13 Sins

My Grade:  B-

I am a sucker for a film with a unique premise. That is something that 13 Sins certainly offers. How it does with that premise is iffy, but it is still an intriguing premise. 

A guy gets a seemingly random phone call offering him 1000 dollars to kill a fly that is buzzing around in his car. That’s easy enough, so he does it and the money is immediately transferred into his account. He is then offered more money to eat the fly he just killed. He finds it strange, but does it and more money is magically added to his account. Then he is offered the chance to continue playing this game for more money. There will be thirteen challenges, two of which he has already completed, and he will be a very rich man if he completes all of them. He is responsible for taking care of his mentally challenged brother and is engaged with a baby on the way... and he just lost his job. So he accepts. Little does he know, though, the challenges will get progressively harder and more immoral. 

As you can imagine, things get worse as he becomes a wanted man for some of the things he has done; however, if he stops the game at any point, he loses all the money he accumulated thus far. The mysterious voice on the phone also offers a clean slate if/when he completes all the challenges. Needless to say, the stakes are very high.

I love the premise of this film. It’s the reason I rented it. I am not a fan, however, of how the film executes its strong premise. It has a nice twist at the end but never answers the questions I want answered. I want to know about the people that run the game and how they find out all of this personal information about you. How are they watching you? Why are they doing this? These are things that would, if explained, make the film much more believable and effective. By the end, I was thinking about how impossible it would be for something like this to happen which took me out of the story. And, this film is listed as a horror film in Redbox and it is considerably less scary since it is entirely unbelievable. 

The genre issue I just mentioned is something else that is uneven in 13 Sins. It has elements of horror, action, drama, and even dark comedy. It makes it hard to classify for my site, but it gives the film a unique feel. It’s sort of like David Fincher’s Se7en in that aspect but the genre mashup really works here in 13 Sins. I feel the action elements worked the best, though. Daniel Stamm (director of The Last Exorcism) handles the action sequences and horror elements particularly well but I feel he falls down a bit on the dramatic exposition scenes. Those are few and far between, though, so it’s not a huge issue.

The big story here, though, is the little known but very experienced Mark Webber as the protagonist. He owns the screen and doesn’t let anyone steal scenes from him. His performance showed many levels of emotion and he even showed off some skills in a decent fight scene in a police station. His character is also the only really well developed character in the film. His story is a bit cliche but at least he has a story unlike most of the other characters.

Overall, 13 Sins is good but not great. It could have been great with a little more genre focus and more well developed secondary characters. It also suffers from a lack of a real villain. The voice on the phone who seems to runs the game is the villain; but, since we never see him, it’s hard to consider him a huge threat. The unique premise and solid cinematography, however, keep this film afloat and it turns out to be a lot of fun to watch. I am also glad it has a message underneath the surface:  for enough money, anyone can be turned into a monster. It doesn’t just tell us that point, though, it challenges that idea and lets the audience decide for themselves.