everyday is halloween

13 ghosts [2001]

after a long weekend of physical labor to get our garden in shape my tired bones sat down & watched this remake of the william castle classic.  does it hold up to the original?  are you fucking kidding me!  even with the talents of f. murray abraham, tony shaloub, matthew lillard & embeth davidtz can't rise up to meet the challenges of this fucked up flick.  what's it about?  abraham is a powerful man who wants to become the world's most powerful man by getting 13 ghosts in his mirror funhouse abode to do something that was prescribed by a 15th century mystic.  do this, whatever this is, & you rule everything.  shaloub is abraham's nephew fallen on hard times after the loss of his house from a fire & the death of his wife.  he's necessary to complete abraham's mechaninzations.  & it almost works.  rather, this movie is interesting in its use of lighting, fast cut editing, & spook house ambience.  the late 1990s & early 2000s was the moment for hyper-kinetic filmmaking.  each time a ghost enters the frame the edit goes to a power of sparks flying from that ghost's weapon of choice as it tries to hit our luckless family trapped in abraham's house of mirrors kind of home.  & the ghosts all look like they stepped out of a commercial haunted attraction.  spooky?  kinda.  goofy, for sure.  nevertheless, i stuck to the end of this movie out of a kind of perverse dedication.  i remember watching this movie upon its first release.  i remember it freakier than it is.  oh well.  my problem.  but i bet william castle was laughing in his grave.  

boo!