13 EERIE

“13 Eerie” is a brand new horror/sci-fi film from director Lowell Dean. It stars Katherine Isabelle (American Mary, Freddy vs Jason) Michael Shanks (Stargate SG-1) Brendan Fehr (Final Destination, Adopting Terror) and Brendan Fletcher (Tideland, Summers End). A group of six undergrads studying forensic science, head out to the campsite of an abandoned state prison for a practical exam. “Tomkins” (Shanks) is the professor who has set up cameras at various locations around the site to film the students as they practice their craft on real corpses. Captain Veneziano who has helped Tomkins organise the operation, fails to mention that illegal biological tests were run on some of the prisoners many years ago, they had horrific results. The group must attempt to survive an attack from deformed ex-convicts who are trying to eat them.

This has a great cast that also includes Jesse Moss (Tucker and Dale vs Evil) and Nick Moran (Harry Potter films). The standout performance though is from Katherine Isabelle as “Megan”. She has a great fighting spirit and the will to get through the situation, she has some pretty solid emotional scenes too. Everybody else is solid as well. It’s quick pacing and effective shooting style really take you along for the ride. We get enough of a back story to be content with the end result. The audio was also very clear, along with the score which was a bit like one of John Carpenter’s films. It had that creepy aspect “The Thing” had.

On top of the technical aspects, the movie has some fantastic kill scenes and blood and gore effects. The undead or deformed convicts (whatever you want to call them), looked really cool with horribly deformed and decaying skin. The kill scene that stands out most to me would be when Megan uses an explosive device to take out one of the mutants! The other actions scenes are pretty cool too. I’m not sure if the actors playing mutants wore full body suits or whether it was genuine makeup effects, I couldn’t really tell, so that’s a good thing.

13 Eerie does have a few minor issues that include, content of the story and some of the characters decision-making. I’m not sure how the “mutants” actually come to life, they never really made a connection. I’m guessing it had something to do with the oil and crossed wires with the generator? I’m not too sure. At the same time no one really seems that shocked that they are being attacked by these convicts. Everyone just acts like it’s a normal thing which is a very unrealistic reaction. It becomes evident the only way you can kill them is by a massive blow to the head, I’m not sure why this is the only way they can be killed, That goes unexplained as well. It’s a little bit slow to get to the action sequences which is of course what we are all waiting for. Some of the 80’s synth music was a little bit lame too and didn’t fit the nature of the film.

To sum up, what we have here is a cool little cross between “Jeepers Creepers” and the foreign film “Mutants”. Even with the film’s story issues it’s 80 minutes of good solid undead ass kicking. Great practical effects and a technically well made product make this a horror film definitely worth checking out!

My rating for “13 Eerie” is 6/10