History Main / ThirteenGhosts

Thirteen Ghosts may refer to:

* ''WesternAnimation/The13GhostsOfScoobyDoo'', one of the many iterations of the ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' franchise.

[[redirect:Film/ThirteenGhosts]]

[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/13-ghosts_8749.jpg]]

''ThirteenGhosts'' (1960) is a horror movie directed by William Castle and written by Rob White. It was filmed in "Illusion-O", allowing viewers to see the ghosts using special glasses made of red and blue cellophane; viewing them through the red filter made them visible, while watching through the blue filter made them vanish. (It is worth noting, though, that the ghosts were quite visible without using the red filter.)

The film concerns Cyrus Zorba, whose occultist uncle Dr. Plato Zorba has willed a huge, ramshackle house to Cyrus and his impoverished family, fully furnished and outfitted with a housekeeper, plus a fortune in treasure. Now for the bad news: This house is haunted by twelve ghosts, who are imprisoned there, waiting for an unlucky thirteenth ghost to free them. The only way to see the ghosts is with special goggles left behind by Dr. Zorba In addition, there is a more mortal peril in the house with them, in the form of someone who wants to claim Zorba's money for himself, and is willing to kill its rightful heirs to steal it.

The movie was remade as ''{{Thir13en Ghosts}}'' in 2001, Starring TonyShalhoub as the unwitting heir to a glass house inhabited by the titular ghosts, held in check by Latin phrases etched in the glass panels.
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!!1960 original has:

* AbsentMindedProfessor: Cyrus.
* ActorAllusion: Elaine is referred to as a witch multiple times, referencing the most famous role of her actor Margaret Hamilton: [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Wicked Witch of the West]]. [[spoiler:This time, though, she's a Good Witch.]]
* AmoralAttorney
* AnAxeToGrind: One of the ghosts is a pair of hands carrying an axe.
* BanisterSlide
* CollectorOfTheStrange
* CreepyHousekeeper: Elaine.
* DeathTrap
* DemBones: One ghosts is a skeleton on fire.
* DramaticWind: Presence of ghosts and other otherworldly things are punctuated by sudden gusts of wind.
* EvilChef: Emilio who murdered his family before death.
* EvilLaugh
* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual
* HauntedHouse
* HighClassGlass: Plato Zorba used to wear one.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard
* JacobMarleyApparel
* LikeFatherLikeSon: Hilda notes that Buck is sometimes just as absent-minded as his father.
* LosAngeles
* LosingYourHead: Shadrack the Great, who lost his head when he put it into mouth of the lion...and it bit him. The ghost of the lion also dwells in the house.
* NeverRecycleABuilding
* NuclearFamily
* OurGhostsAreDifferent: They can, and will given half the chance, kill humans. [[spoiler: Although it turns out to mostly be just an act -- the ghosts are really more harmless eccentrics who like scaring people. The only person they actually kill is the crooked lawyer when he finally turns on the family.]]
* ScreamingWoman
* SplitScreen: Used early in the film when Hilda calls Cyrus about the mortgage.
* SpookySeance
* ThirteenIsUnlucky
* UnfinishedBusiness
* TheUnintelligible: The arguing ghost couple.
* WhipItGood: Ghost of Shadrack still carries the whip from his lion tamer days.
* {{Will}}

