13 Sins (2014)

 

Directed by Daniel Stamm, who co-wrote the screenplay with David Birke, 13 Sins is an indie horror and psychological thriller film that is based on a simple and straightforward concept, the

TV game show. In this movie, the show is an underground one, played on the stage of everyday life, which is monitored by hidden cameras for the entertainment of the super-rich and super-powerful. It is propagated via the ubiquitous mobile phones which most people now own. Regular, everyday people receive a call inviting them to participate in the Game, in which they can win cash prizes for completing increasingly repulsive and antisocial challenges. They find themselves both entrapped by the consequences of their actions and compelled by fear and greed to complete all thirteen challenges. In the process, players must overcome not only their personal scruples, but also violate major societal taboos and break basic moral and ethical boundaries.

 

The story follows one of these participants, Elliot (Mark Webber -- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World [2010]), a young college graduate and archetypal "nice guy" who works in sales to support his bigoted, cynical, disabled father (Tom Bower -- The Hills Have Eyes [2008]) and pay for the health care services that his autistic brother, Michael (Devon Graye -- Husk [2011]), needs to live a semi-independent life. Elliott also has plans to marry his pregnant girlfriend, Shelby (Rutina Wesley -- True Blood [2008]). Unfortunately, his idealistic principles and values make him a bad fit for his insurance sales job, from which he is mockingly fired by his boss (Richard Burgi -- Hostel: Part II [2007]) in the first act. Without a job, he cannot afford to pay his father's and brother's expenses, let alone the rent on the apartment that he and his fiancee share.

 

It is in this extremely vulnerable life situation that he receives the first call from the emcee of the Game (voiced by George Coe -- The Entity [1982]). The first two challenges are relatively straightforward ways of making some easy money to pay off overdue bills. However, Elliot soon finds himself confronted with tasks that he does not want to do. For a while, he is able to rationalize his continued participation in the Game, but ultimately he begins to change as he begins to enjoy getting away with acts that make him a wanted criminal, pursued by Detective Chilcoat (Ron Perlman -- Hellboy [2004]). Along the way, Elliot sets fire to a church, mutilates bullies who victimized him in high school, and takes the corpse of a suicide victim to a diner for a cup of coffee. Gorehounds will appreciate the amputation scene in the second act and the beheading scene in the third act.

 

Although this is a low-budget indie film, it plays like a more well-financed project. Part of this is due to small, inexpensive touches. For example, the technology of the Game includes changing the ringtone on the players' phones to a well-known circus tune that is creepy in the context of the story. This ringtone becomes an important plot device in the second and third acts. However, most of the quality of this movie comes from its execution of basic and fundamental horror-thriller filmmaking tasks. For example, the cold opening is a teaser that shows another player completing one of the higher-numbered challenges, but this cannot be understood until the viewer has learned about the Game. The opening credits show a world map marked with pins and string, showing the web of conspiracy that is the Game. Its meaning also is not apparent until the viewer has found out more about the story. Both the cold opening and the opening credits foreshadow a wider conspiracy that is later explained by a recluse conspiracy theorist, Vogler (Pruitt Taylor Vince -- Natural Born Killers [1994]).

 

Based on a story, “13: Game of Death,” by Chookiat Sakveerakul and Eakasit Thairatana, this film comments on the dark side of human nature -- specifically, the extremes to which people are willing to go for money and power. This applies to both the players and the makers and viewers of the Game. Extremely rich and powerful people use the Game for sport -- basically mocking the have-nots who give in the Game’s temptations and participate in hopes of improving their miserable lives. So, who is worse -- the everyday people who play the Game or the bored 1% of the 1%, who invade and corrupt these people’s lives to entertain themselves?

 

Although the film's title is 13 Sins, the acts that Elliott and the other players must commit are never referred to as "sins" in the movie. By using the word “sin” in the title, Stamm emphasizes the seductive nature of the moral evil to which the Game tempts its victims. An alternate ending, included in the "extras" on the DVD, shows this evil as inescapable. More consistent with the movie's theme, storyline, and tone, it was rejected in favor of the "happy ending" that made it into the film. This choice, likely made in hopes of attracting a wider viewing audience with a “San Fernando ending,” is the only major flaw of this film, which is otherwise well done.

 

 

The FriscoKid