13 Sins

I was browsing through netflix the other day and decided to watch this film called 13 Sins. Basically the plot of the film was a secret society calls everyday people and makes them do 13 tasks that get more gruesome each step. With each step they are given the reward of immunity from criminal charges and large sums of money. The thing that I found really interesting about the film was the use of close-ups with creepy non-diegetic music or sound. It gave me a strong feeling of angst and made me almost feel what the character was feeling. Though this was a great part of the film I felt like it was used a little too much and almost became slightly redundant.

One of the coolest things about this film was the intro when the the beginning credits were rolling. The intro just consisted of the camera panning over a wall with a map with different markers and a seal of presumably the underground society. The way it was filmed and put together was very interesting. Each scene would start off with almost a slow motion pan and end up almost shooting into fast forward. It was a very unusual effect and seemed a little awkward, but I felt that it fit perfectly with the creepy premise of the movie.

Finally the most interesting thing I found about the movie was its use of symbolism and small underlying details to tell a strange and freaky story. The whole idea of an underground society, which is supposedly made up of incredibly powerful people from every part of the world, who out of boredom bait common people with the reward of money for doing absolutely obscene crimes is an unusual concept and one that is very symbolic. I think this whole film was almost extreme representation of how so few people control so much of our world and we barely know who they are and what they do with this extreme power. Finally the thing I found to a bit clever was the constant use of flies as a symbol of the underground society. The very first task of the there 13 step game was to kill a fly and the next task was to eat it. Now knowing that in the Bible flies were used as a representation for death in the fourth plague of Egypt I presume the idea was that when the main character ate the fly he then became embodiment of death or evil. The underground society’s seal was also that of a fly, bringing me to conclude that they were also presumed to be the harbinger or bringer of death.

Overall I found this film a pretty good horror flick to watch if you’re bored.