STUDIO: Weinstein Company
RELEASE DATE: March 11th, 2008
STARRING: Krissada Terrence, Achita Wuthinounsurasit, Sarunyu Wongkrachang, Nattapong Arunnate, Alexander Rendel, Penpak Sirikul
WRITTEN BY: Chukiat Sakveerakul
DIRECTED BY: Chukiat Sakveerakul
FEATURES: The Making of 13: Game of Death
Trailer
Teaser

It doesn’t matter if you’re not into the recent sub-genre of torture horror or wave of Asian remakes, it’s all here to stay… at least for a while. All you need to do is look at the sequels to Saw and Hostel for proof. The good news is that for those who can’t get enough of this bloody stuff, there’s a new spin to recently hit our shores called 13: Game of Death. While Saw and Hostel were American born horror incarnations, 13: Game of Death hails from the mysterious steamy jungles of Thailand and follows the popular Asian-American hybrid model to offer fans a ton of insanely awesome brutality. It’s exactly what you should expect when you play this DVD game of death.

For those now schooled in Asian horror, 13: Game of Death will remind you of several worthy imports we’ve seen in recent years, namely the Chan-wook Park Vengeance Trilogy, with a little Michael Douglas Falling Down thrown into the mix. Better known to Thai horror fans as 13: Beloved, the story follows the journey of Chit (Krissada Terrence), a nice dude that’s had a string of horrifically bad luck that sounds eerily similar to a country song by Hank Williams Jr. or Travis Tritt (lost his job, his car, his girlfriend, and he’s got money problems). When a mysterious phone caller offers Chit $100 million to take part in a game show with thirteen challenges, he jumps at the chance to become an early retiree. But with instant wealth comes a few strings, twists, and unexpected turns. So what do the 13 challenges involve? Well, how far you would go to get your hands on that type of pocket change?

Like most awesome horror movies from the Orient, it’s all about suspense and tension and what you don’t see first and foremost over gore. When Chit gets to the final few challenges, the game becomes a non-stop thrill ride into the unexplained and bizarre. Before the truly disturbing stuff begins, we’re gradually exposed to the horror via tactful execution of tension. The movie begins as a drama, slightly turns into somewhat of a dark comedy, then a roller coaster ride into absolute evil. The lengths someone will go to for the all mighty dollar will keep you glued to the screen and looking over your shoulder. Call it a morbid curiosity.

As for 13: Game of Death as a DVD, it’s somewhat of a challenge to find a lot of extras since the disc only includes a trailer, a teaser and a 17-minute making-of-feature, which does serve up decent insight into how the cast and crew felt about the game within horror, especially how technology and virtual reality will further desensitize the population to a society filled with violence. The best thing… we learned how to make fake doggie poop, which would be horridly disgusting if you had to eat it to get $100 million.