!! 2001 remake of ''ThirteenGhosts'' contains examples of:
* AllThereInTheManual: The DVD extras for the remake gives the background of each of the ghosts and how they fit into the Black Zodiac.
* AndIMustScream: Ghost #2, the Torso, who is a naked man chopped into three pieces (torso, head, and legs) and wrapped in plastic. Extra information shows this is how he died.
* AxCrazy: The Jackal.
* AnAxeToGrind: The Great Child carries an axe.
* BaldOfEvil: The Hammer and the Great Child.
* BatterUp: The Torn Prince carries a baseball bat.
* BeardOfEvil: [[spoiler: Cyrus]].
* BigDamnHeroes: When The Jackal is attacking Kathy, [[spoiler: Kalina]] arrives to help.
* BigFancyHouse
* BlackEyesOfEvil: The Angry Princess' eyes.
* BlessedWithSuck: Dennis Rafkin is a medium with the ability to detect ghosts and and instantly read minds through physical contact. He also has no control whatsoever over his powers and they tend to give him seizures.
* BloodFromTheMouth
* BrattyHalfPint: Bobby.
* BulletTime: Brief slow motion effects are shown randomly in the early parts of the movie.
* CassandraTruth: Arthur has hard time believing Dennis' warnings about the ghosts at first.
* ChainedByFashion: The Hammer.
* ChairmanOfTheBrawl: Arthur attempts to break the glass surrounding the house with a chair.
* ChildByRape: How The Dire Mother got her child.
* ClosedCircle
* CouldntFindAPen: The Angry Princess' suicide note.
* CreepyBasement: It's literally filled with ghosts!
* CreepyChild: Ghost #1, the First-born Son, who is dressed as a cowboy with an arrow through his head and carries a tomahawk around. Played oddly with the Great Child, who isn't an actual child, but is a huge, 40-year-old man in a diaper holding an ax.
* DrivenToSuicide: How The Angry Princess died.
* DropTheHammer: Guess.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: The 2001 remake ends with [[spoiler: The bad guy (Cyrus)being violently punished, the ghosts being released, and with all the members of the Kriticos family (Including the nanny) alive, and even the ghost of the dead mother seems to have found peace at the end.]]
** Likewise, Dennis [[spoiler: finally found peace after his HeroicSacrifice against The Hammer.]]
* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning
* EvilLaugh / LaughingMad: The Jackal
** The Bound Woman as well, though she doesn't appear as often as The Jackal does. [[spoiler: This is particularly evident after the ghosts kill Cyrus.]]
* FaintingSeer: Dennis Rafkin's visions are in [[ScreamerTrailer Screamer]] form, so it's no wonder even the mildest of them leave him grabbing his head in pain.
* [[spoiler:FakingTheDead: Cyrus Kriticos.]]
* {{Fanservice}}: The Angry Princess is totally naked, though [[FanDisservice covered in deep, self-inflicted slashes]]. [[BreastAttack Including one right through her nipple]].
* FemmeFatalons: The Jackal prefers to use his fingernails when he's attacking.
* FlippingTheBird
* FridgeHorror: The actions of the ending [[spoiler: free all of the trapped spirits, including [[CompleteMonster the Hammer, the Jackal and the Juggernaut.]]]]
* GhostlyGoals: Largely Type 2, but many of them are in the house specifically because they are trapped there.
* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: The main characters wear special glasses to see the ghosts, in a ShoutOut to the Illusion-O gimmick of the original.
* GottaCatchEmAll: In the remake, Cyrus Kriticos must find thirteen specifically-themed spirits to [[spoiler:power his infernal machine. His nephew Arthur would have been the thirteenth ghost, if he'd killed himself as Cyrus planned]].
* TheGrotesque: The Great Child and The Dire Mother.
* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: [[spoiler:Ben Moss]] finds himself backing away from the Angry Princess until - CHOMP - he gets vertically bisected by a glass door slamming shut. We get a nice shot of his cross-section when one half falls away.
** Leading to an awesomely funny line: "Did [[spoiler:the lawyer]] split?"
* HatesBeingTouched: Dennis, and [[PsychicPowers for a good reason]]. And according to the ghost backstories, The Jackal hates it as well [[spoiler:after his stay in a mental hospital and might be the reason he died when the place went up in flames.]]
* HauntedHeadquarters: Inverted.
* HauntedHouse: Inverted in the remake: [[spoiler:Cyrus Kriticos builds the glass house as an infernal engine, and then deliberately moves specific ghosts into it as a power source.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Dennis fights the Hammer and the Juggernaut alone because there's only enough room in the corner behind the shield for one, so he throws Arthur behind it because he has a family to rescue.]]
** Subverted with [[spoiler:Arthur, who's led to believe that he has to perform one to save his family. At the last moment, he realizes it's a BatmanGambit by Cyrus and his death would actually fulfill his uncle's plans]].
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: Cyrus is thrown into the spinning rings and chopped to pieces by most of the ghosts.]]
* HollywoodHypeMachine: Shannon Elizabeth's appearance here owed much to the fame she earned by being in ''AmericanPie''.
* HumanSacrifice: [[spoiler:The last ghost will manifest itself this way]].
* IShallTauntYou
* ImpendingDoomPOV
* JumpScare: Lampshaded.
--> '''Dennis''': Oh, God! I hate it when they do that!
--> '''Maggie''': Do what?
--> '''Dennis''': They wait for your to stick your FACE right up against the glass! And then give you a big, fat "boo"!
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Cyrus Kriticos, who gets killed by the ghosts he captured and tried to exploit, and Kalina, who taunted Dennis for not realizing he was being used by Cyrus - except she was being used by him too. Ben Moss also counts - he is in on the whole thing and taunts the Angry Princess when he sees her inside her containment cube, and is later killed when he is bisected by glass doors while backing away from said ghost.]]
* KnifeNut: The Angry Princess.
* LetsSplitUpGang
* {{Letters 2 Numbers}}
* LockDown
* LosingYourHead: The Torso's head.
* MadBomber: Kalina.
--> "Well, the other option is I have enough explosives to blow us back to the middle ages, of course none of us would be around to brag about it afterward."
* {{Malaproper}}: Bobby makes a few of those.
* MrExposition: While taking shelter in Cyrus' office, Kalina explains the purpose of the house and the Black Zodiac.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: All of the ghosts' titles.
* NamesTheSame: The Torn Prince's name is Royce Clayton and he was a baseball player. There was actually a major league baseball player named Royce Clayton.
* OhCrap: Dennis' reaction when he learns that the Jackal is loose.
* PowerOfLove: [[spoiler:The thirteenth ghost's specialty]].
* PsychicPowers
* PsychopathicManchild: The Great Child.
* PyrrhicVictory: [[spoiler:When the house is destroyed, all the ghosts are free again... especially the most dangerous ones]].
* SassyBlackWoman: Maggie.
* ScaryBlackMan: The Hammer.
* ScreamerTrailer: Used in-universe as new ghosts are revealed or about to get up to their usual shenanigans.
* SeeThruSpecs: Both movies used special glasses to see the ghosts, but in the original the ''audience'' got them, while in the remake the ''characters'' got them.
* SlashedThroat
* SmugSnake: Ben Moss.
* SpannerInTheWorks [[spoiler:Cyrus is beaten in the end when Maggie (who has just woken up from being knocked out by Kalina) happens upon the records playing the chants that are controlling the ghosts and messes with them. This causes the ghosts to break free and turn on Cyrus.]]
* SpiritAdvisor: [[spoiler:Ghost Dennis, who seems much more at peace with things than he was when he was alive, briefly acts as one for Arthur, complete with a YouWillKnowWhatToDo message.]]
* StopHelpingMe: When Dennis goes into spasms, Arthur grabs him in an attempt to help him and unknowingly makes his condition worse.
* SwordCane: Cyrus has one.
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Kalina.]]
* ThirteenIsUnlucky
* TitleByNumber
* TitleDrop
* TwoFaced: The Withered Lover and The Torn Prince.
* UnexpectedInheritance
* UnhappyMedium: Dennis Rafkin.
-->"If you haven't noticed, '''I'm a little bit of a freak!''' I come within ten feet of anything dead, I go into seizures. I touch somebody, and a whole life full of shit just flashes in front of my eyes!"
* VideoWills
* WindowPain
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Cyrus does this to Kalina]].

