Regarding '13 Eerie', that it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there (though there are decent to good ones as well),made me apprehensive, as well as that there are more bad zombie films than good ones. Did like the idea though and the cover gave the impression it would be fun and creepy.

'13 Eerie' is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws present in those films are here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. It is weak despite a promising start, with so many huge flaws and doesn't do anywhere near enough with its potential, which was quite a good deal. There is hardly anything good here, just amateur hour for most of the film

What stops '13 Eerie' from being unwatchable is the first 20-30 minutes or so, very promising, does maintain intrigue and actually does live up to the title.

Katherine Isabelle also tries hard and carries the film quite well.

Unfortunately, '13 Eerie' falls completely downhill once the zombies appear, and the rest of the film is a complete and utter mess.

Going on to the negatives, the story does feel over-stretched and some of it comes over as vague and under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less unsettled and never gaining momentum. All the characters are too sketchy and with cardboard thin and colourless personalities and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates. The chemistry is bland and unfocused.

The sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and all of the acting is lacking severely on the whole excepting Isabelle, that's actually an understatement as the worst of it is horrendous. There is no sense of horror or engagement with the awful predicament they're in, and no connecting with the character, it just reeks of indifference which makes the viewer not care less too.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace and film drags on forever after the promising first twenty minutes, interest is lost fast. The ending has no build-up and just ends ridiculously and anti-climactically. Found too many of the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Thrills are few, thanks to stodginess and excessive over-familiarity, and found myself never invested in the drama, which tended to be indifferently acted, interminably paced and statically directed.

A lot of '13 Eerie' has really dull and going nowhere plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you shocked are far from creative or unsettling. It all feels rather mean-spirited. The zombies are as far away from intimidating or creepy as you can get, the unintentional goofiness of their appearance is where the problem start, followed by the lack of personality, how poorly used they are and how severely lacking the zombie action is.

Very little freaky or interesting, no development and too derivative, while everything once the zombies appear is unimaginative and are more odd than scary, completely failing to show any sense of dread. There is very little interesting or illuminating with what the film was trying to do and the drama is overwrought, the zombie action has no guts or adrenaline and basically just lumbers along. Some badly sagging momentum too and a lot of weirdness. The direction is leaden, got the sense their heart was not in it and it lumbers just as much as the zombies, and the music is ill-fitting. '13 Eerie' is very amateurish visually, making one feel nauseous and actually did feel a headache coming on. It is haphazardly edited and the zombies look awful.

Overall, eeriness is sadly minimal. Started off well, felt like a different film once the zombies were introduced and it stayed that way until the end. 3/10 Bethany Cox

13 EERIE is an odd little horror movie for sure. Shot out in the Canadian woods, it sees a group of forensic students travelling to a deserted island for a training exercise, where real-life dead bodies have been provided in order for them to hone their skills. Unfortunately, one of the bodies is no longer dead, and soon an aggressive zombie virus is spreading through the island.

The title makes this sound like a supernatural ghost story but in fact its a grisly, gory effort. It starts out like the Christian Slater thriller MINDHUNTERS before morphing into a virtual reprise of the EVIL DEAD remake; even the zombie make-up looks the same as the demons in those movies. It can hardly be an EVIL DEAD rip-off - it only came out a month after the remake - but I'm sure the producers saw at least a trailer for EVIL DEAD and decided to copy the look. 13 EERIE is refreshingly old-school when it comes to the effects scenes, preferring to concentrate on old-fashioned prosthetics than the cheesy CGI usually found in such productions.

The film isn't perfect, with some odd and unsuccessful choices made along the way; the decision to make the zombies growl like lions was a poor one, for example, and the abrupt ending is anticlimactic. But the copious and extremely unpleasant gore effects make it a stomach-churning thrill ride, and GINGER SNAPS star Katharine Isabelle makes for an effective and likable heroine. Watch out for Brit actor Nick Moran nailing a southern accent.

13 Eerie (2013): The Good, the Bad and Recycled Zombies

Synopsis: Six forensic science students go to an abandoned prison facility for field work. Little do they know that the facility was used to test hazardous chemicals on the death row inmates.

The Good: It's always best when you don't expect much from a movie. I've had this one in my collection for a while, but always passed it by because nothing really stuck out about it. The concept didn't seem all that appealing, none of the actors or actresses are well known (which isn't a big deal in horror),cover art was pretty "meh"... I just felt like the movie was going to let me down. Having finally watched it, I'll say that I was moderately impressed. Now don't get me wrong, I rated it a 4 of 10, so that has more to do with lowered expectations than anything else, but still, there were some things to like about this movie. Aside from one or two actors, I thought this was a bright spot for the movie. Typically, you have to suffer through the acting and focus on plot and gore, but this group did a nice job with the dialogue given. Speaking of gore, the effects crew on this movie did a pretty darn good job. The budget was $3MM CAD, which is higher than I expected, but I still felt there was the appropriate amount of gore for a zombie film and it was well done. None of that cheesy CGI gore either. Good old fashioned practical effects and there wasn't any skimping on the kill shots. This is a very watchable film, it just suffers from not being much different from a million others. Which takes us to the bad....

The Bad: While it wasn't really boring or a waste of time, there really wasn't anything to set it apart from other same-genre comparisons. We've seen it before and we've seen it done better. Even though toxic waste is the catalyst to the carnage, this is simply another zombie movie. Are there subtle differences? Sure. But at it's core, it's just another addition to the mind-numbing obsession with the zombie genre as of late. Honestly, it's hard to find any good zombie movies anymore because they are being churned out faster than we can digest them and the cookie-cutter mold is getting super stale. Maybe that's why I wasn't as hard on this film as I could be, because it was certainly watchable, low-budget horror. Those things are almost mutually exclusive in this day and age. Still, I am almost inclined to say "Nothing to see here, people. Move along."

The Recycled Zombies: One of my pet peeves is recycling something in a movie because of cheapness. It is just so distracting. I get that you only have so much money and sometimes you have to make due. On this movie, I was able to look past the set location, which is quite minimal and all within a very condensed location. It all kind of looks the same. They are either in the bus, in the woods or in one of a few shacks that all look the same. I can look past that. What was very hard to look past is the fact that I think they were recycling the zombies. I'm sure it was tough to get all the make-up effects looking great... and they did look pretty great, but when one of them dies, the next one that comes around looks strangely familiar. Maybe the ripped prison garb is slightly ripped in a different spot or the zombie is shirtless this time or whatever, but by the time they show up for the sixth or seventh time, you start to get wise to the charade. I feel cheapened as a viewer. Like, "Did you really think I wasn't going to notice that this is the same zombie that you just killed ten minutes ago?" There's not a worse crime as a director than taking your audience for a bunch of blind morons. I suppose there is a chance that I AM a blind moron and the zombies were just really similar, but I think I'll listen to my gut on this one.