‘Dr. Zorba collected ghosts from all over the world. You inherit them, too…’
I’ve covered William Castle and his gimmicks in my review of his classic ghost story, House on Haunted Hill. I concluded that that film stands alone without the gimmicks as an influential and effective slice of horror entertainment. 13 Ghosts, released a year later in 1960, also had a gimmick (3D glasses essentially but with some slight tweaks and renamed ‘Illusion-O’), but unfortunately, it has little else besides the gimmickry…
Cyrus Zorba (Donald Woods) and his wife, Hilda (Rosemary DeCamp), are delighted when Cyrus’ eccentric uncle Plato dies and leaves his estate to his nephew. Unfortunately, the house also contains 13 ghosts (and a witch).
The gimmick here is that the audience can only properly see the ghosts in full when wearing the glasses. Unfortunately, this conceit also applies to the characters (as in The Final Destination and Freddy’s Dead – two absolutely terrible horror sequels). This ensures that the more ‘frightening’ scenes have aged like fine milk. While House on Haunted Hill seemed to be crafted with care and aware of the tropes that it was adhering to, 13 Ghosts feels like a cash grab. There is little artistic merit here, and the concept, already tired even in 1960, is never properly explored anyway. The fact that noted child actor Charles Herbert, who plays the young son of Cyrus and Hilda, seems totally nonplussed by most of the ghosts, ensures that they never threaten to frighten the audience either (although the final confrontation does feature some creepy imagery).
Other than a wonderfully severe performance from Margaret Hamilton (otherwise known as the Wicked Witch of the West) as a humourless housekeeper, 13 Ghosts has nothing much to recommend it and isn’t a patch on House on Haunted Hill – even horror nerds can skip this one.
