Movie Review - 13 Sins

13 Sins

2014

The Cast

This is a really interesting film that asks the question, what will you do for money?  Kill a fly for a thousand dollars?  Eat the dead fly to cover your fiance's debts?

This is the quandary that our anti-hero, Elliott Brindle (portrayed amiably by Mark Webber), has to face when his phone rings one night while he's out for a drive.  The voice on the other end of the line is both eloquent, haunting, and scary in equal measures (voiced brilliantly by George Coe and sounding a lot like Angus Scrimm from Phantasm - I just wanted him to say, "BOY!"), seems to know everything about Elliott's life and circumstances... he's lost his job... his mentally handicapped brother will have to go back into care... his racist father has to leave his assisted living residence, to move in with his son and his coloured fiance,

The voice assures him that in thirty-two hours he could have enough money to make all his problems disappear.

What would you do?  Elliott accepts the thirteen challenges and as the hour's progress the trials get progressively nastier and deadlier.

Daniel Stamm who directed the film and along with David Birke wrote the screenplay does a good job of pacing the film through a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, building a nice tension.  I knew the twist was coming at the end, though the writers do a good job of giving you a few possible outcomes to try and keep you off balance.

The film's strength and enjoyability is helped by having three strong actors in the cast; Ron Perlman (Detective Chilcoat), Pruitt Taylor Vince (Vogler), and Tom Bower (Elliot's Father). Even Devon Graye playing the handicapped Michael Brindle does a decent portrayal, which I didn't find too disagreeable at all.

Even though this is primarily a thriller the vagueness and unknown origin of the voice and it's all-encompassing knowledge, along with the conspiracy theory of pure evil adds a possible supernatural / religious angle to the story.  Those parts of the story along with the style of direction and building of tension and fear make this a Horror film too.

I enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would have as this type of story has the probability to be full of cliches and familiar scenes.  However, even though some of the cliches and scene's are there the acting and direction make them seem fresh.  There have been reviews stating that the ending is an anticlimax and flat.  Though I like the ending as it resembles reality.

If you like this style of film and story then give this a try and you shouldn't be too disappointed.  But if this is on and your car has broken down so you can't visit friends and family, then give this a look, you may enjoy it.

I give this a puppet-master 8.25 out of 10.

The Trailer