HorrorGhouls – Horror Ghouls

The Seventh Curse (1986)

Posted on October 21, 2026October 21, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

A girl named Bachu is a member of the bloodthirsty “Worm Tribe“ in Thailand. She is about to be sacrificed to the demonic Old Ancestor, but is saved by Dr. Yuen. The evil sorcerer of the tribe gets really pissed off by this, and Yuen is given seven “Blood Curses“, which each burst through his leg periodically. When the seventh one bursts…well, then it’s game over for Yuen, no continue. Bachu manages to make an antidote for him, served from her own tit…but unfortunately this antidote will only last for a year. Yuen gets in contact with Wiseley, whose advice is to travel back to Thailand to find a cure that will rid him of all the curses. This won’t be easy, as the evil sorcerer of the Worm Tribe will do anything to stop him, with the help of strange creatures and ghoulies that you’ll only find in a wacky film like this.

The Seventh Curse is a Hong Kong action horror film from 1986, directed by Ngai Choi Lam. Yes, that guy, who later gave us more Hong Kong horror wackiness like Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991) and The Cat (1991). That these two films became his last is such a shame. He just quietly retired from the film industry without giving any explanation, so who knows what the hell happened. There could have been so much more pure comedy horror gold from this guy, but alas. Let’s just appreciate what we got, and how it’s been made more available for us western audiences during the recent years.

The Cat, which we reviewed earlier here on Horror Ghouls, was based on Ni Kuang’s Wiseley novel series. The Seventh Curse is also based on another of Ni’s series: the Dr. Yuen Series. Wiseley actually appears as a supporting character in this film, just to tie the universes together. Ni even has a brief appearance in the movie, and also serves as the film’s narrator.

Now, if I were to try and explain this movie to someone in the simplest and shortest way possible, I’d say something like this: imagine the horror elements from the Indiana Jones movies, mixed with lots of crazy Hong Kong action. Sounds fun? Well, it sure as hell is! This movie is stocked with over-the-top crazy kung fu fighting, bizarre and goofy monsters, and even some insane body horror moments and a little bit of gore.

The main characters are for the most part rather bland, but that’s okay, as everything else is so crazy that I guess we need a more grounded protagonist at least. The guy playing the evil sorcerer is almost like a goofy villain from an animated Scooby Doo episode, extremely exaggerated in his expressions and antics, but it worked in what is already such a wild movie. What did become a little bit of a pet peeve, however, was the journalist character who is eager to get the scoop of this story and come to Thailand with Dr. Yeun. She mostly came off as a little too noisy and slightly annoying. I get that she’s supposed to be intentionally intrusive but yeesh…that being said, she also had some golden moments in the movie.

Many of the things happening in this movie is so bonkers that you pretty much can’t foresee what’s going to happen most of the time. There’s just one wild and incredible scene after another. The scene featuring a giant Buddha statue our protagonist must climb while fighting kung fu monks is something you would only see in a crazy Hong Kong movie, that’s for sure. My favorite amongst it all is the little “blood ghost“, which is a nasty lil’ fetus-like bugger that’s summoned by the evil sorcerer and made from the blood of 100 children. It looks so goofy, creepy-cute and silly that every second it’s on screen is pure gold! And let’s not forget the zombie skeleton, with its glowing blue eyes! Sure, it looks like a cheap halloween-prop and the budget limitations certainly is at full display here, but it’s so cheesy and filled with charm, and even leads to a rather gory scene and its second form. Yeah, just like a video game boss it’s got a second form which is, of course, much harder to beat! Especially when it looks like something that’s been crossed with a Xenomorph.

The Seventh Curse is pretty much everything you want from a wild Hong Kong martial arts horror movie. Lots of awesome old-school practical effects (this was made in the 80’s, after all), kung fu zombies, a fetus monster, and a wild climax!

Director: Ngai Choi Lam
Writers: Jing Wong, Kai-Chi Yuen
Original title: Yuen Chun Hap yu Wai See Lee
Country & year: Hong Kong, 1986
Actors: Chow Yun-Fat, Siu-Ho Chin, Maggie Cheung, Ken Boyle, Hung Chen, Bing-Chuen Cheung, Kwok-Keung Choi, Yuen Chor, Joyce Godenzi, Shu-Yuan Hsu, Sibelle Hu
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092273/

Van Helsing (2004)

Posted on October 20, 2026October 20, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

It’s the year of 1887 and some interesting things are happening in Transylvania. Dr. Victor Frankenstein has just given life to his monster under the assistance of Igor (Kevin J. O’Connor) and…Count Dracula himself (Richard Roxburgh). What could go wrong aside from Frankenstein’s castle getting invaded by a mob of angry peasant villagers? Well, now that Frank has done his work and can go further with his shady plans, Dracula doesn’t need him anymore and kills him. Igor, that weasel, has secretly been on Dracula’s side since “he pays well“. At least he’s being honest. Igor looks like the lost little twin brother of Radu, by the way. The monster gets angry, knocks down Dracula for a second before he carries his dead “father“ and runs to the windmill. The mob throws their torches until the windmill explodes. Rest in peace Frankenstein and his monster. Dracula’s plans have just been put on the back burner, pun intended.

