The 13th Floor
Ambitious and ruthless Sydney businessman Robert Thompson should know that work and family do not mix, his mistake having young daughter Heather in the back of the car as he arrives at a late night meeting atop a high rise construction site, admonishing her to remain and await his return, an instruction she ignores, witnessing as he tortures a man he believes has stolen from him and murdering his son.
Twelve years later, the building complete, the 13th floor remains vacant, any company which has rented the space finding the air conditioning doesn’t work, their computers fail and the electricity is unpredictable, a perfect space for Heather to hide from her controlling father along with her friends Rebecca and Nick, hunted for the information she holds which could bring his career and political ambitions tumbling.
An Australian thriller released in 1988, not to be confused with the American virtual reality science fiction film of a similar name of 1999, The 13th Floor was written by Chris Roache with Lisa Hensley, Miranda Otto and Paul Hunt as the squatters and Tony Blackett and Vic Rooney as the misanthropic Thompson and violent drunken private detective Rooney, on the hunt for Rebecca and the incriminating documents.
A hint of the supernatural lurking in the background, the spectre of the boy manifesting in blue arcs of electricity, it never serves to drive the plot other than as a get-out card when Heather manages to get herself in trouble again, trying to live off grid and incognito but reacting when her name is called, The 13th Floor limping forward with the tepid energy of a cheap soap opera and little official investigation into the mysterious deaths in the building.
Heather and Nick with the emotional cognisance of children, much of the film is aimless wandering around the office block and the neighbourhood, a lower floor conveniently home to the social security office where passwords are not enforced, the top floor home to boorish security guard Bert (Jeff Truman) and his penthouse pool, unable to perform his job with any modicum of professionalism or diligence.
Everyone around Heather dying as a consequence of her actions or inaction, The 13th Floor is a dreary slog, more about masculine egos and fantasies which are of no interest to the women they chase after, a condemnation of the Australian male of the era but not one which entertains, a single scene late in the film, using the proximity of another high rise office to issue a threat, the sole moment of invention.
The 13th Floor is streaming on Shudder now
