First there was Jimmy Stewart in REAR WINDOW, then Tom Hanks in THE ‘BURBS’ and Shia LeBoeuf in DISTURBIA. Now it’s the turn of Alex MacNicoll as Colton in the new supernatural thriller DAY 13 to get a little crazy over things going bump in the night next door.
Colton, you see, is a another example of those mildly paranoid teenagers who has to look after his younger sister whilst his single, divorced mother goes on a girls trip for a couple of weeks. The house next door has been dormant for years, but pretty soon a father and daughter move into it, prompting Colton to make a few curious viewings of what is going on when he sees some unorthodox lights and activity within one evening.
He puts some security cameras up outside and trains them on the house, which he discovers was the only one to survive a deadly fire in the neighbourhood years ago following some online research. However, the daughter Heather (Genevieve Hannelius) discovers what he is up to and threatens to call the police.
After Colton explains the situation, Heather reluctantly allows him to keep the cameras going, but pretty soon darker intent from the father, Magnus Torvald (Martin Kove, Kreese in the original 1984 KARATE KID), whom Heather discloses early on to Colton is actually her foster father, begins to emerge…
Directed by Jax Medel from a screenplay by Dan Gannon and Walter Goldwalter, DAY 13 follows an all-too-familiar horror genre template and with the addition of security cameras in the zone reminds one of both the aforementioned examples crossed with a liberal dosage of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and a touch of Brian De Palma’s 1976 version of CARRIE up to a point.
Admittedly, you can anticipate a lapse in logic at one point (Colton at one point is using a camera to snoop round the neighbours house, but has a bright light beaming out on the top of it!), but it is solid in other aspects of the film, utilising effective darkness and shadow where possible to suggest, rather than show, the impending horror on display.
Kove has never quite been able to shake off the guise of Kreese, such was the effectiveness of his portrayal – and he has been part of horror films for a long time, harking back to his role as the bumbling sheriff in the late Wes Craven’s original controversial 1972 version of THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.
DAY 13 never comes close to the intensity of that cult classic, but does attempt to build some considerable suspense in the final third as things begin to come to a head for our inquisitive protagonist as he attempts to delve deeper into Magnus’ intentions, evil or otherwise.
One definitely for bona-fide horror fanatics.
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