The movie Locker 13 has been released on DVD and it features five stories that have the feel of Twilight Zone segments. The thrillers are each as eerie as the next. Nicely written the low budget film entertains with surprising good acting and able direction. If you like films that add some unexpected twists, then Locker 13 should have you keeping the lights on all night.
In the first episode Ricky Schroder stars as Tony “the Trigger” Novak, a boxer down on his luck and ready for retirement. Unexpectedly he is given a pair of old beat up boxing gloves by the locker attendant. When he gets a shot at another fight, things start to turn around.
Clifford (Curtis Armstrong) takes his friend Eugene (Bart Johnson) to his lodge meeting. It’s Initiation Night and Eugene is excited to be accepted into the club that his best friend has bragged about. Ever present at these affairs is the girl who jumps out of the cake, and Lola (Cathy Rankin) is up for the fun job. When an unexpected key leader (Steve Briscoe) in the organization shows up and sees that the initiation is not up to his standard, he decides to change the rules. But, that’s not a good thing for Eugene.
William (Alexander Polinsky) takes off his shoes and steps up onto the edge of a tall building. Just when he gets set to jump he hears someone behind him. It’s Jack (Jason Marsden) a member of “The Suicide Club”. His job is to go around the country making sure that those committing suicide do it right. When Jack objects to William’s method, things start to get out of hand.
Not everyone can make top dollar being a hitman for a living, but Harvey (Rick Hoffman) seems to do his job a little bit different than others in his profession. You see he has three women, Patricia (Krista Allen), Rachel (Marina Benedict) and Marsha (Carmen Perez) chained to a wall, one of them has anonymously paid him to kill Armando (Thomas Calabro). What we don’t know is although each has a motive for wanting Armando dead and since Harvey has already been paid, why does Harvey care?
The final story involves ex-con Skip (Jason Spisak) who takes a job in an old west amusement park. His boss Archie (Jon Gres) knows he has done time, but wants to help the man get back into society. Each night Skip’s job includes sweeping the locker room and Archie has told him not to mess with locker number 13. Of course it doesn’t take long for the temptation to get the best of Skip and he opens locker 13.
The acting in this low budget film is not half bad. Each of the characters is fleshed out well, look the part and makes worthwhile performances. The directors present their stories with good camerawork and the sets work well for each of the tableaus. While a couple yarns are somewhat predictable, others have a surprising twist.
The complete anthology has not been rated by the MPAA, but contains violence, language and adult content. Be cautious when deciding to allow immature children see the film as it does have some scenes that are inappropriate for adolescents.
Additional Film Information:
Cast: Ricky Schroder, Jason Spisak, Jon Gries, Thomas Calabro, Rick Hoffman, Krista Allen and Cathy Rankin
Directors: Bruce Dellis (segment: “The Byzantine Order”), Jason Marsden (segment: “The Author”), Matthew Mebane (segment: “Down and Out”), Adam Montierth (segment: “Suicide Club”), Donovan Montierth (segment: “The Other Side”)
Genre: Anthology, Thriller
MPAA Rating: Rated R for some violence
Running Time: 1 hr 30 min
Release Date: March 28, 2013
Distributed by: Brothers’ Ink Productions
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
