"A terrifying film, riveting, unsettling, with a marvellous and completely unpredictable twist at the end" Douglas Preston (author of THE RELIC).
Is it just me, or are there shitloads more horror films surfacing from all over the world these days?
Our Asian friends appear to have gone mental throughout the last decade or so, spewing forth countless sickie gore fests year-in year-out (not that we're complaining!).
And with affordable digital media paving the way forward for aspiring young film-makers, nowadays it would seem anyone with time on their hands and a few friends to call upon can make their own movie.
Which is all very good, of course. It's fantastic to see our genre - forever the underdog, forever threatening to cannibalize itself and disappear up mainstream Hollywood's arse for good - thriving on such a wide scale level.
But, and it has to be said, as much as it is encouraging to see such a wealth of new horror flicks being produced these days, it cannot be denied that more frequently than ever before … the vast majority of them will be forgotten as soon as the end credits roll onto the screen.
Wading through new films these days is like listening to endless variations of "Use Your Illusion Part 2", when all you're really hoping to uncover is the next "Appetite For Destruction".
Well, writer/director/actor Jeff Thomas' 13 SECONDS comes very close to being the latter.
For the uninitiated, 13 SECONDS is a 2003 shot-on-digital-medium production from the US that's won several awards in the last year or so (including prizes at the New York Independent Film Festival [Best Horror Feature] and the Calgary International Horror Film Festival). In fact, UK readers may have even caught it at 2003's Festival Of Fantastic Films …
13 SECONDS tells the tale of a rock band - Night Caller - who have reformed to record their 3rd album. Seeking somewhere novel and secluded to record their latest tunes, a record company exec has pointed them towards a former boarding school, now abandoned.
Upon reuniting, it is obvious there is underlying animosity between certain band members - most notably Colin (Robert Yensch) and Davis (director Thomas).
Aside from internal struggles, the band appears to have more than it's fair share of external woes … Colin is still trying to rebuild his relationship with cheating partner Kara; Davis has been suffering from scarily realistic, violent nightmares - and discovers other band members have too; and so on.
But regrouping whilst not particularly 'feeling the love' between each other and laying down tracks for that all-important 3rd album soon become the least of the band's worries as strange things start to happen in the deserted school … images appear at windows then disappear again, weird voices are heard on the other end of cell phones, members of the group stumble across an art gallery that holds paintings upon it's walls depicting the impending violent fates of their friends, and one by one the band members and their crew are going missing …
As a group of survivors realise their friends are most likely dead, and they themselves are trapped within the school, things start to get decidedly fraught and oh-so-supernatural for Davis, Sidetrack (Robert Miller) and co.
In 13 SECONDS Thomas has crafted a clever film that overcomes the limitations of it's small budget by employing a rare commodity in modern horror films: imagination.
Creative, well-executed set-pieces abound (with stunning regularity) and intriguing use of light and shadow boost the film's atmospherics dramatically. There's also excellent mileage drawn from the boarding school too, offering as it does a wonderfully foreboding location for much of the unrelenting action. And the final twist is sure to get the film's audience talking too! Well, you'll benefit from watching the whole thing again, knowing the conclusion in advance …
It's great to see a new film that wants to put the creeps up it's audience too, as opposed to simply grossing them out with lashings of cheap gore.
There's plenty of effective, slowly escalating 'scare' scenes to speak of - with off-kilter camera angles and sombre piano-led music maximising the effect. Kudos to Mike Poland, then, for a memorably chilling score. In fact, I was much relieved when the anticipated death metal soundtrack DIDN'T materialise … the spooky traditional music is far better!
As creepy as the film strives to be though (and succeeds), that's not to say it doesn't indulge in a healthy amount of splatter. It does! People are hung by their own disembowelled intestines … demons force dagger-like fingernails into the arms of their victims … a hand bursts through a victim's chest and proceeds to throttle them with it's deadly grip … you get the picture?!
All of which is made even more satisfying when you consider Thomas' direction ensures all of the action is tightly edited, and well-shot throughout. The FX themselves are very stylishly conceived by Malefactor Studios EFX … much akin to the low budget quality that worked so well in, say, the first HELLRAISER.
Technically speaking, Thomas is a master of his medium and knows how to frame things perfectly. The editing is spot-on too. In fact, if faults were to be picked it would be with the randomly listless acting of some characters … and the fact that DV will still deter some viewers, who still insist on everything being shot on film!
Overall though, this is a film that impresses by inventively working around it's medium and budget to create a genuine atmosphere and memorable denouement - the likes of which the horror fraternity is starved of in 2004.
So, look out for this coming your way soon! (And watch it more than once - it sinks in and actually gets spookier with each viewing!!).
More information on the film - and it's production company - can be found at www.rainstorm-pictures.com. In the meantime, click here to check out my recent interview with the film's writer/director, the very cool Jeff Thomas.
Review by Stuart Willis