13 SOULS (2026)
New On Demand and digital download from Seven Tales Entertainment!
Directed by Paulo Nascimento.
Written by Paulo Nascimento, Brittnay Johnston, Flavio de Castro Barboza.
13 SOULS (2026) Directed by Paulo Nascimento
Agne (Sienna Belle) lived with her mother Zila (Guenia Lemos) for days after she OD-ed and after the body was discovered she was returned to her estranged father Ariel (Tim Shelburne) and sister Nina (Brielle Tucker). Zila and Agne had been living on the run for years, leaving Agne mentally scarred and brainwashed into believing in her mother’s strange religious beliefs. Almost immediately after returning home with her father and sister, Agne begins exhibiting signs of possession, all leading to an incident where thirteen people lost their lives in a fire and were burned together into one pile of ash and bone. Because the authorities could not identify the bodies of the burned victims, they were buried in unmarked graves. All of this has something to do with Agne’s weird behavior, causing Ariel to seek help from a former exorcist Father Melchoir (Bernard Applewhaite).
13 SOULS (2026) available on Demand
13 SOULS is built around a very intriguing and haunting story, which the opening scrawl says is based on a true story. Thirteen people burned beyond recognition and buried in unmarked graves is gruesome and I wish the film would have leaned more into this concept. Instead, the film leans more towards more cliched possession material with Agne staring off into the dark, talking ominously, and eventually exhibiting scars and spouting blasphemous remarks as a priest shouts over her bearing holy water and a cross. It’s the kind of stuff we’ve seen too many times before and it’s a shame since the impetus of this whole nightmare is so unique and haunting. I guess one might say this one differentiates from the familiar EXORCIST roadways as the exorcism takes place outside in the graveyard where the 13 souls were buried in. But that just isn’t unique enough to make it work.
13 SOULS (2026) Directed by Paulo Nascimento
13 SOULS’ strength lays in its cast. Lead Sienna Belle is a powerful little actress, exhibiting confidence and the ability to “go there” in some gnarly scenes. Belle is by far the best actor of the bunch and most likely will go far if she decides to pursue an acting career. The rest of the cast is all over the place. Brielle Tucker and Tim Shelburne are decent as Agne’s sister and father, but because of a thick accent and little character development Bernard Applewhaite’s turn as the exorcist fails to make the desired impact. Still, Belle’s presence elevates the rest of the cast and makes the scenes watchable.
13 SOULS isn’t necessarily bad. Director Paulo Nascimento constructs some good-looking scenes of fire and gravestones. 13 SOULS just fails to live up to the backstory and premise, instead choosing to go the easy route.
