Disc Reviews

13 Sins Review

24th Jun 2014

Salesman Elliot (Mark Webber) has just lost his job, he’s about to get married, his fiancé is pregnant, his brother is mentally challenged and relies on his support, his father is aging and also in need of his aid. Life it seems is not good.

Randomly he is phoned and alerted to the fact that he is in a new game. The rules are simple he will get called and asked to perform 13 tasks. Each task comes at an increasing dollar value that will end up in millions should he be willing to participate.

Spurred on by his need for cash – Swatting a fly doesn’t seem like the worst thing he could do so Elliott complies. But as the game continues he learns that it’s literally a game of all or nothing, and the stakes are raised as each challenge is issued to him.

The Last Exorcism director Daniel Stamm has a great hook to get viewers in, and a relatively game cast to play with. Webber plays the straight nervous hero well, but clearly is at home when playing the more darkly comic scenes in the film. There are moments that are so obscure that laughter is the only response (Eliot at one point is tasked with chaperoning a corpse to the local coffee house in a scene worthy of Weekend At Bernie’s).

Character actors Pruitt Taylor Vince and Ron Perlman are onboard to give the film some name value. If anything Perlman is underused as a bit of a late addition to the story – and Vince barely registers with the handful of scenes he has to play.

Stamm doesn’t do enough interesting things with his camera though, and seems content to lay back and allow his actors to carry the most of the baggage.

In the light of recent theatrical release Cheap Thrills, 13 Sins should find a nice small market out there interested in the hook, and the film certainly has its share of moments worth talking about.