Fun with Fear, by Reed Lackey

Have you ever had the privilege to sit around a crackling campfire and listen to somebody’s unshaven, twisty-haired grandpa tell you a ghost story? You know, the ones where it’s almost as silly as it is scary, but at just the right moments he’ll quiet down, almost to a whisper, right before shouting his next word with a leap and a burst and causing everyone within earshot to jump right off their seats?

Well, imagine that scraggly-faced grandpa is named William Castle and the story he’s brought to you this evening is called 13 Ghosts. That’s the kind of experience you’re in for with this little gem from 1960: silly, absurd fun with classical sensibilities and ghoulish good humor. This is not the kind of story to provoke thought or deep introspection. This is the kind of story where two dancing ghost goblins are suddenly assaulted by a headless ghost lion tamer with an axe.

William Castle understands the appeal of late-night ghost stories. He understands the perfect marriage of laughs and spooks that make fright tales so much fun, especially when told in a deep, slow drone with a flashlight pointed right under your chin. He flavors every moment with a sense of ghastly eccentricity, from a skeletal telegram deliverer to a surge of orchestration every time someone mentions the word “ghost”.

The premise is familiar: a museum curator inherits a spooky mansion from his oddball uncle and must deal with the ghosts that come with it. Donald Woods gives a delightfully earnest performance as Dr. Zorba, the inheritor who seems to be perpetually reactive, no matter how many candles or ouija board planchettes come floating at him. There’s also some potentially nefarious intentions on the part of the executor for the estate, played by Martin Milner with just the right levels of charm and secrecy. The film even features an appropriately dour performance by Margaret Hamilton, known to children everywhere as the Wicked Witch of the West, playing another “witch” of sorts to gleefully droll amusement.

But despite being told that the old house is haunted, and despite receiving a pair of special spectral glasses that show you the ghosts, and despite multiple moving objects and spooky sounds, the family still somehow presses on by staying in the house. Of course they do. The film is also bolstered somewhat by an additional, perfectly natural plot wrinkle regarding some missing money, but otherwise it is excuse after excuse for ghostly setups and ghostly payoffs.

Castle was known as a director for gimmicks to his films and this one featured special replicas of the spectral glasses the characters wear in the film. The film itself feels like one gimmick after another (just like those old campfire stories). But in a film like this, such things are to its credit, not its detriment. It is trying to be that blend of silly and scary: a joyful fright fest where the audience leaves with as many smiles as frights. In that vein, it’s remarkably successful, and for fans of 60s era fright films whose tongues are planted firmly in their cheeks, it’s a genuine delight.