|
Dead Uncle Cyrus (Murray Abraham) is an eccentric millionaire with diabolical leanings. Too
rich to worry about his next meal, he is obsessed with trapping spirits and bending them to foresee the future. He has 12 ghosts trapped in glass cubicles contained in a
fantabulous mansionwhich is actually a machine that moves with clockwork precision, a contraption Cyrus built following a medieval design supposedly dictated by the
devil. He leaves this house to his nephew Arthur (Tony Shalhoub) whose wife's tragic death led to the weakening and economic decline of his family.
Together with teenage daughter Kathy (Shannon Elizabeth), young son Bobby (Alec Roberts), and his nanny Maggie (Rah Digga), he moves into Cyrus' house. Wisecracking, pill-popping ghosthunter Rafkin (Matthew Lillard) and paranormal researcher Kalina (Embeth Davidtz) enter the picture and all are trapped along with the 12 ghosts in the basement. But where is the 13th ghost? That's the mystery.
Despite flaws like choppy editing, lousy acting, and a screenplay that assumes ghost stories to
be beyond reproach by a reasoning audience, 13 Ghosts deserves special mention for fabricating what probably is the most elegant horror set Hollywood has ever produced.
The spectacular haunted house is a high-tech marvel that combines medieval occult and third millennium opulence.
Not relying on the typical ghost-story props like cobwebs as curtains or skeletons springing from spooky closets, the house manages to look life-threatening in spite of the sleek glass walls and floors of frosted glass. Maybe it's due to that infernal device in the heart of the house that determines the precise moment the steel panels or the glass doors slide up and down or left and right to trap the folks inside, dead or alive . Of course, the grotesque-looking ghosts help a lot, even though they are no more scary than your guests at last year's Halloween party. What's not scary here but most irritating is the loudness of the sound effects; maybe about nine-tenths of the movie, your theater seat trembles from all that banging, crashing, screaming, rumbling, and roaring, especially when the ghosts would attack. How you wish they would attach those blasted loudspeakers instead.
The moral of the story? Rather vague, but what stands out is:
love conquers all. Pure love, that is, such as the love a parent has for his/her children. Consider this: although the machine is "designed by the devil and powered by the dead," it needs the sacrifice of love to get started. This is a very gory movie where monstrous ghosts and the paranormal take center stage. It's bound to be misunderstood by most, especially those unfamiliar with occult knowledge.
(Date reviewed: March 1, 2002)
|
