Thir13en Ghosts

This is a film I had been wanting to see as a teenager, having been quite fond of the Wiliam Castle film form the 60's.

It starts off with a ghost hunter, Cyrus (F. Murray Abraham) and his reluctant assistant, Dennis, played by Matthew Lillard (who, when touching people, can also view their past, while simultaneously going into seizure mode) who are trying to catch a 12th ghost called Juggernaught at a junk site.

When the ghost hunter dies, he offers his incredible house to his recently widowed, estranged nephew, Arthur (Tony Shalhoub) and his family, in what seems to be a too-good-to-be-true offer.

Once shown the incredible, elaborate house by the uncle's lawyer, they meet the aforementioned crazy, ghost hunting assistant, who is disguised as an electrician. After having a bit of fun exploring the vast, maze-like mansion, Dennis tries to warn Arthur about the hauntings going on in the house, against the lawyer's wishes. Then shit gets real!!!

First: The negatives.
The story of this film is both simple and complicated. It's straightforward, yet leaves giant gaps in the backstories of characters. It builds up a lot of stories, yet becomes really vague.

Now for the film's biggest flaw... The editing. The cutting is done so quickly and with so many strobe lighting effects, I strongly recommend anyone with epilepsy or any condition that is sensitive to frequent flashing, not to view this film. The insane speed of the editing almost made me nauseous.

They also start off by giving some backstory to the 12 ghosts but is left pretty vague.

Now on to the Positives... and it's a big one!

Matthew Lillard! He steals this film. He is so insane and theatrically chews up the scenery in every second of the film he appears. He is by far the best part of this film and the main reason I can see myself watching this film many more times in the future.

The production values are great. Both the look and feel of the house are incredible. The look of the 12 ghosts are also really good, unfortunately, the crappy editing doesn't give us much of a chance to see any of them.

Overall, it's not the best directed film, it's horrifically edited, but Lillard turns a 5/10 film into a 6.5/10.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaqAL00D_1Y

An enjoyable terminator style rip off, a cyborg made in the image and having the memory of her creator malfunctions and goes on a killing spree, a marine (Gregory Hines ) teams up with its creator too hunt it down, things get worse when we find the creator is a repressed sex maniac and a bit of a man hater and these desires are awakened in the cyborg,then things go even worse when we find out it's a walking nuclear bomb and it's been armed. Enjoyable and the morale here is bitches be crazy. 7/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6kv3TDc0-s

A very dull and uninspiring hammer, a poor cast and pretty boring story make up for a very mediocre movie. One i don't think I will revisit. 5/10

Monstrosity (1987, Andy Milligan)

To simply recount the plot would be a disservice to this unique entry into the Frankenstein subgenre :nod:. AM strikes again with the chat. But there are ..... actual FX. No fainting at the back there now then now then ... :laugh:. Wigs are worn. So be warned :pound:. Ahem.

:lol:. This and the House On Haunted Hill that they did ... both are excreta imho :lol:. Not quite as runny as that there '99 Haunting mind ... but that goes without saying :lol: ... too soon? ;)

If you went on scream factory's facebook and read some of the comments you'd be fooled into thinking they were neglected masterpieces. I felt massively old when I realised for some people these were films they saw as kids. :lol:

Lawdy. Headache inducing mainstream placebos both.

Stuck (2007, Stuart Gordon)

Stephen Rea is having a bad day. Things only worsen when he literally collides with a drunken care home worker. A different sort of survival horror film imo.

I haven't seen that since I reviewed the US Blu-ray release about 10 years ago! I've just had a look on my computer for the review and it seems I really liked both the film and the Blu-ray package.

I saw them both at the cinema and enjoyed them. At that time there wasn't much horror about in cinemas aside from big budgeted studio things like Bram Stoker's Dracula and Wolf. So to be able to watch some gory schlock on the big screen was pretty cool. This may have rose tinted my view i don't know.

The House on Haunted Hill is a lot better than 13 Ghosts though. I even enjoyed Return to House on Haunted Hill.

Blu-ray and dvd spoil us nowadays as we can watch pretty much any horror film we want in the comfort of our own home on huge screens (If we have them - many seem to do). Back in the 90's this wasn't the case so those two films seemed like something of a rare treat along with the likes of Demon Knight and Halloween H2O.

That's nice to know. I didn't get the chance to see them either as the selection up here has always been very vanilla. Though there were exceptions. Lost Highway for one .... ;) easily the scariest thing I saw at the cinema in the 90s ...