A simple yet tense Aussie psychological thriller, the 13th Summer might not quite have you right on the edge of your seat, but there’s an escalating tension which at times has you close to it.
The plot follows an angry cop and his wife as they look for some respite at a remote beachside shack. After his acquittal from a contentious trial involving his involvement in some heavy-handed policing the two make their way up to their friend’s cabin; this being the 13th time they’ve made the annual summer trip.
Upon their arrival, however, they find that they aren’t alone with a young Englishman claiming that he has permission to stay by the owners. Unable to verify this, the cop opens introductions with a rather aggressive interrogation, catalysing a fraught relationship which only spirals towards rivalry with the cop’s wife caught in the middle.
That said, as the saying goes, just because he’s paranoid doesn’t mean you’re wrong!
The cop is suspicious around the lad’s intention, and indeed whether he really has permission to be there, the lad seems hellbent on bedding his Mrs, and the cop’s wife, well, she just gets stuck in the middle struggling to contain both the lures of her newfound attention, and her husband’s exuberant male posturing.
The couple’s relationship is already fraught owing to the aforementioned case and when you throw the third arm into the mix the story walks a thin line between suspicious and misconceived. As you would expect the male tension frequently centres around the cop’s wife, and whilst its obvious that the pomme is baiting the cop, quite why he’s doing it with such tenacity remains a mystery – well at least at first.
For the most part the film centres solely around the three, but it does expand to include more characters and a little more complexity towards the end of the movie.
On that note the characters, also fairly one dimensional, serve the story well and its refreshing to have strong actors producing organic performances rather than pushing cliched personas. The small cast hold the tension well and the script feels natural. I’m normally expecting a lot of cringy dialogue, but it truly never came. Just solid performances and conceivable characters
For a thriller the story is linear, with the back story of the trial only serving to offer some context to the cop’s hot-headed reactions. However, linear or not, the writing is strong enough to keep the films decent towards the inevitable interesting. It might all travel in one fairly direct direction, but there are a few pivotal moments scattered throughout the run-time which continue to up the ante.
There’s not a lot of violence, but it definitely does lean on the psychological part of the thriller component. With the exception of the cop’s wife – and even she manages some borderline decisions here and there, none of the characters are squeaky clean, and therefore the set pieces are able to riff off this to create the escalation needed to keep the atmosphere and tension.
Overall, the films climax, as inevitable as it all was, brought a satisfying end to a solid yet unsophisticated thriller. The 13th summer is a decent watch if you’re in the mood for some character focussed cat and mouse.
