13 Ghosts

This was one of those movies that stirred my imagination as a child from 1960. I agree time has changed everything, but the memory of being with my father & younger brother ( God rest their souls) at the premiere at The Huntridge Theatre in Las Vegas, is still a monumental time of my life with family. My father hardly ever took us to the movies. My kid brother was scared shirtless. This is definitely a sign of the times in the 60's when production like this was a thriller of those times. The bigger flick of those days was Night Of The Living Dead. That one still holds up today. I miss those schoolboy chills. My dad, my mom, and brother. I don't recall anything scarier then those overacted horror movies we all enjoyed as kids.

This was a little like Father Knows Best visits Hell House. It has the silly sixties "Gee Whiz" feel to it with its bland characters and subdued idiocy. It's still decent fun and has a plot that seems to work fairly well. The ghosts are hokey and the people are naive. The whole business with the hidden money draws everything to a standstill. Marty's after that money and engages the little boy in his secret plot to get it. The way it all wraps up is so uninteresting and so pat, it simply presents no message. This is really an extension of the television of the time with the nuclear family, the Ozzie and Harriet types and their squeaky clean kids who really know so much more than they do. Try it. It's not a total waste of time.

13 Ghosts is a classic! The whole movie is just great! Good music,acting and everything! Its excellent and it feels good to watch it too! There is just something about this film that makes it so good! Its really a good film to watch around Halloween!

William Castle directed this amusing comedy/thriller about the Zorba family, who have just inherited a house from Cyrus's(played by Donald Woods) uncle, a reclusive inventor who created a set of special goggles that enable the viewer to see the 12 ghosts said to haunt the home. So wife Hilda(played by Rosemary De Camp) daughter Madea(played by Jo Morrow) and son Buck(played by Charles Herbert) move in, to discover that the ghosts are real, and that there is a hidden treasure in the house, and that someone will kill to find it, thus creating the 13th ghost... Fun film used the "Illusion-O" gimmick of giving film goers tinted glasses so that they can also see the ghosts with the characters. Margaret Hamilton and Martin Milner costar in effective roles.

Thirteen Ghosts is one of those great 'classic' horror films,that relied more on atmosphere and acting, then on 'gory' special f/x. I saw the re-make' and did not enjoy it at all; being a classic horror film fan, I was very disappointed. This movie features some pretty good actings; Donald Woods, Rosemary DeCamp, and Martin Milner of the classic "Route 66" TV show, Donald Woods as know to classic horror fans, appeared in the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and John VanDreelan in "The Leech Woman" so it was goods for us old 'classiclovers' to see them, and lets not forget Miss Margaret Hamilton, the 'Wicked "Witch of the West" from the great "Wizard of 0z' all in all an entertaining, fun family film It has its scary moments, but none of the 'gore' so prevalent in today's films.

I was 8 years old when this movie came out. We saw it as a family at the Baseline Drive-in. At the time it really scared me and my siblings. I just saw it recently on video and my impressions now are of course different. What I remember were the special glasses that you had to use to see or not to see the ghosts. William Castle at the time was the PT Barnum of horror movies and this was one of his latest gimmicks. Probably what I remember the most was finding for weeks afterward the discarded special glasses in our families orange grove since we lived about 1 mile from the drive-in and our road was on the way home for many people. My dad couldn't stand trash on our property and would pay each of us 5 cents for each one we brought to him.