earnings. Rafkin tells the family that he helped Cyrus capture 12 spirits, all of which are contained in glass cells underneath the house. That is, until
the cell walls begin opening at selected intervals, releasing the malevolent ghosts one by one upon the unsuspecting inhabitants.
Rafkin and the family soon find themselves running for their lives in a maze of glass as the ghosts take out their angry retribution on the living world. Only with the help of specially designed glasses are they able to see the spirits after them. Their survival comes down to a race against the clock as Arthur must find both his children and a way out before the house's deadly countdown reaches its final culmination.
A plot as transparent as the walls
With this remake of the classic William Castle feature from 1960, producer Joel Silver and director Steve Beck attempt to reinvent the haunted house movie by giving it a stylish new look. Not surprisingly, the star of this version is the house itself—a technological marvel, made up of pristine lines and sleek surfaces. It's an intriguing departure from the creaky, gothic mansions of old. The only problem is that the filmmakers neglected to furnish their new-age house with anything of substance.
It's hard to have any stake in the fate of the characters when the audience is given only a cursory introduction before they are thrown into chaos. Much of the dialogue is stilted and relies too heavily on exposition in revealing the complex history of the house and its purpose. Not nearly enough time is spent on the most interesting characters in the film—the ghosts themselves. Each bears an enigmatic designation such as "The Torn Prince," "The Jackal" and "The Withered Lover" and each has its own distinctive look, which provides a clue as to the grizzly way it perished.
Admittedly, there are some deliciously gruesome moments in the film, a few genuine laughs and a healthy amount of action. The actors all perform respectably with the material they are given. On the surface, Thirteen Ghosts is a nice-looking but shallow thrill ride, and not without a certain entertainment value on Halloween weekend. The work and thought that were put into the production design are plainly evident. It's just too bad the same thought wasn't put into the script.
