We’re so used to torture porn’ these days that the idea of incredibly violent horror movies has become seriously boring. By the time the Saw franchise ground to a halt they’d pretty much explored every possible way to decapitate, eviscerate and generally mangle the human form and we’d all become so thoroughly desensitised that exploding heads and punctured eyeballs produced yawns rather than laughs. But while 13 Sins has a fair few moments of ultra-violence, it mainly eschews the blood and guts in favour of something much more sick, which could be labelled psychological torture porn’. And although it doesn’t quite manage to sustain interest in its sick little game you have to give it credit for trying something different.
It’s a remake of a 2006 Thai film called 13: Game of Death and accordingly has a strain of distinctly Eastern dark humour and sadism running through it. It tells the story of meek and thoroughly decent chap Elliott Brindle (Mark Webber) who’s about to be promoted at his insurance sales job and marry his pregnant girlfriend Shelby (Rutina Wesley), so everything seems to be going his way. But when he’s unceremoniously fired by his boss for being too nice he’s suddenly destitute and desperate.
So when he gets a mysterious phone call offering him the chance to take part in a hidden camera game show with big money prizes, he’s understandably keen. He’s told he simply needs to complete 13 challenges and he’ll be a millionaire and all he has to do for the first challenge is kill a fly, so how bad can it be?
Exactly how bad it gets is exactly what makes 13 Sins compelling and entertaining, at least for the first two thirds. There’s a lot of sick pleasure to be had in watching poor Mr. Brindle being forced to perform increasingly out-of-character acts of immorality but the tone is so over the top and cartoonish, and the characters such paper-thin caricatures, that it never becomes uncomfortably nasty or unpleasant. I’m speaking personally of course; I’m sure there are plenty of people who would find the whole thing disgusting.
Unfortunately and perhaps inevitably it can’t maintain its gleefully sick tone all the way to the end and descends into typical American horror territory as it all becomes a bit mawkish and formulaic. There’s also a subplot involving a cop investigating the origins of the mysterious phone calls and uncovering a conspiracy concerning the Catholic Church that feels tacked on and even the legendary presence of Ron Perlman as said cop can’t make it interesting, although it does dovetail cleverly with the main story.
But overall it’s a fun and depraved way to spend 90 minutes, especially if you’re watching it with some like-minded friends and it’s a very (un)pleasant antidote to the standard predictable slasher fare.
Overall Verdict: A highly enjoyable black comedy that doesn’t quite manage to keep its sadistically entertaining act up for the whole running time but still has enough sick laughs and fun performances to make it worthwhile.
Special Features:
Behind the scenes footage
Reviewer: Adam Pidgeon