The 13th Friday

Great special effects strapped to a dull story.

There are some interesting technical aspects to this film that are unfortunately weighed down by weak acting, a terrible script and some choppy editing. The film wouldn't have been too bad if it has fewer characters and a shorter run time.

A plus? An entirely Latino cast, which is a rarity for a US-made film. Unfortunately the director does not much with them and things get boring pretty quickly.

Not good. Not terribly bad. Just...meh

Some of the worst acting I ever seen, I wish I cloud rate this 0 stars!!!

Was not entirely excited by the idea of the story (though with the right execution it may have worked in a moderate guilty pleasure way), with it being nothing new and with the fear nothing new would be brought to it. Coming across 'The 13th Friday' by chance and having an appreciation for horror, despite not expecting an awful lot the decision was made to view it with an open and fair mind.

'The 13th Friday' turned out to be one of those films that didn't really excite on paper but seen also as part of a low-budget horror quest on top of having appreciation for the genre, and didn't fare much better, in fact it fared even worse, in how it was executed. Do not take any pleasure criticising the film, but it didn't work for me at all in almost every aspect.

Some lighting was not bad and had some atmosphere, but that is for me the only praise that can be given. Especially when it was very difficult to appreciate, let alone enjoy, it properly when the editing especially was so confused and jumpy. Can definitely see the failed student film project comparison.

Audio is obvious and intrusive and although 'The 13th Friday' is not the director's first film it honestly feels like a woefully inexperienced under-budgeted directing effort.

One of the worst aspects was the acting, which is unspeakably dreadful all round. Especially from the lead actress, giving perhaps one of the worst performances ever. The script is horrendously stilted and the characters are not interesting or rootable at all.

Furthermore, there is no tension or suspense whatsoever. The film is far too dully paced and uneventful to be thrilling and is just too silly, jumpy and predictable to evoke any sense of terror. Some of it is not very easy to follow either.

In summary, no thrills or terror to be found with this Friday. 1/10 Bethany Cox

When I saw Uncork'd Entertainment was the distributor of this movie, I should have had the good sense to turn it off at that point. I love horror movies. I love bad B-list horror movies. This movie, however, isn't one of those 'it's so bad it's good.' This movie is just awful-start to finish. The acting is absolutely atrocious, some of the worse I've seen if I'm being honest. The plot of the movie made no sense, the ghost story at the beginning of the movie was convoluted. But the worst part of this movie has to be the godawful editing. It jumps from one scene to the next randomly and without explanation, making it impossible to keep up or image what the director's vision was.

The lighting and sound were fantastic, especially for an Indy film. The story had glimmers of something interesting, but it just plodded along from one event to the next as if they were following a storyboard and not a screenplay. The beginning and trailer were great, but then it seemed like a while different film by a whole different director/production crew.

It might have managed to rise above this if the lead actress wasn't so terrible. I spent most of my time wondering how she got chosen, especially with how many choices they obviously had, any of the other women on screen would have been better. I don't think I have ever seen a film where I was actually angry the lead took the role when she had no idea what she was doing. I'm usually very patient with low budget horror flicks, and forgiving, but this is such a waste. So many other films wish they had the talented crew and at least enough budget to make something great, but these guys seemed oblivious to that fact. A minor personal peeve of mine is in movies that are obviously done in English to reach the broadest audience, but yet are obviously foreign, and I wonder if something got lost in translation? Maybe this would have been excellent if done in the native tongue of the actors, writers, and location? I rarely write reviews, but this one irritated me to the point I had to lodge my complaint,, somewhere!