This opening sequence was shot in black & white as a homage to James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) and the golden era of Universal’s monster movies. It also sets the tone perfectly for the kind of movie this is that could share the same universe as The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001). You either vibe with it, or you don’t.

Then we jump one year later to Paris, where monster hunter Gabriel Van Helsing, a buff Anime-style thereof, played by Hugh Jackman, is chasing a CGI video game boss of Mr. Hyde to the top of the Notre-Dame. Fun fact: the face of Mr. Hyde was modeled after a French wrestler named André René Roussimoff, also known as André the Giant. Anyway, after the boss fight with Hyde, Gabriel flees back to the Vatican City in Rome, where we learn that he works for the secret organization Knights of the Holy Order as an assassin. They simply protect mankind from unholy creatures, way before the world got blessed with Father Amorth and the Winchester bros. Gabriel’s next big mission points to the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania to team up with Princess Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale) and kill this mysterious evil Count Dracula. Good luck. Carl (David Wenham), a Friar and a weapon/gadget inventor, joins the journey.

As they approach the obscure, snowy countryside of Transylvania, we see some of the remarkable set-pieces. The old village Gabriel and Carl enter is a village where they meet Anna, that was actually built for the film, much like the Bree village in The Fellowship of the Ring. Yes, there’s lots of greenscreen in pure Hollywood fashion that later went full overkill in the MCU/DC, and seeing Frankenmonster swinging on wires like Peter Parker, is just…well, something. What makes a great balance with the digital ocean of effects are the spectacular set-designs, and even matte-paintings, even to recreate some of the look and the gothic atmosphere from the Universal classics and some of the Hammer films. Miniatures were also used, if I’m not mistaken. The world of Van Helsing and Dracula feels lived-in where you also have steampunk elements sprinkled in. I could walk around on the set of Frankenstein’s laboratory all day long, just watching the details, the cobwebs, all the rusty old equipment while being mesmerized. Dracula also has an army of Dwergers, who looks like a cross between the dwarfs from Phantasm and the Shy Guys from the Mario games.

That being said, we’re not without the slop when it comes to CGI, especially the werewolves and their “transformation“. The final boss battle with Helsing and Drac is lame and lackluster where the video game cutscenes are getting tiresome. Here I prefer the simplicity of Peter Cushing tearing down the big curtains to expose Christoper Lee to the sunlight like he did in Dracula (1958). I like the look on Dracula’s brides in their monster form, though, and Frankenmonster looks cool. The effects are, after all, made by Wētā Workshop, so there’s some decent stuff here from that department. And I almost forgot the drinking game: take a shot of Stalinskaya for each time you see a lightning bolt/spark on screen. You may need 20/40 bottles for that and already secured a new liver.

Then there’s the masquerade ball scene, which I’d guess was some of the deleted chunks of Eyes Wide Shut. And if you see the Castlevania parallels, you’re not alone. The gadget that beams up the whole ballroom building could be a reference to the rosemarys from the games. But there’s more, cuz listen to this: Right before Dracula says, “Ladies and gentlemen… I give you VAN HELSING “, you can actually hear the trumpets from Castle Dracula from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Isn’t that freaking’ c o o l. Alan Silvestri cooks the type of catchy and pompous orchestral score before it became trendy to just throw in some classic A-side songs.

Stephen Sommers had some big plans to bring Van Helsing to a lucrative franchise. The bad reviews and box-office returns suggested otherwise. The director who was once on the top of the world with the first two Mummy films and the gory sea monster-flick Deep Rising (1998) on his resume, got his film career pretty much demolished by the critical failure of Van Helsing. Bummer. Sommers made only two movies after that, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and the disastrous flop that was Odd Thomas (2013). However, Van Helsing became a big success on DVD, which sold copies for $65 million in the first week, more than half the revenue from theater runs, and has gained cult status over the eons. Van Helsing, despite its issues, is a pure roller coaster extravaganza with lots of energy, heart and camp, made at the last minute before Hollywood lost its funny bone and slipped into a chronic depression. They tried with the recent Masters of the Universe (thumbs up) to reignite the power of the old magic, but flopped hard at the box office. So, we can only hope for the best that the upcoming Mummy: Book of the Dead with the return of Brendan Fraser will make Epic Hollywood Adventure Horror flicks great again.

