Review of 13Hrs (2010) by James S — 23 Apr 2012

The makers of 13 Hrs seem to be relying heavily on the curiosity of seeing Draco Malfoy, Lisa from Hollyoaks and the son out of My Family in a horror movie to attract an audience, rather than putting much work into the script and direction of the film.

None of 13 Hrs failings could really be laid at the feet of its cast. As young as they are, most of them have cut their teeth on British TV for years and are not bad at all, given the poor quality of material they've been handed to work with.

Isabella Calthorpe returns to home from the US to find her mother away, her step father drowning his financial related troubles and her younger brothers getting lap danced by Gemma Atkinson. A storm moves in, the power goes off, something tries to eat everyone as they flail about screaming for the next hour and a half. 13 Hrs doesn't win any awards for originality, that's for sure!

Although there are one or two decently gory make up jobs, the budgetary restraints mean that scenes of blood curdling slaughter are quick and badly shot so the viewer is only afforded the meekest glimpse at what is happening. Sometimes this can work, but on this occasion, it doesn't. Hoping the film can make up for this by showing a pov from the creature with a red filter on the lens is a poor substitute. The kill scenes are also all so quick that they don't have time to build any tension before we're back to the characters huddled together and arguing again.

Tom Felton is underused in the movie. He does a a humourous Inbetweeners style monologue but it would have been nice to see more of him. Gemma Atkinson plays to type as the slutty best friend but she is decent and looks the horror movie victim part at least.

The films big twist ending will surprise no one who has seen any sort of horror film before, especially as it so well spelled out during the film. 13 hrs naturally ends on a note which leaves it open to a follow up though it'd be hard to imagine anyone wanting one.

The ensemble cast doing their best with a bad lot save this from being a total disaster but the film is still doing nothing we haven't seen before, and not doing that very well.