13 Sins

13 Sins is a 2014 American horror-thriller film directed by Daniel Stamm. The film is a remake of the 2006 Thai comedy horror film 13 Beloved. Mark Webber stars as Elliot, a meek salesman who accepts a series of increasingly disturbing and criminal challenges. It premiered at the 2014 SXSW film festival and was released theatrically in the United States on April 18, 2014. This was the final film appearance of George Coe before his death in 2015. Plot Elliot Brindle, a meek salesman, loses his job despite his debt and the people who depend on him: Michael, his mentally disabled brother; Shelby, his pregnant fiancée; and Samson, his abusive father. Elliot receives a mysterious phone call that offers him $1,000 to assertively kill a fly that has been harassing him. After Elliot checks his bank account online and sees that he has been credited, he accepts the next challenge: to eat the dead fly. The caller explains that he will be offered a series of thirteen challenges, each of which will result in greater rewards. If he fails to complete any of them, interferes in the game, or reveals the game, he will forfeit all the money, including any he already won. The next few challenges attract police attention: making a young girl cry, arson, and scamming a homeless person with an ostrich. When the child identifies Elliot in the police station based on wanted posters, Detective Chilcoat takes over the case. Shelby becomes concerned about Elliot's secretive and odd behavior, and he explains that he is planning a surprise. For his sixth challenge, Elliot is forced to take a corpse of a man who committed suicide out for coffee. Given a strict deadline, Elliot panics and brazenly steals a cup of coffee from a table of on-duty police officers. When confronted, Elliot notices that they are drinking alcohol and threatens to file a complaint which forces them to back off. Elliot is rewarded two challenge completions for this feat. After he flees the scene, the caller tells Elliot that he has left behind his library card as evidence; however, if he wins the game, his record will be purged. At the same time, Chilcoat follows Vogler, a conspiracy theorist that has been investigating the game. Paranoid, Vogler flees Chilcoat but advises him to kill Elliot at his first opportunity. Chilcoat eventually tracks down Vogler at a bar and discuss that the game's sole purpose is turning players into monstrosities at the promise of millions of dollars.