Writer and director: Stephen Sommers
Country & year: USA/Czech Republic, 2004
Actors: Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale, Richard Roxburgh, David Wenham, Shuler Hensley, Elena Anaya, Will Kemp, Kevin J. O’Connor, Alun Armstrong, Silvia Colloca, Josie Maran
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338526/

The Pied Piper (1986)

Posted on October 19, 2026October 21, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Welcome to the town of Hamelin, where the sun slowly rises above the horizon, and it’s time to begin a new day! Except, every new day in this town is one filled with misery and pettiness, as the townspeople of Hamelin are all a miserable, narcissistic bunch of lowlifes. Everything that matters in this town is money and social rank, and people’s gluttony and waste is enormous. The result is a rat infestation, where the rats are having their fun at night and steal both food and other valuables. Things get worse and worse, until a mysterious hooded man arrives in town. This man is a piper, and he demonstrates to the town leaders that the sound of his playing can entice rats to their deaths. How wonderful! The rat problem is soon to be gone an all the assholes in town can go back to their same shit as usual. They offer the piper 1000 gold coins as payment for the job, and so he starts playing and gets rid of the rats.

You probably know this story, of course. The Pied Piper of Hamelin is an old tale dating back to the Middle ages, and have forever stood as a warning of the importance of paying your debts when due. Because the Piper, despite getting rid of the rats and doing the job, doesn’t get paid. When the townspeople have gotten their problem solved, they decide to not pay him after all, causing him to exact his revenge. In the original story he lures all the children away from town, in the same way he did with the rats. In this movie, there’s a different twist on this old tale.

This version of The Pied Piper (Czech title: Krysař) is a 1986 Czechoslovak animated dark fantasy film, directed by Jiří Barta. It was a very ambitious project, where other animation studios in Czechoslovakia mainly made short films for television, usually aimed at children. As someone born in the 80’s and growing up in Norway, these Czech animated shorts were often featured on our local children’s programs on TV, mainly our public broadcaster NRK, with some of the main ones being Krtek and Pat a Mat. Kratky Film was the production company behind The Pied Piper (which is also the company that helped produce Krtek and Pat a Mat). Research for the film took six months, while screenplay and technical preparations took a year.

This movie is certainly a gorgeous and artistic piece of work. The art design is heavily influenced by German Expressionism and medieval German art, which of course is perfect for this film. And the puppets – oh man – they really are something else! Pure nightmare fuel, but in the greatest sense. I can imagine if I saw this as a child, my dreams would probably be really, really weird for the next days. The people of Hamelin look just as ugly as their personalities, which I suppose is very much the point as they’re horrible people through and through. The puppets were also intentionally designed to appear very mechanical to make them even less human, a contrast to the use of several living rats in the film. This is of course an artistic choice to make the rats seem more alive than the humans. There’s no language in the film, so the “dialogue“ is delivered through physical gestures, grunts, mumblings and other sounds.

Aside from the pure uncanny valley territory from the puppets, the whole film has a certain dark and disturbing atmosphere all over. The backgrounds, puppets, rats, music and everything creates this weird and slightly surreal nightmare-feeling to it all. Just taking a quick look at it should make most people realize this isn’t something you put on for the kids, but it’s also not just because of the visual style. There’s several themes here, including some really dark ones when it comes to another of the Piper’s main reasons for taking revenge on the entire town, that’s definitely not suitable for a younger audience.

The Pied Piper is an awesome art-house stop-motion animated film for adults, and definitely one you should check out if you want something strange, nightmarish and oddly beautiful! The movie is available on some streaming sites, including Tubi. A restored version of the film was released in 2023 by Deaf Crocodile, which is the film’s first official Blu-Ray release.

Director: Jirí Barta
Writer: Kamil Pixa
Original title: Krysar
Country & year: Czechoslovakia/West Germany, 1986
Voice actor: Oldřich Kaiser, Jiří Lábus, Michal Pavlícek, Vilém Cok
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0174834/

Troll Hunter (2010)

Posted on October 18, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

The film starts with the text that says:

On October 13, 2008, Filmkameratene AS (Film buddies, LLC) received an anonymous shipment consisting of two hard drives containing the filmed material. This film is a rough cut of the footage. Everything is shown in chronological order, and the images have not been manipulated. For over a year, a team of investigators has tried to determine whether this is a hoax or if the material is genuine. The conclusion was that it is genuine.

Hey, look, it’s actually real, you guys! No Blair witch bollox.

