Since I reviewed the remake yesterday, today’s Horror on the Lens is the 1960 original, William Castle’s 13 Ghosts!
Now, William Castle was famous for his gimmicks. For instance, theaters showing The Tingler were wired to give electrical shocks to random patrons. He had a special gimmick for 13 Ghosts, a film about a house haunted by ghosts that you can only see while wearing special goggles. Since I’m a lazy film blogger, I’m going to quote the film’s Wikipedia article on this particular gimmick:
“For 13 Ghosts, audience members were given a choice: the “brave” ones could watch the movie and see the ghosts, while the apprehensive among them would be able to opt out of the horror and watch without the stress of having to see the ghosts. The choice came via the special viewer, supposedly “left by Dr. Zorba.”
In the theatres, most scenes were black and white, but scenes involving ghosts were shown in a “process” dubbed Illusion-O: the filmed elements of the actors and the sets — everything except the ghosts — had a blue filter applied to the footage, while the ghost elements had a red filter and were superimposed over the frame. Audiences received viewers with red and blue cellophane filters. Unlike early 3D glasses where one eye is red and the other is cyan or blue, the Illusion-O viewer required people to look through a single color with both eyes. Choosing to look through the red filter intensified the images of the ghosts, while the blue filter “removed” them. Despite Castle’s claims to the contrary, not many heart failures or nervous breakdowns were averted by the Illusion-O process; although the blue filter did screen out the ghostly images, the ghosts were visible with the naked eye, without the red filter.”
Personally, if I had been alive in 1960, I totally would have watched the whole movie through the red filter. Go ghosts go!
Anyway, 13 Ghosts is actually a lot of fun in a low-budget, 1960s drive-in sort of way. Watch it below and, as always, enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens 