13 Sins Review

Let me get something out of the way first because this is important. I hate remakes as much as the next person. I mean I really hate them. I am even considering creating a group similar to what Kyle and Stan did in a South Park episode called Free Hat to save their childhood favourite movies from countless remakes/updates/changes done by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. So that's how much I hate remakes.

However, I am also reasonable enough to at least appreciate one if done properly. 13 Sins, a remake of the incredible Thai movie titled 13: Game of Death, which is one of my most favourite horror movies to date, deserves a certain appreciation. While 13 Sins doesn't even come close to the standard set by 13: Game of Death, it certainly manages to captivate the viewer especially with a very solid start, but sadly only up until a certain point.

Acting wise 13 Sin was pretty solid. I quite enjoyed Mark Webber's lead, I think he did a commendable job. Ron Perlman and Tom Bower were all great.

The plot of the movie is of course the same as the original movie with little changes in circumstances. This time our protagonist, Elliot who is played by Mark Webber, is about to get married to his long-time girlfriend who also has a baby on the way. He also has a mentally disabled brother who will be institutionalised if he loses his insurance to pay for his care. Not to mention his overly racist father is about to get evicted from his home and thus has to move in with him and his soon-to-be wife who also happens to be African American. So things aren't looking good for our main character and they become even worse when he gets fired from his job instead of a promotion he highly expected.

Running out of money, our protagonist is indeed desperate. Trapped in his car just like he feels trapped by life itself he suddenly gets a phone call. The voice tells him to kill the fly trapped inside the car with him and he will instantly win 1000$. Our character is surprised of course but he does as he is instructed. The next step is to eat the fly but with a bigger money reward. The higher the rewards go the more our character gets sucked in this game that can easily be seen as a blessing especially at a time when he desperately needs the money to pay off a large sum of debts and to take care of his family. It does seem rather unbelievable to our character but as the games become more and more complicated and even more extreme he starts to realise what a big mistake he made by agreeing to participate in this game.

Gore wise 13 Sins is much better than 13: Game of Death but suspense and shock value wise 13: Game of Death will take the cake and put a lot of cherries on top. For people who watched the original like me, the first couple of games will be completely identical with just a different setting and different characters. I was actually starting to complain about it while I was watching the movie. But I think after about the 3rd or 4th game, things start to get a little bit different so that's good. Although a great game from the original movie is missing which disappointed me beyond words. The infamous motorcycle scene is there but the restaurant/meal scene in the original movie is completely avoided. I guess today's audience wouldn't be able to "stomach" it? But they can stomach movies like Twilight, Vampire Academy or Hostel... So that's a bit confusing. They all are "crap" after all. (The ones who watched the original movie will pick up on the pun).

There are also some inconsistencies. These happen in almost all movies of course but compared to the original movie the remake is filled with them especially toward the end which will make you enjoy the movie a lot less. End wise 13: Game of Death was much better although still not overly satisfying whereas 13 Sins end was a typical Hollywood ending which is something I completely despise. The next paragraph will be about some of these plot holes so there will be SPOILERS so I'm warning you.

"This paragraph contains SPOILERS". One of the plot twist in this movie was that Elliot's mentally ill brother is also in the game and in the end of the movie he tries to kill his dad, who also won the game many years ago by killing his wife, and then ultimately his brother Elliot in order to finish the 13th game to claim the prize (their father kills himself before the brothers can so one brother must kill the other in order to prevail). When you see the movie you will realise that it's really not that easy to reach the 13th game. Especially our character had to evade the police, escape from a police station and so on. Of course the games of different players don't have to be the same but they do reach a certain complexity after you progress further in. So how did his mentally challenged brother reach the 13th game? And what will he even do with the money even if he killed his family and won? He probably won't get to keep it, as he doesn't have anyone to take care of him he will be institutionalised anyway. But if he indeed reached that point I guess the gamemakers would tweak the system to leave the brother alone. They do have the power to provide a clean slate for the winners after all. 

"This paragraph contains SPOILERS". Another plot hole was the bully scene where Elliot had to amputate the arm of a bully from his past. I think it was high school where was bullied by his and his brother. There are actually 2 plot holes I noticed here. First, it is against the rules to interfere with another player's game. And mostly the players get to do the acts themselves. So "Get your arm amputated by your bully victim" surely wouldn't be appropriate for the player. You might be asking how I know that the bully is another player. Well the bully was willing to get his arm amputated and when Elliot refused to do it he even brought up a lot of offensive things they did to him in the past to get him to do it. They obviously offered him money so he was definitely in the game. Otherwise why would he even do something like that? He had money, a nice car and nice clothes so he was rich even before the game. He just succumbed to his greed to make more money. So yea to me he was definitely a player!

"This paragraph contains SPOILERS" Okay this one was very confusing. In the infamous motorcycle scene, Elliot helps an old lady, who is also in the game, by hanging the cloth line to her house which happens to be very close to a main road. By doing so he also raises a string that is connected to the cloth line and a piece of wood that covers the main road. He realises this just in time and manages to take off the wood to save the incoming group of motorcyclist from getting decapitated. I guess the directors didn't want to disappoint the viewers of the original movie and must have thought that we had to have our decapitation scene which I must admit is the best scene of the original movie. This is where the directors made a mistake. After Elliot takes off the wood we see one of the motorcyclist talking on the phone and saying that was the easiest money he ever made. So yea surprise surprise the motorcyclist is also playing the game. But after another player raises another string not so far from the original string which Elliot managed to remove, the motorcyclist is probably instructed to return to the way they came to get the next money reward so the group makes a U turn just to get decapitated by the second string anyway. Yes yes the game is designed by the richest and most influential 1% of the 1% in the world (who is also hinted in the movie to be behind the JFK assassination) so they can do whatever the hell they want with the players but players are usually given a chance to win/complete their games. But these cyclists never had a chance. So I just don't understand. I would have preferred for them to either get decapitated by Elliot's string or survive and ride away without an indication that they were also playing the game.  

Of course there are other plot holes but then this post would have to rather long. Apart from some of the questions I raised in the earlier paragraphs I actually enjoyed this movie. I had no expectations and I didn't think I would like it because I am prejudiced against remakes. But I'm glad I didn't have expectations because despite everything, I had a good time watching the movie. However, I'd still prefer the original Thai version any day and I recommend all of you to give these two movies a chance, especially the original one ;)