Some weird stuff is going on in the west part of Norway, such as suspicious bear killings by a mysterious lone ranger-like man named Hans. And yes, he’s a Norwegian, not a German. A group of film students follow Hans to get some real answers, and why some shady guy, who says he’s the head of the Norwegian Wildlife Board just coincidentally shows up on every kill site with the “nothing to see here, folks“ attitude (catching my breath). It’s too easy to smell the bullshite, or trollshite if you will, especially when he’s from Bergen. The film crew tries to get an interview with Hans, only to get a clear Stay away! Sure, bud. They follow him over to Sogn and Fjordane, a hotspot for trolls, and as they track him deeper into the woods after the dark has settled, they hear some unearthed noises. The next moment, Hans runs towards them in a panic and yells TROOOLL! I guess that wasn’t exactly on their bingo card.

And here’s a funny thing: If you view Sognefjord from Google Maps, it actually looks like an epic lightning strike. Thor was here, that’s for sure.

We eventually learn that Theodor Kittelsen’s classic drawings were not merely some products of imagination, and that anyone with Christian blood is safer in Oslo’s worst neighborhoods than in the forest. Muslims are safe, though, because that’s another religion. Asbjørnsen and Moe, on the other hand, (the Norwegian answer to the Brothers Grimm) do not quite align with reality, according to Hans. And now that the can of worms has been opened, and that Hans has not much to lose, he welcomes the film crew to join him as he hunts for the giant mountain troll Jotun, while exposing some secrets that would be Norway’s answer to Disclosure Day (catching my breath again).

Our Troll hunter is portrayed by Otto Jespersen, one of the most profiled, and sometimes controversial comedians of Norway. His primetime was during the ’90s and early to mid-2000s and us norse millennial gnomes will have some fond memories of the farmer Duggurd, Mr. Bean on bathsalt Friskusen and Barron Blod who got me into Black Metal. Fun, fun times. And his transition from the comedy scene to the big screen was not the easiest as he struggled to keel himself together and take the film seriously during the shooting. Most of the comedic one-liners he added was cut out, and that was maybe for the best. The mix of apathy and bitterness fits his ragged, scarfaced character way more which also makes a great paradoxical contrast to all considered with trollpiss, Tusseladder and all. This is no laughing matter, you see.

André Øvredal actually had his directorial debut in the mid ’90s with the thriller/fantasy film Future Murder, which he co-directed with his buddy Norman Lesperance. It was made as a student thesis at Brooks Institute of Photography in California, and released in 2000 with a limited DVD release of 5000 copies. It took another ten years until he made his breakthrough film, Troll Hunter, that would not only be the first mockumentary/found footage made in Norway, but also its first creature feature. And what could be more fitting than trolls? The real trolls in Norway will always be the politicians (yes, I despise them) and the Royal family, much like how the real vampires in Romania hides in the Victoria Palace in Bucharest.

The first remarkable thing here is, of course, the grim n’ gloomy Norwegian nature, which already makes a perfect backdrop. No set-pieces needed, just drive some miles, take a ferry and there you have it. And we haven’t even seen the troll yet, only the disgusting slime and other bodily fluids they leave behind. I must admit I was skeptical when seeing this back in 2010, and I really liked how the first troll was introduced and how the effects looked way more practical than CGI. The sharp sound design also adds some weight on their presence. They actually looked so convincing that there were people on the internet who asked if this was real, probably the same simpletons who still believes that The McPherson Tape is real, so…what can you say.

Most of the humor relies on folklore references, such as a scene where Hans tries to lure a troll by placing three billy goats on a bridge. We also finally have a “logic“ medical explanation of why the sunlight turns them into stones. Then there’s a scene where Hans and the crew enter an old mine, only to get trapped in a corner and exposed to gas. And yes, we’re talking about troll farts. Long, wet crusty bubbly farts. Ew. Speaking of stench, since trolls can smell Christian blood, a certain crew member has to smear their body and clothes with troll stench. The climax at the mountain where Hans’ Land Rover has been modified as something from Mad Max before the encounter with the giant troll, looks c o o l.

Troll Hunter still holds up, just like the 10 000 year-old Troll Cock (Trollpikken) outside of Egersund, and feels fresh to this day, sixteen years after its release. It’s still a unique triumph that doesn’t look like anything else coming from Norwegian cinema (if we’re gonna ignore the rather forgettable and shallow Troll films made for Netflix.) Norwegian horror films hasn’t been much to write home about during the last ten years or so, aside from very few exceptions, and the newest Kraken was a total embarrassment. Øvredal said under the press tour that he’d love to make a sequel sometime, and now that Otto Jesperen already has pushed his 70s, it’s maybe about time to gear up the Land Rover.

