Review by Tristan Bishop
Although it is actually a remake of a Thai film from 2006, 13 Sins is probably going to suffer from the effect of coming along right on the tail of Cheap Thrills. The films share a very similar conceit – men manipulated into committing increasingly outrageous/destructive acts for money. Whilst they are part of an older cycle of game-obsessed thrillers, such as David Fincher’s The Game (1997), or even 2004’s Saw, they share a certain sense of the current Zeitgeist: the era of global economic depression, of the 99% movement, and a fatalistic view of exploitation by the rich.
As with Cheap Thrills, we are introduced to an average Joe (this time called Elliot, and played by Mark Webber) who is short on cash, has a family to look after – this time an extended family of his pregnant, African-American wife (Rutina Wesley from True Blood), his racist, bad-tempered father, and his autistic brother (a convincing performance by Devon Graye) – and is just about to be fired from his job. Soon afterwards he gets a call from a stranger telling him he has been selected for a game. The person on the phone seems to know quite a lot about Elliot, right down to the fact that there is a fly in the car with him. The voice offers one thousand dollars if Elliot kills the fly. Of course, he accepts. The voice tells him this is the first of 13 tasks, the completion of each will result in the transfer into Elliot’s bank of an ever-increasing value.
Of course, as with Cheap Thrills the tasks get increasingly more outrageous and dangerous from there on in. But that’s really where the similarities stop. 13 Sins is actually a very different animal. Eschewing the drugged-up, claustrophobic, downright nasty degradation of last year’s festival darling, this is a friendlier prospect – a fairly mainstream (albeit dark) thriller with a thick vein of black humour and some unexpectedly excellent gore; one scene ranks among the best of its kind I’ve seen in recent years.
Technical aspects are of top quality throughout, in fact (director Daniel Stamm made 2010’s horror hit The Last Exorcism), and complemented with a cast of familiar faces including an underused Ron Perlman as a detective. Stamm keeps the film moving at a good pace too, building the tension slowly and throwing some nice curve balls into the story later on to keep things interesting. Unfortunately there are a few problems with the script. Whilst Elliot is a likeable and sympathetic enough character he occasionally makes decisions which stretch credibility a little too much, and you might found yourself jolted out of the plot at times whilst questioning its logic. There’s also a slightly dubious plot development regarding the autistic brother which some may find a little off-putting, but the film is charming enough in other ways, and makes up for these with its pace and dark humour. Overall it’s a very enjoyable Friday night movie and most certainly worth a viewing.
13 Sins is released to Region 2 DVD on 30th June 2014, from Entertainment One.