13 Ghosts (2001)

This is not your father's spooky ghost movie. It's a refreshingly effective update of the 1960 thriller, complete with an intricately mechanized house chock full of glass panels that shift like clockwork and bear Latin inscriptions to imprison then ultimately to release 12 bizarre otherworldly spirits. Soon Tony Shalhoub and his family discover they are not only trapped in a house of demons, but the tormented spirits are about to become the tormentors. (Human actors can see the spirits when they wear high-tech spectacles that are a nice tribute to the 1960 movie's 3D origins.) This movie kept me often on the edge of my seat, from the attorney who "had to split," through the building climax and to the harrowing finale. Some may nitpick, but 13 Ghosts is a ghosts-and-gore thriller you can love. Five stars.