Writer and director: André Øvredal
Original title: Trolljegeren
Country & year: Norway, 2010
Actors: Otto Jespersen, Glenn Erland Tosterud, Johanna Mørck, Tomas Alf Larsen, Urmila Berg-Domaas, Hans Morten Hansen, Robert Stoltenberg, Knut Nærum, Eirik Bech, Inge Erik Henjesand
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1740707/

NIGHTFALL – Horror Short

Posted on October 18, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

On a stormy night, a guilt-ridden teen visits a grieving mother, looking for some kind of redemptive connection, but as buried grief resurfaces, he’s drawn into a psychological reckoning that threatens everything.

This month we’re having our Halloween Marathon, our “31 Nights of Horror Ghouling”, but we’re also posting Horror Shorts on Sundays as usual! This time we’re taking a look at Nightfall, a horror short where a teen is haunted by a girl he killed in a hit and run accident, and for some reason thinks that everything will be okay if he just asks the grieving mother for forgiveness..

Director: Zac Villanueva
Writer: Guy Hershler, Zac Villanueva
Country & year: USA, 2025
Actors: Teri Hatcher, Guy Hershler, Emma Malouff
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt37071129/

Thir13en Ghosts (2001)

Posted on October 17, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Cyrus Kriticos is a ghost hunter, and together with his psychic assistant Dennis Rafkin they are on a mission with an entire team to ghost-bust a spirit located in a junkyard. Even though they manage to capture the ghost, there are several fatalities, including Cyrus. After this somewhat crazy scene we head over to a man named Arthur, a widower who is Cyrus’ nephew. He gets informed by a lawyer that he has inherited his uncle’s estate, which comes as good news as Arthur is close to being completely broke. He moves there with his two children, Kathy and Bobby, and along with them comes their nanny Maggie. The house is made entirely out of glass panels, inscribed with Latin phrases. Odd…but that doesn’t steer Arthur away from finally becoming financially secure. At the property they meet Dennis, who tells them that he is an electrical technician so he can come inside with them. In the basement Dennis discovers that the ghost hunting activities he and Cyrus had together, made Cyrus capture twelve ghosts inside cells which can be seen using some special glasses. Dennis tries to warn Arthur, but before Arthur even has a chance to take anything seriously enough, the house is sealed and they are all trapped inside. But the ghosts are eager to come out of their cells so they can add to their number!

Thirteen Ghosts (aka 13 Ghosts and THIR13EN Ghosts) is a supernatural horror film from 2001, directed by Steve Beck in his directorial debut (a year later he made Ghost Ship). It is a remake of the 1960 film 13 Ghosts by William Castle, and it was released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the US while Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International released it in other countries. It became somewhat of a box-office disappointment with $68.5 million towards its $42 million budget, and received mainly negative response from the critics, despite the production design getting some praise. It has later garnered a bit of a cult following and is nowadays seen in a more positive light.

A movie like this is one of those where you kind of feel its schlocky vibe all over the place, while also feeling it’s considerably more polished than it should have been. The production design is awesome, the effects here are quite solid and much of it practical. The practical creature makeup was created by Howard Berger and the KNB EFX Group, using full-body transformations where many of the ghosts had full-foam rubber bodysuits and prosthetics. The most complicated ghosts were the Juggernaut and The Angry Princess which required five hours in the makeup chair!

I remember seeing it way back when it was released, and didn’t think too much of it actually. Well, your perception can certainly change over the years, and with a more recent rewatch of the film I was able to appreciate it a lot more. Having now also seen the 1960 film, I found this be a decent remake of the original, updated to a more modern premise and also giving the ghosts a considerably more nasty look to the point where some of them could have come straight from a Hellraiser movie or from the Netherworld in Beetlejuice. I liked how the ghosts are an actual deathly threat, and them all being trapped inside the glass house. If you can even call it a house, it’s more like a hellish contraption of some kind…which is more or less exactly what it is.

Thir13en Ghosts is a fun and easy popcorn film for the Halloween season, and one that kind of got better rather then worse over the years. Practical effects usually gives a movie a better chance to stand the test of time, but as an early 2000’s movie there’s also a little flair left of the slightly silly and rompy vibe of the 90’s films. Something to not take too seriously and just have a fun time with.

In August 2023, Dark Castle Entertainment announced plans of making a Thirteen Ghosts series, but it is still in development.

Director: Steve Beck
Writers: Neal Marshall Stevens, Richard D’Ovidio
Country & year: Canada/USA, 2001
Actors: Tony Shalhoub, Embeth Davidtz, Matthew Lillard, Shannon Elizabeth, Alec Roberts, JR Bourne, Rah Digga, F. Murray Abraham, Matthew Harrison
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245674/

13 Ghosts (1960)

Posted on October 16, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

The late Dr. Plato Zorba is an occultist who has left his large house to his nephew Cyrus. Curys and his family are living very much from hand to mouth, struggling with making ends meet, so this is a wonderful opportunity for them. Or so they think. Curys, along with his wife Hilda and their daughter Medea and son Buck, decide to move to the house despite the lawyer informing them that the house is also inhabited by a bunch of ghosts that Dr. Zorba collected from all around the world. With the property also comes a housekeeper named Elaine, who of course conducts seances and is creepy as hell. And that’s not even all, as there is a hidden fortune somewhere on the property. The ghosts are a varied sort, including a fiery skeleton, a slightly goofy Italian chef, and even a lion with its headless tamer. And none of them are there willingly, as they’ve been captured by Dr. Zorba who also created a set of special goggles that makes you able to see the ghosts. There are 12 ghosts in the house, one being the ghost of Dr. Zorba himself who is also trapped and wants someone to become the unlucky 13th ghost to free him and the others.

13 Ghosts is a supernatural horror film from 1960, written by Robb White and produced and directed by William Castle. In some previous films, William Castle had used gimmicks to promote them, and 13 Ghosts was no exception. Audience members were given the chance to see the ghosts by using glasses with red and blue cellophane filters, in a process dubbed “Illusion-O“. The filmed elements had a blue filter, while the ghosts had a red filter, so the blue filter “removed“ the ghosts. Using the glasses gave the viewers the option to see them.

The movie, and mostly the gimmick, was not all that well received, but it still became a modest box office success. It’s a fun old-fashioned haunted house film that of course never manages to scare, but still has its charm. The ghosts are actually interesting enough, all with their own little backstories and looks. I especially liked the ghost of the lion and headless tamer…makes me wonder why this was counted as just one ghost, though, as the lion and the tamer are definitely two ghosts. There’s another two-for-one deal here: the ghosts of a mother and her infant son who were both burnt at the stake as witches. Aside from the ghosts who are more or less “just there“, the story is simple and straight-forward enough with some mysteries and plot twists. After all, it isn’t only in Beetlejuice that you should never trust the living. Even with a house full of ghosts, the ones still breathing are a bigger threat than the dead ones.

13 Ghosts is very much a classic haunted house film, with some solid special effects for the time it was made in.

Director: William Castle
Writer: Robb White
Country & year: USA, 1960
Actors: Charles Herbert, Jo Morrow, Martin Milner, Rosemary DeCamp, Donald Woods, Margaret Hamilton, John van Dreelen
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053559/

House on Haunted Hill (1999)

Posted on October 15, 2026October 15, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

We’re in Los Angeles, and the year is 1931. At the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane, the staff are under attack by the patients who are throwing a revolt against the sadistic assholes working there. The place, led by the sadistic Dr. Richard B. Vannacutt (yeah, that name speaks for itself) have been conducting medical experiments on the patients and they’ve all had enough. A fire breaks out, and nearly everyone dies, except five people from staff who manages to get out.

Then we head over to 1999, where Stephen Price (not to be confused with Vincent Price, despite looking almost exactly like him) is working on staging his wife’s birthday party at the abandoned hospital, which has over the years been partly converted into a residence. Price is an amusement park mogul, and well-known for his elaborate pranks. He invites five people to the party, but here’s a twist: the five people who arrive there are not the ones he invited. The ones who turn up are baseball player Eddie Baker, Melissa Marr who is a former television personality, physician Donald Blackburn, production assistant Sara Wolfe, and the building’s owner Pritchett. Price is confused, but still decide to hold the party as planned, and offers $1 million to each guest who remains inside the house until morning. In the case of someone fleeing or perishing inside the house, that person’s money will be divided amongst the remaining guests.

Then the inevitable happens: the security system in the building is tripped, and locks everyone inside. Why this happened? Who knows. Price blames his wife, she blames him. Sara, Eddie and Pritchett goes to the basement, that looks like a labyrinth, in order to find the control panel. And then things start happening, but is it really ghosts or just some of Price’s pranks? Because yeah, of course the place is rigged all over, and Price has an assistant overseeing the party stunts. But when he goes to check on him, Price finds the guy murdered in a horrible way. Dr. Vannacutt still wanna cut (har-har) it seems. Next up for the body counts is Evelyn, who has been strapped to an electroshock therapy table and is literally shocked to death. The question is: are the murders done by the living or the dead?

House on Haunted Hill is a supernatural horror film from 1999, directed by William Malone and based on the William Castle film House on Haunted Hill from 1959. This film was the producing debut of Dark Castle Entertainment, and it was released on Halloween weekend in 1999. In the tradition of William Castle’s gimmicks, Warner Bros. handed out some promotional scratchcards to the cinemas showing the film, offering ticket buyers to have a chance of winning a money prize just like the characters in the movie. The film was a commercial success, and opened as number one at the U.S. box office, grossing $65 million worldwide. And, surprise surprise – it still got mainly negative reviews from critics.

While the original film was more aimed at delivering a spooky atmosphere with a murder mystery, where the supernatural events were mostly hinted at, this one takes it all out and presents ghostly and gory mayhem all over the place. And while the house in the original was not the typical victorian mansion or something alike, the same goes for this film. The building looks incredibly oppressive. The exterior and interiors were designed by David Klassen, who used inspiration from Albert Speer, an architect who designed monolithic style buildings for Nazi Germany.

The special effects were designed by Gregory Nicotero and Robert Kurtman, with additional makeup design by Dick Smith. The film’s final scene effects were designed by KNB EFX Group, supervised by Robert Skotak. And while these effects have become somewhat notorious for being horribly bad CGI, most of the effects for that scene were actually made up of footage and photographs which were grafted together. There’s also a fair amount of practical effects in the film, and this combined with the set pieces almost makes it look like a fun and spooky haunted house attraction. With some decent gore added to the mix, there’s certainly a lot to keep your eyes busy with!

The acting here is pretty decent, especially from Geoffrey Rush playing Stephen Price, who was made to look very much like Vincent Price in an obvious reference. His wife Evelyn was played by Famke Janssen, who fits the role perfectly as the sly and seductive trophy wife. Dr. Vannacutt, the big bad of the film was played by Jeffrey Combs and he pulls of a nice portrayal of a gleefully sadistic doctor. House on Haunted Hill is very different from the original, but so fun in many ways if you want some goofy, campy haunted house B-schlocker. There’s still some twists and turns, just like in the original.

In 2007, there was a direct-to-DVD sequel called Return to House on Haunted Hill, with Jeffrey Combs reprising his role as Dr. Vannacutt. This film had no involvement from William Malone.

Director: William Malone
Writer: Dick Beebe
Country & year: USA/1999
Actors: Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher, Chris Kattan, Ali Larter, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, Max Perlich, Jeffrey Combs, Dick Beebe, Slavitza Jovan
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185371/

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Posted on October 14, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

“There’ll be food and drink and ghosts… and perhaps even a few murders. You’re all invited.”

Frederick Loren is a millionaire who has decided to invite five random people to a party which he is throwing for his fourth wife, Annabelle. The location of the party is an allegedly haunted house he has rented for the event. The people invited include the test pilot Lance Schroeder, the newspaper columnist Ruth Bridges, psychiatrist Dr. David Trent, a woman named Nora Manning who works for one of Loren’s companies, and the house owner himself, Watson Pritchard. To the guests, he also makes a promise: they’ll get $10.000 if they stay the entire night in the house. And they need to make up their mind soon, as the doors are closed at midnight, the windows are barred, and there will be no electricity, phones or radios to use. They will all be trapped inside.

Now, Frederick and his wife are not having the greatest relationship. Annabelle even tried to poison him once. She denies it, of course, calling him jealous and paranoid. Well, sometimes you’re jealous and paranoid with good reason. So, why has he decided to throw this odd party, with people they don’t even know, in a haunted house that will be locked down? Even offering the guests a prize for staying? It’s certainly a strange decision. The owner of the house, Watson, genuinely believes that the house is haunted. And there have been numerous murders inside, and most chilling is the murder that took place in the basement, where a man killed his wife by throwing her in a vat of acid. Annabelle suspects that her husband is plotting to use this night to murder her in some way or other, and privately tells Lance about this. And, lo and behold -after the full lockdown takes place, it doesn’t take long until Annabelle’s corpse is found, hanging from a rope. Did she really hang herself? Or is there something else going on…

House on Haunted Hill is a horror film from 1958, produced and directed by William Castle and written by Robb White. Exterior shots of the house were filmed at Ennis House in Los Feliz, California, while the rest was shot on sound stages. There were also several art pieces owned by Vincent Price that were used for set decorations in the film. It first had a limited release, and then premiered in San Fransisco in 1959, played on a double bill with The Cosmic Man. House on Haunted Hill, being a William Castle film, did of course have one of his famous promotional gimmicks: “Emergo“, which was a glowing plastic prop skeleton where they used an elaborate pulley system to have it flown over the audience during the screenings. Must have been quite an experience!

