Cyrus Kriticos

"Greatness requires sacrifice."

- Cyrus Kriticos

Cyrus Kriticos is the main antagonist of Thir13en Ghosts. He is Arthur Kriticos' uncle, a powerful millionaire, an explorer, a collector and a ghost hunter. His main objective is to use 12 captured souls, plus a living human of pure heart to energize the "Ocularis Infernum", a machine designed by "Satan himself" and powered by the dead, thus being able to see into the future and gain a massive amount of power.

He was portrayed by F. Murray Abraham.

Role in the movie
Cyrus is first seen in a junkyard with his two henchmen, a neurotic psychic assistant Dennis Rafkin and his brother Joshua, in search of the Juggernaut ghost. After he and his guards are brutally attacked by the seven feet tall abomination, Cyrus is apparently killed when he is thrown against some piled-up cars.

Some time later, Cyrus' lawyer, Ben Moses, pays a visit to Cyrus' nephew, Arthur and his family: his daughter Kathy, his son Bobby, and their hired babysitter Maggie. Ben tells about a "house" left to Arthur and his family, as they go to the location mentioned in Cyrus' will.

Dennis, disguised as a power company employee, tries to get the family out of the house, with no success. Meanwhile, the lawyer goes to the basement, where the ghosts are stored, only to accidentally release them and get killed by a sliding door after being threatened by the Angry Princess. This releases the other ghosts one by one, as the family quickly goes aware of their presence after seeing them (only by using special glasses found around the house). Apparently, Cyrus' spirit is also present, and kidnaps Bobby and Kathy, while Arthur is told by a woman named Kalina Oretzia about the house's true nature: it is actually a machine known as the Ocularis Infernum (The Eye of Hell), rebuilt by Cyrus based in a design from the 15th century by a astrologer named Basileus, that requires the power of twelve earthbound spirits to work, and give it's bearer infinite power. Kalina also explains that the fourth ghost, the Withered Lover, is Arthur's dead wife, Jean Kriticos, and the only way to repel the evil inside the house is if Arthur assumes his position as the 13th ghost and sacrifices himself for the sake of his kids. Arthur finally reaches the Ocularis' center after escaping from The Torn Prince, but Dennis is killed in the process by a combined attack of The Juggernaut and The Hammer ghosts during their escape.

Kalina is revealed to be Cyrus' lover, but is also killed by him, who is actually alive.

Arthur sees all of the twelve ghosts spinning around the machine's center, where Kathy and Bobby are being kept. He also discovers that his uncle was alive the entire time, and briefly fights him, but is overpowered. Maggie, meanwhile, breaks Cyrus' hypnosis over the ghosts, as Arthur can only watch in horror as the ghosts carry Cyrus to the machine and throw him in, chopping him to pieces.