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http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/13-ghosts_8749.jpg

* OrIsIt

* DramaticWind: Presence of ghosts and other otherworldly things are punctuated by a sudden gusts of wind.

* HatesBeingTouched: Dennis, and [[PsychicPowers for a good reason]]. And according to the ghost backstories, Jackal as well.

* HatesBeingTouched: Dennis, and [[PsychicPowers for a good reason]].

* ActorAllusion: Elaine is referred to as a witch multiple times, referencing the most famous role of her actor Margaret Hamilton: [[TheWizardOfOz Wicked Witch of the West]]. [[spoiler:This time, though, she's a Good Witch.]]

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: They can, and will given half the chance, kill humans. [[spoiler: Although it turns out to mostly be just an act -- the ghosts are really more harmless eccentrics who like scaring people. The only person they actually kill is the crooked lawyer when he turns on the family.]]

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: They can, and will given half the chance, kill humans.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: The 2001 remake ends with [[spoiler: The bad guy (Cyrus)being violently punished, the ghosts being released, and with all the members of the members of the Kriticos family (Including the nanny) alive, and even the ghost of the dead mother seems to have found peace at the end.]]

* CreepySexy: The Angry Princess.

* SpannerInTheWorks [[spoiler:Cyrus is beaten in the end when the comedy relief babysitter happens upon the records playing the chants which are controlling the ghosts and messes with them. Causing the Ghosts to break free and turn on him.]]