And the film ended up being a huge success, both financially and with the critics. And it certainly is fun! The effects in the film are goofy and somewhat campy for sure, but very charming. The movie was very low-budget, and for the special effects it relied on mostly rubber props and theatrical gimmicks. There’s also a good amount of old-fashioned spooky haunted house atmosphere to be found here, and Vincent Price in the role of the eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren is of course one of the film’s best features. He’s the star of the show, as usual. The premise, while seeming rather simple, is actually quite twist-filled and executed really well. It’s not just a ghost story but also a murder/whodunnit story, and of course we all know who to suspect…

House on Haunted Hill is a fun spooky film, with great atmosphere, some fun effects, and even a few twists and turns. And most importantly, Vincent Price.

Director: William Castle
Writer: Robb White
Country & year: USA, 1959
Actors: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal, Carolyn Craig, Elisha Cook Jr., Julie Mitchum, Leona Anderson, Howard Hoffman, Skeleton
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051744/

House of Wax (2005)

Posted on October 13, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Carly Jones is going to a football game, together with her boyfriend Wade Felton and their friends, and also her twin brother Nick. They’re going to camp for the night in a wooded area. Some dubious stranger driving a pickup truck arrives, and they all get a little spooked and Nick damages one of the truck’s headlights, making the stranger leave. Well, the next day they discover that Wade’s car has been damaged too: the fan belt has been severed. Hmm…probably not a coincidence. They’re lucky though, as they get a local guy named Lester to drive Wade and Carly to the nearby town of Ambrose. Meanwhile, the rest of the gang will be going to the game…hehe, yeah, right.

When Wade and Carly arrives in Ambrose, they notice it’s pretty much a ghost town. There’s a funeral going on, though, so perhaps this is where everyone’s located for the time being? While they wait for the mechanic, they decide to visit “Trudy’s House of Wax“, where everything is literally made of wax. Everything. But something’s not right, and the eerie lack of life in the whole town makes Carly very suspicious…

House of Wax from 2005 is a slasher horror film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra in his feature debut, and it is a remake of House of Wax from 1953 (which was actually also a remake of the 1933 film Mystery of the Wax Museum). It was filmed at Warner Bros. Movie World on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, and the set for the town was constructed nearby Guanaba. Graham Walker was behind the film’s production design, who had also designed the sets for Ghost Ship and Gothika. This one took it some steps further with designing and building an entire town! About 20 tons of wax was used to craft the sets, coated primarily with beeswax. Over hundred detailed wax figures were created by a team of sculptors and mold makers, and all of them were modeled after real people. Jared Padalecki (who got most famous for playing Sam in the Supernatural TV series) has a role here, and he underwent a 3D body scan by KNB EFX Group in Los Angeles to have him moulded into a wax figure.

Just like the other Dark Castle Entertainment remakes, this one does it in a very different way from the original, and while it’s having the schlock vibe all over the place as usual, it just kind of works in its own right. It’s a fairly straight-forward slasher, with some decent yet not over-the-top kill scenes. Yes, it’s a typical teen-slasher horror film, but one with a fairly interesting backstory, good props and practical effects, and some awesome set pieces.

While the original had Vincent Price, this one gives the audience the chance to see Paris Hilton die. Which was actually part of a campaign used to promote the film, I kid you not. Shirts were even created which featured the slogan “See Paris Die“. This was at a time when it was totally pop to hate Paris Hilton, so apparently they decided to take that ball and run with it.

House of Wax received generally negative reviews from critics, but still did well at the box office. With this being the 5th production by Dark Castle Entertainment, people pretty much knew what to expect and lots of people weren’t too fond of it. Anyway, it later garnered a cult following, which seems to be a trend with movies like these. Nowadays, you can kind of understand why…because in a lot of cases, certain “bad“ movies hold up better than you would initially expect. Especially in these days when we live in an era of franchise-sequel-prequel-reboot hell and, even worse, lazy AI slop. The latter has fortunately not infested the horror movie genre too much at this point, and let’s hope it stays that way.

Fun (or perhaps not so fun) fact: just like in House of Wax from 1953, it became obvious that fire is something you definitely should not play with, and something that easily gets out of control. Special effects expert David Fletcher and Wax Productions were sued because of a fire on the set during the production of the film, which ended in a $7 million lawsuit that alleged that they were grossly negligent over the fire, which actually destroyed part of the Warner Bros. Movie World Studios.

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Writers: Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes
Country & year: Australia/USA, 2005
Actors: Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Brian Van Holt, Paris Hilton, Jared Padalecki, Jon Abrahams, Robert Ri’chard, Dragicia Debert, Thomas Adamson, Murray Smith, Sam Harkess
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397065/