Pop Smart - Silver Scream Spook Show: 13 Ghosts -- in Illusion-o!
Every month the Silver Scream Spook Show at the Plaza Theatre offers the genuine rarity of presenting schlocky vintage movies in old-fashioned cinematic setting. This month’s screening offers the special treat of the supernatural flick 13 Ghosts (at 1 and 10 p.m. April 26) in the gimmick of “Illusion-o.” In the 1950s and ’60s, director William Castle made a specialty of presenting films with wacky gimmicks, like joy buzzer-theater seats and life insurance policies for anyone who died of fright seeing one of his movies.
For “Illusion-o,” the audience receives a special “Ghost Viewer,” comparable to 3-D glasses. Apparently you look through the red eyepieces if you want to see them, and through the blue ones if you don’t want to see them, or maybe vice versa. In Spine-Tingler! The William Castle Story, an affectionate documentary on the filmmaker just shown at the Atlanta Film Festival, one of the experts — probably John Waters — wondered if anyone ever used the blue option: “Who buys a ticket to a movie to NOT see ghosts?” Here’s Castle himself introducing the film and explaining how it works in 13 Ghosts’ introduction:
They REALLY don’t make them like this any more.