The First Born Son

The First Born Son is the ghost of Billy Michaels, a boy who was a fan of cowboy films. One day, a neighbor found a real steel arrow in his parents’ closet. He challenged Billy to a duel, with Billy using a toy gun. However, his plaything was no match for the arrow, and he died when the neighbor shot it through the back of his head. In death, Billy is in his cowboy suit and holding a tomahawk, with the arrow still protruding from his head.

Thir13en Ghosts

Ghost hunter Cyrus Kriticos (F. Murray Abraham) and assistant Dennis Rafkin (Matthew Lillard) lead a team on a mission to capture a spirit, called the Juggernaut, in a junkyard. Several of the men are killed during the ensuing fight, including Cyrus himself. However, the team is able to catch the ghost. Arthur (Tony Shalhoub), Cyrus’ nephew, a mathematics teacher whose wife, Jean, died in a house fire six months earlier, later discovers that his uncle has left his mansion to Arthur in his will. Arthur, unaware of Cyrus’ unusual profession as a ghost hunter, plans to move into the mansion with his financially struggling family, including his children Kathy (Shannon Elizabeth) and Bobby (Alec Roberts), and nanny Maggie Bess (Rah Digga).

Dennis Rafkin, disguised as a power company employee, meets the family when they arrive at the mansion. The residence, made almost entirely of glass, apart from priceless artifacts, is filled with Latin phrases inscribed on floors and movable walls. Arthur and his family are excited to own it, but Dennis sneaks down to the basement for a closer look. Upon finding several ghosts there, he rushes back upstairs and informs Arthur of Cyrus’ ghost hunting. Twelve spirits are imprisoned in the basement; the Latin inscriptions are spells to keep them in captivity. Arthur initially disbelieves him, but quickly changes his mind when a spirit called the Jackal attacks Kathy. Ben, Cyrus’ lawyer, who has come with them for a tour of the house, tries to steal a valise full of money. However, he trips a mechanism that seals the entrance and releases the ghosts. He later encounters one of them, the Angry Princess, and backs up into an open doorway, which snaps shut and slices him in half.

Arthur and Dennis, equipped with special glasses that enable them to see the ghosts, attempt to rescue Kathy and Bobby, who have both mysteriously disappeared. Bobby disappeared after he tried to run away from the Bound Lady and the Torso, and Kathy disappeared after she was saved from the Jackal. They come across Kalina Oretzia (Embeth Davidtz), a spirit liberator who claims to have entered the house through an opening when one of the walls shifted. She saves Arthur, Maggie, and Dennis from the Jackal and explains Cyrus’ plans involving the house. It is, she says, a giant machine built for the sole purpose of opening a portal to the “Ocularis Infernum” (Eye of Hell), a demonic device that allows its user to see into the future. It requires the twelve ghosts to do so, one of whom is Arthur’s dead wife, Jean. However, if a thirteenth ghost is created through a sacrifice for the sake of pure love, it can act as a fail safe and shut the machine down. Arthur realizes that he must become that ghost by dying to save his children.

Cyrus Kriticos is revealed to be alive, having faked his death in order to lure Arthur to the house; Kalina turns out to be his secret partner and lover, and knocks Maggie unconscious. Cyrus has orchestrated the previous events, including the abduction of Kathy and Bobby, so that Arthur will become the thirteenth ghost — not to stop the machine as Kalina had claimed, but to trigger it. Cyrus then turns on Kalina and crushes her between two glass walls. Arthur and Dennis make another attempt to save Kathy and Bobby with the help of a detached wall. Facing the Hammer, Dennis pushes Arthur into a corner where he is then protected by the wall, sacrificing his own life in the process. After combating the Hammer, Dennis finds himself cornered by the angry spirit and the newly released Juggernaut; he is brutally beaten and dies when the Juggernaut breaks his back.

As Arthur stares at Jean through the glass, all the ghosts disappear from the basement, responding to a tape-recorded summons played by Cyrus. Kathy and Bobby have been placed at the center of a set of whirling, razor-sharp rings, and Arthur is confronted by Cyrus, who tries to force him at knife-point to jump into them. Before he can do so, Maggie discovers the house’s control center and destroys the tape, leading to a complete mechanical breakdown. All the ghosts except Jean turn against Cyrus and throw him into the rings, chopping him to pieces. Encouraged by the sudden appearance of Dennis’ ghost saying that he’s not done yet, and that he needs to rescue his kids, Arthur makes a perfectly timed leap over the blades to save his children.

The house’s glass walls shatter, releasing the spirits from captivity; Jean lingers briefly to say goodbye to her family, then departs with the others.

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