From 13 to 14 Cameras

Copyright 2019 by Gary L. Pullman

13 Cameras (2015) is about a mad, creepy, voyeuristic landlord, Gerald, who, as the movie's title suggests, installs 13 hidden cameras in the house he rents to pregnant Claire and her husband Ryan. The latter has had an affair with his assistant; although he tries to break off the extramarital relationship, his mistress, feeling spurned, harasses and stalks him, even coming to his home when Claire is present.

Perhaps the director meant to arouse doubts, before the true culprit is identified, as to who's behind the odd, sometimes alarming incidents that occur in the house. (Yes, Gerald's the bad guy.) At the end of the film, he abducts Claire.

Although critical reviews were mixed, overall, 13 Cameras received mostly positive notices. It did well enough at the box office, in fact, for it to merit a sequel, 14 Cameras (2018). Film Threat's Nick Rocco Scalia finds the sequel's pacing slower and the movie less suspenseful than they might have been, and he thinks that actor Neville Archambault (Gerald) is “forced to spend far too much of his screen time either stumbling around and grunting incoherently or staring slack-jawed into monitors or camera lenses.” Scalia also expresses his disappointment in the screenplay, which, he says, “fails to develop any memorable or sympathetic characters for the audience to root for.”

A review posted on Heaven of Horror by Karina Adelgaard, on the other hand, thinks 14 Cameras provides an intriguing spin on the original movie by having Gerald pose as a beautiful young woman who rents vacation homes (fully equipped with hidden spy cameras) and operating a subscription streaming video service showing the daily activities of his renters. “To me, 14 Cameras has managed to update the story perfectly with this new angle,” she writes.

Personally, I agree with Scalia that Gerald's “stumbling around and grunting incoherently or staring slack-jawed into monitors or camera lenses” gets old fairly quickly; in fact, I found myself smiling at the slack jaw, which makes him resemble a fish more than a maniac and is, for me, at least, unintentionally humorous. While it's true that the movie also lacks a bit of suspense at times, I also agree with Adelgaard that the new wrinkles concerning the multiple vacation homes and the addition of more characters makes the sequel its own picture, rather than just another installment in the fledgling franchise. I also found the long-suffering and witty, but slightly goofy, dad likable (“We're home!” he calls as he and his wife and son enter the vacation rental, warning his daughter and her girlfriend to “hide the booze.”) I also rooted for Gerald's freed captives and their liberator to escape Gerald's pursuit.

Would I watch 15 Cameras? Hopefully, it will be coming to a theater near me soon (or to Netflix).