A cobbled-together work of suspense and psycho-drama, 13 Campanadas follows the story of young Argentinean-schooled Jacobo (Juan Diego Botto), returning to Spain to reclaim his family home and to put to rest issues stemming from traumatic childhood treatment at the hands of his now-deceased, artistic genius of a father. Afraid of ending up like his schizo mother, and haunted by the ghost or visions of his father, there's plenty of intense, dark moments. Unfortunately, there are also moments of incredible cheesiness, like when father transmits the artistic might of his hands to his son via a block of clay. There are limits to where we can ask audiences to suspend their disbelief, and even in these type of genre pics that traffic in the fantastic, adherence to predisposed modes are oft expected and departures from these rules of engagement are based on assumed, shared 1st principles. This film eschews all that and bravely blazes its own path though the result is frequently disjointed.
Such misgivings --including the cheap, soundstage-y feel at the start and subsequent challenged production values-- detract from what could have been a good study in the nature of the schizo-hallucinating mind, a theme explored too late but from which the film extrudes most of if not all of its suspense and drama. Still, Jacobo is kind of a cute guy, and you do get to see his butt, unfortunately for the film, one of its few high points.
dir Xavier Villaverde
aka 13 Chimes
aka 13 Curses
13 Campanadas trailer (Spanish no subtitles):
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