Executive producers Robert Zemeckis and Joel Silver were fans of William Castle films from the 50s and 60s and they set about creating remakes of some of the cult classic films he, which all featured some kind of tweak to get audiences in seats. Under the name Dark Castle Entertainment, the first remake was The House on Haunted Hill, iffy at best, and then the second was Thirteen Ghosts, or as it’s known now, Thir13en Ghosts.

In the case of Thir13en Ghosts, the original had viewers wear glasses to see the ghosts in the film, in this version, the characters are the ones who need to wear the glasses.

Cyrus (F. Murray Abraham) is a powerful and driven man, obsessed with the occult, and using psychic, Dennis Rafkin (Matthew Lillard), has captured twelve ghosts and contained them in a specially constructed glass structure, masquerading as a house.

Cyrus then leaves the building to his nephew, the recently widowed Arthur (Tony Shalhoub), his kids, Kathy (Shannon Elizabeth), and Bobby (Alec Roberts) and despite money constraints, the family nanny, Maggie (Rah Digga).

Arthur and family are guided to the site by the familiar face of JR Bourne, and Dennis is already there trying to figure out what Cyrus was up to. Throw in a wildcard with occult researcher Kalina (Embeth Davidtz), things are about to get wild, as the building seals them in, and one ghost after another is released inside this massive machine which was created for a nefarious purpose.

The story is flimsy at best, and while some of the effects are fantastic, thank you Greg Nicotero, the film feels haphazard and predictable at best. There are some cool ideas, but the film just isn’t done as well as it could have been and you have to wonder if the cast were attracted by the names of Zemeckis and Silver as opposed to the script and its execution.

There’s no time given to explore the world the characters find themselves in, opportunities for quick laughs are missed, the story seems to rely too much on the idea of jump scares to convey the horror of the situation.

Despite its cast, this one doesn’t work, and despite the updating of the story and special effects, you may be better off watching the William Castle version and embracing all its gimmickiness.

I do like the idea of remaking William Castle films and bringing their unique still and quirks to a new audience, but that doesn’t mean you should sacrifice story to the nefarious cinema gods. Update them, given them a solid tale and cast, and these films would have been something.