"13 Sins" has a lot in common with another recent low-budget, independent film, "Cheap Thrills." In both, a down-on-his-luck young man, driven by extreme desperation, agrees to perform a series of unsavory/immoral/illegal acts in exchange for ever larger quantities of money.

The protagonist of "13 Sins," a psychological thriller written by David Birke and Daniel Stamm and directed by Stamm, is Elliot Brindle (Mark Webber), a harried and harassed insurance agent who has a number of people depending on him for their livelihood and support. These include his pregnant fiancé ("True Blood's" Rutina Wesley), his mentally- challenged younger brother (Devon Graye) and a cantankerous racist dad (Tm Power) who's been evicted from his home and now has to move in with Elliot and his black girlfriend. Then Elliot is summarily fired from his job, leaving him utterly bereft and desperate, until, that is, he receives a call from a mysterious stranger who offers to make Elliot a fortune if he successfully performs 13 tasks as part of a surreal "game show," the hitch being that he can't let anyone in on what he's doing or he'll lose all his winnings.

At first the tasks seem simple enough, but as they escalate in intensity, it quickly becomes apparent that the object of the game is to "show that anyone can be turned into a monster." And Elliot is only too willing to prove that point.

The mood is grim and the humor pitch-black in this Kafkaesque tale of an ordinary man caught in an incomprehensible nightmare from which he cannot awaken, a nightmare filled with shadowy figures and disembodied voices that hold him in their implacable grip - though, if truth be told, the lure of easy wealth can be awfully hard to resist, even when the price is as potentially dear as it is here. The movie is creepy and disturbing in its unflinching look at the morally depraved depths to which desperate people will sink in an effort to ameliorate their situation. It forces us to look at a lot of unsettling aspects of human nature - aspects we might not be all that willing to face - but that's what makes it an effective little horror film in the long run.

13 Sins is an effective horror thriller which ties itself in absurdities and also telegraphs its twists a little too much.

Elliot Brindle (Mark Webber) is salesman who gets fired for not being mean enough. Now without a job he is in debt, he needs to support his mentally handicapped brother, as well as his father who is in a old people's home and he is about to get married.

In a bleak predicament, Elliot gets a phone call asking him to complete some challenge for which he will get some easy money. The first one is easy, swat a fly and cash is deposited in his account.

When Elliot agrees to do more challenges, they get more perverse, dangerous and Elliot can make more millions.

Now Elliot is a driven man, there is a cop on his tail and there might be other people doing something similar. A fly in the ointment one might say.

13 Sins is a remake of a Thai film. It mixes horror with black humour. I was surprised that Elliot was not initially more sceptical with the jovial man on the phone and wondered about the all seeing eye that always watched Elliot.

The latter part of the film is just ludicrous yet it is enjoyable enough.

13 SINS is the American remake of the Thai horror film 13: GAME OF DEATH, which is well worth watching for anyone interested in the subject matter. It goes without saying that this remake is by far the inferior movie, although those who haven't seen the original might enjoy it regardless. The story is about a down-on-his-luck guy, struggling financially, who finds himself tasked with performing a series of tasks in return for money.

The stakes start off low but gradually build to more and more extreme situations. The budget for the film is low but the events staged are quite convincing, although it's unfortunate that some of the better tasks from the Thai original are skipped over. The main actor isn't particularly good but Ron Perlman is effective as the dogged cop investigating the case. The usual gamut of shocking scenes, bad taste moments, and gore are enough to keep this little story watchable.