13 Ghosts

13 Times the Thrills! 13 Times the Chills! 13 Times the Fun!

The ghosts are among us. Always. We live with them, we read stories, and we watch movies and in dedicated to them, not to mention the strange things that happen to us (what is that noise you are hearing now?).

But we are in 2014 to praise a film about ghosts, not even a new movie, but one of 1963, which for most is set in a haunted house and has as its background the usual grim mire of humans.

No, nothing new. Not even for the time. But the great William Castle manages as usual to rework old stories, modifying, and especially contaminating them with his brilliant ideas.

So "13 Ghosts", although it has a considerable drop in the middle, is a horror that fascinates and leaves the viewer glued to the screen.

Do you believe in ghosts? After this film you will believe, tells to us at the beginning William Castle who introduces the story and presents his ingenious gimmick "Illusion-O."

This time Castle offer a pair of glasses, similar to those for the 3D, but with the lenses, one red and one blue, placed vertically. When the screen shows the message to wear it the audience can see the ghosts.

Well, not all, only the brave who have to look through the red filter, while the other, the scariest; they have to look in the blue one.

In these moments the film switches from black and white to a blue and red, with ghosts (red of course) that appear fluttering in the scenes thanks to classic over-positioning of the two films.

Actually, many report that they could be seen without the glasses, but there was no problem, they were not so scary as to cause heart attacks.

The thirteen (twelve) ghosts are all show in the amazing opening credits, vaguely pop and are part of the collection of dr. Plato Zorba kept in his strange house.

The Dott.Zorba has dedicated his life to the ghosts, taking some of them in India, from ancient Rome and in the era of the events, as we see a chef who killed his family with an ax and a lion tamer that has been eaten the head (the lion for some reason it’s a ghost too).

William Castle tells a horror story with great shades of irony whose protagonists are the family of the grandson of Zorba, led by Cyrus Zorba, paleontologist with no money that lives with his wife and two children.

Plato Zorba dies. Cyrus inherits the house, the glasses to see the ghosts, the housekeeper, who seems to be a witch (we will reveal the secret at the end), and all the mysteries of the place and of course the entire collection of twelve ghosts. It’s enough the first night to scared to death the family. Medea the daughter Medea, the wife Rosemary are in a panic, while the little Arthur know as "Buck" fan of ghost stories seem to have a great time.

The natural reaction after a night like that is to go on the run, but the testament, read by the lawyer Benjamin "Ben" Rush, is clear: "once you enter you can’t leave."

The young and handsome Ben is the character that completes the main cast, a nice American guy, who takes care of Zorba. He was a friend of Plato, falls in love with Medea and became friend with "Buck".

So Zorba, Ben and the witch housekeeper struggling with ghosts, investigating in the life of Plato and also on a treasure hidden somewhere in the house. But the ghosts are twelve. One is missing.

After a roaring start, "13 Ghosts" suffers a significant slowdown, which coincides with the action in the haunted house. With the inclusion of the treasure hunt and the various mysteries the story takes verve and skill of Castle, raises the level of the film, making it a great horror/thriller chapter.

In addition, the great William, having fun, as in almost all of his stories, to subvert the order of "good and bad", because here the villain is not who you'd expect, while the witch housekeeper, is a character strange but good.

A chic horror movie in which Martin Milner (Ben Rush), an actor famous for the TV series "Route 66" and "Adam-12" is the biggest name.

The rest of the cast is made up of well-known actors at the time, as Charles Herbert (the young "Buck"), which in those years was the classic enfant prodige.

He works in many major films (like "The View from Pompey's Head" and "Houseboat"), working with actors like Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, David Niven, Vincent Price and Johnny Carson and becoming one of the children more paid of the period.

His career, however, began to fade in the sixties, Herbert works in some TV series and slowly disappears. So far nothing strange has happened to many, but unfortunately, his life fades too until he became drug addicted. He re-emerges only to the age of forty, and thanks to the DVD and the Internet he gains a new notoriety.

The mystery of the housekeeper/witch is revealed only with the name of the actress who plays her: Margaret Hamilton. She was a world famous witch... in the movie "The Wizard Of OZ" of 1939, in addition to having worked with Buster Keaton and has become one of the most famous evil characters of US cinema. Rosemary DeCamp (Hilda Zorba) famous radio actress, Donald Wood (Cyrus), Jo Morrow (Medea), future wife of Jimmy Durante, are the interpreters who complete the main roles in this film.

So we are dealing with a f ... excuse a moment ... we have to close the window and the strange thing is that no one has ever opened it. That is, don’t make jokes. Who was? Or what opened it?