Review of 13 Ghosts (1960) by Emilee B — 19 Oct 2007

It was the summer of 1960 and our gang of five boys (9-11 years old) walked one evening to the Independence, MO. Granada Theater to watch 13 Ghosts. The Granada was torn down many years ago and turned into a taxi cab service. At the time though, it was "the" theater in town, complete with a lovers make out balcony -- even though kids like us were chased off if we ventured into uncharted territory; our area was anything on the main level.

After purchasing our tickets we went next door to the restaurant to purchase drinks and candy -- the theater at that time had no concessions, can you believe that?

Getting our special glasses as we entered the theater -- blue if you did not want to see the ghosts and red if you wanted to get the crap scared out of you. Little did we realize until the movie started, you could see the ghosts just fine without the red glasses, only the blue ones did anything by hiding the blue tinted ghosts.

Most of the movie gave me a fright at the age of 9, in particular, the chef with the meat cleaver always bothered me for years, the lion in the basement scared me too, and I would never ever sleep in a bed with a canopy for the rest of my life.

After the movie, we all decided we would walk the three miles back to our homes by traversing down every back street and alley we could find. "Walking" was not what we did however, as soon as we were a few steps into a dark alley, someone would yell "13 ghosts!" and we would break into a sprint until we reached the end of the alley. What a great time and memory of friends long gone that I still remember to this day and it brings a warm smile to my face.

I viewed this movie many years later and made me sad that I now realized how lame it really was. But for a 9 year old and William Castle's amazing publicity stunts (glasses, electric wired seats, haunted castle contests, etc.) it was a young persons dream come true.

I'm reviewing this not as the old coot I am now, but as the young and frightened child I was that one summer evening. I could not ask for better times and we talked about that evening for many years and how much fun it was to run as fast as our feet would carry us while our imaginations feed our fears of the unknown.

I hope everyone has a summer of 60 in their lives too.