* {{Fanservice}}: The Angry Princess is totally naked, though [[FanDisservice covered in deep, self-inflicted slashes]].

* OurGhostsAreDifferent

* AnAxeToGrind: Great Child carries an axe.
* BaldOfEvil: The Hammer.
** Also The Great Child.

* BigDamnHeroes: When The Jackal is attacking Kathy, Kalina arrives to help.

* {{Fanservice}}: The Angry Princess is totally naked, though [[FanDisservice covered in self-inflicted scars]].

* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: In the remake, the heroes wear special glasses to see the ghosts, in a ShoutOut to the Illusion-O gimmick of the original.

* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: A sleazy lawyer finds himself backing away from the Angry Princess until - CHOMP - he gets vertically bisected by a glass door slamming shut. We get a nice shot of his cross-section when one half falls away.

* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Cyrus Kriticos, who gets killed by the ghosts he captured and tried to exploit, and Kalina, who taunted Dennis for not realizing he was being used by Cyrus - except she was being used by him too]].

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast

* PyrrhicVictory: [[spoiler:When the house is destroyed, all the ghosts are free again, especially the most dangerous ones]].

* SwordCane
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Kalina]]

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Kalina]].

* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Cyrus Kriticos, who gets killed by the very ghosts he captured and tried to exploit, Kalina, who taunted Dennis for not realizing he was being used by Cyrus - except she was being used by him too]].

* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Cyrus Kriticos, who gets killed by the very ghosts he captured and tried to exploit]], and [[spoiler:Kalina, who taunted Dennis for not realizing he was being used by Cyrus, - except she was being used by him too, and died as a result]].

* CuteMonsterGirl: Tha Angry Princess. Come on, althought all those scars you must admit she's pretty hot.

* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler: Kalina]]

* {{Fanservice}}: Unless you're telling me the plot ''required'' the Angry Princess to be naked...
** [[AllThereInTheManual She died in a bathtub slicing herself to ribbons because she didn't feel she was pretty enough.]] So, yes, gratuitous boobs, with [[FanDisservice a side order of self-mutilation]].

* GottaCatchEmAll: In the remake, [[spoiler:Cyrus Kriticos must find thirteen specifically-themed spirits to power his infernal machine.]]
** A correction is that he doesn't need 13, he needs 12. [[spoiler:The 13th is a method of stopping the machine powered by the other 12.]]
*** Um, no, watch the movie more closely, [[spoiler: that was just a trick he was using to try and get Arthur to become the 13th Ghost that was needed to power the machine]].

* HauntedHouse: Inverted in the remake: [[spoiler: Cyrus Kriticos builds the glass house as an infernal engine, and then deliberately moves specific ghosts into it as a power source.]]

* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: Cyrus Kriticos]].

* PowerOfLove: [[spoiler:Thirteenth ghost's specialty]].

* CompleteMonster: The Juggernaut - according to his backstory he was a serial killer who would pick up female hitchhikers on the road and drive them back to his junkyard, then tear them apart with his bare hands and feed them to his dogs.
** The Jackal - when he was alive he had an insatiable lust for women, rape, and murdering prostitutes.
** [[spoiler: Cyrus Kritikos who has orchestrated the abduction of Kathy and Bobby so that Arthur will become the 13th ghost to trigger The Machine's activation. He also has no esitation to put the children in danger knowing it's the only reason why Arthur will sacrifice himself.]]

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: This little nugget:
--> '''Dennis:''' Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! Where are you going!?
--> '''Arthur:''' We're going downstairs to get Bobby so we can get out of here.
--> '''Dennis:''' Did I say there was a ''petting zoo'' downstairs!? NO! There are ''ghosts'' downstairs!
--> '''Maggie:''' This basement?
--> '''Dennis:''' ''YES'' this basement! If it was the basement next door I wouldn't give a shit!

* RetroactiveRecognition: Mr. Monk Inherits a Haunted House...

* TheWoobie: Arthur and his family[[spoiler:, especially his poor wife, the Withered Lover.]] Also, the Dire Mother.
** Also Dennis, his powers make his life a living hell
** JerkassWoobie: The Torn Prince and the Pilgrimess, who became jerks after death for obvious reasons and the Angry Princess and the Bound Woman, who were tragic and bitchy victims.
** WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: The Great Child and the Hammer.