13 TEEN proves one crucial fact of movie making and that is if you are going to center a movie around three characters you need two things. For starters you need strong actors that can lend their charisma to the role and this is evident in Matthew Modine and David Alan Grier’s performances in “Streamers.” Second you need crackling and intelligent dialogue to make up for the slow pacing and sadly 13 TEEN does not offer either of those two things.
The premise bolsters a lot of potential, which is never utilized. A ferocious storm in the town of Emeryville causes an unlikely trio of people to be trapped together in a house, where one of them just might be a vicious serial killer. The killer on the lam carves the number 13 into the body of the victim and you can’t help but feel that this is a needless rehash of a million other entries in this genre.
The film gets the supposed tension building when a young girl named Sara receives an unexpected visitor named Andrew, who is a real estate consultant. He needs some papers signed to proceed with the selling of this house, which according to Sara is not up for sale. The audience slowly sees that Andrew may not be of sound mind as he waits for the rain to clear up to leave her house.
When the doorbell rings a second time, Sara believes that the scripture quoting home security technician may just be her savior (Or the killer.)
Are you already falling asleep at the thought of watching this film?
The actors all wear-out their tedious welcome by the 62 minute mark of the film and it is generally just poor casting on the untalented director’s part. It feels that the stand-ins for a local community theatre were finally allowed to try to act and we the audience get to watch them fail miserably. In the end you will find yourself praying that these actors kept their day jobs.
Also none of these supposedly sane people have motivations that make any sense. Early on Andrew claims that his ride will return shortly and in the end when the ride does return it makes no sense that it took the driver so long. The characters go through a Swiss cheese plot.
The actors are housed in a direct-to-video quality of cinematography and lousy direction that miraculously manages to hold your attention for the most part but 13 TEEN is not worth your money for a repeat viewing.
The quote on the box states that 13 TEEN is “Seven” meets “Paranormal Activity” and it is hard to imagine that anyone would compare this picture to the amazing suspense laden “Seven.”
If your looking for a great new horror movie then keep looking.
– Anthony Benedetto
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
