A few years back, I sat down and watched The Asylum’s release of 11/11/11, thinking I was watching Darren Lynn Bousman’s 11-11-11… yeah, I know, how silly of me to confuse the two! Well, apparently, this studio that releases awful, low budget knockoffs has been releasing these ‘doomed date’ movies (12/12/12 and so on) every year since then. Thankfully, last year’s installment, 13/13/13, is leaps and bounds better than 2011’s [and most likely 2012’s, too] failure.
Director James Cullen Bressack is becoming a master of low-budget cinema. He knows his limitations and doesn’t try to push the boundaries any further. Aside from a few CG gunshots and spider, there really isn’t much to complain about. All of the practical blood and gore effects looked great and anything Bressack couldn’t pull off realistically was done with some off-screen magic.
The acting in 13/13/13 was remarkably good. The best performances were delivered by Trae Ireland and Erin Coker who played our main protagonists, Jack and Candace. Additionally, the scenes with Jody Barton and J. Scott on screen together are brilliant! With some pretty goofy dialogue and pure madness, they were able to both entertain and properly portray the insanity that was occurring worldwide in the film.
I liked the fact that the plot of the film wasn’t bogged down with expansive detail and unnecessary science to try and explain the happenings. A brief scene between Jack and Candace covers everything we need to know and no more thinking is required afterwards.
If you have not watched any of James Cullen Bressack’s films, you should start seeking them out. At the young age of 21, Bressack has already proven his diversity with such films as To Jennifer and Hate Crime. There is no doubt that as he matures as an artist and filmmaker, he will go on to bigger and better things.
Overall, I give 13/13/13 3.5 green CG spiders out of 5.
I’ve already expressed my feelings on James Cullen Bressack once before in my review of his wonderful film To Jennifer. So it probably won’t come as a shock to any of you that I really enjoyed his film 13/13/13, as well. I had seen what he could accomplish using the bare minimum format of found footage, so I was eager to see what he was capable of with a bigger budget.
13/13/13 is a story with a Night of The Living Dead/The Crazies feel to it in which people not born on a leap year become ravenous, insane demons. What I like most about this film is the humor of insanity. Jody Barton and J. Scott pretty much steal the show. These two guys play so well off of each other, it leads me to believe that they are actually good friends outside of the film.
While this film has its faults with some bad acting here and there, it is far superior to stuff like the SyFy channel original films. When a director is handed a minimum budget, it can be tough to get everything from your script onto the screen. James has a subtle approach that enables him to get “more bang for the buck” so to speak.
It’s obvious that James has a close knit group of friends that he works with on films because they always seem to pop up in bit parts or star in his other work. This is a bonus for fans because you may only see an indie actor in one role and then lose them forever.
13/13/13 is an hour and a half that is meant for the fun horror crowd. When I was growing up, me and my buddies used to call these “popcorn movies.” Just go along for the ride — laugh at the silly acting, cringe at the gore, and just be happy to be entertained.
This film gets the Rottin’ Roger Demarco seal of approval with 3.5 Korean soldiers out of 5.
The cover of this release looks so awesome that if I would have found this in a rental place, I’d immediately choose this movie. Sounds interesting too! Nice reviews.
I saw this just now, great movie. As I said earlier I would have picked it for the cover of this release alone, but I think the cover with the demon-shadow is quite misleading. I expected to see some demon or something that turned people crazy on 13/13/13, using kids as some portal to enter the world. Anyway, even though it wasn’t what I expected, I thought it was very good!