October 1st - 13 GHOSTS (1960)

The first film in my month long HORROR FILM A DAY is the William Castle film 13 Ghosts. I have seen this many years ago but remember little so it was as if I saw this for the first time. Being a fan of William Castle films such as House on Haunted Hill and Bug, I was looking forward to this little film and I am happy to say that I started out this month with a fun and yet creepy horror film.

If you have seen the atrocious remake, get it out of your head now. This is very different. Even from the bizarre and creepy opening of all the ghosts coming at you, we know we are in for a fun ride. A palentologist and his family inherit a house from an old uncle who has now passed away. The family is losing their house so of course they are happy to move in. When told that the relative practiced in witchcraft and the paranormal, the family laughs it off and almost right away the shit hits the fan.

One of my favorite moments is a scene with a Ouija board. I have always been fascinated and creeped out by Ouija boards so this scene was my favorite. The sound effects and music here also helped alot. Even though the film is 50 years old, it works in ways that most modern horror films lack...suspense.

One of William Castle's great trademarks was to create a "show" for the audience. He loved to have the moviegoer particiapte with his film and have fun with it. The movie was filmed in "Illusion-O" and a pair of special glasses where needed to see the ghosts.  The "ghost viewers" contained a red filter and a blue filter but unlike 3D viewers, both eyes would look through the same color filter. One color would cause the ghostly images to intensify while the other color caused the images to fade. A cheap effects but it got people to attend and 13 Ghosts is now considered one of Castle's more popular films.

The film is not without it's flaws as some of the acting is down right bad and the climax is lacking anything special. But the film is a lot of fun and would make for a great Halloween viewing.