I have watched this silly movie so many times. It's spooky but light, and William Castle gets to plainly address the fact that audiences ENJOY being spookified. And it manages to be cute and funny and weird. The family's calm reaction to the ghostly events is also pretty odd. This is an enjoyable nonsense movie!
shareAgree. Much fun!
shareA teriffic product of its time......
When I first saw the original 13 GHOSTS as a child it spooked the hell out of me. Sure, now it's just silly fun, like a small Halloween party where not all the pranks come off, yet you're glad you went anyway.
But it's the atmosphere. It has to do with the era.
Many people consider the 1960s to be the best period for movie horror, the early-'60s specifically. The Bomb was new, it was the closest we ever came to nuclear obliteration, and everything reflected that sense of dread, deliberately or not.
Even Opie losing his baseball in the haunted murder mansion on the edge of Mayberry is eerie as hell, even though it's comedic.
It's the PSYCHO/TwilightZone/JFK era... nothing's "purer" in its innocent creepiness, even though the violence and gore are at a minimum. It's the poignance of post-WW2 optimism mixed with utter doom.
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Non-sequiturs are delicious.
I thought William Castle was known as a schmuck during this time. He would make bad movies with cheap gimmicks. I'm not sure this was known as a classic when it came out.
shareI thought William Castle was known as a schmuck during this time. He would make bad movies with cheap gimmicks. I'm not sure this was known as a classic when it came out.
I'm so glad there are still people out there that enjoy this old film. It's a classic in my book. I saw this the first time when I was a child. It was probably the spooky afternoon movie that my mom and I watched while the other kids were still in school.
It saddens me that so many people today have no appreciation for the old black and whites and the special effects that were used. To me it requires much more active involvement from the audience to enjoy films like this.
I also think you really can't get much out of the remake without having watched this one first. The remake is flashy and gory, but for my money, this one tells more about Zorba than the new version does. Besides I liked the old humorous supernatural films of yore. All of them. They are getting harder and harder to find on DVD these days.
Anyway, just a fan here of this genre of film.
This movie is so much fun. I always have a good time every time I watch it. While it is creepy and has lots of scary moments, it also has a nice, family atmosphere about it. I actually didn't realize it was Friday the 13th until after I decided to watch the movie so that was a cool coincidence that made this viewing all the more enjoyable.
Death lives in the Vault of Horror!
I just watched it for the first time, and I LOVED it!!
shareThe sound effects are great (never heard wind quite like that in any other movie) and Von Dexter's atmospheric music really intensifies the eerier scenes like the seance and the bed sequence.
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