''The Fear of 13'' is a 2015 British

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

David Sington David Sington is a British-born director, producer, screenwriter and author. He read Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1981. Career He started his career in 1982 at the BBC World Service as a studio manager and subs ...

. It tells the story of

Nick Yarris Nicholas James Yarris (born 1961) is an American writer who spent 22 years on death row in Pennsylvania after being wrongfully convicted of murder. Prosecution, conviction, and exoneration Although disputed by some family members, Yarris has sta ...

, who was convicted and sentenced to

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

for a 1981 kidnapping, rape and murder, and spent 22 years on

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...

in Pennsylvania. Yarris was released in 2004 when DNA evidence established his innocence.

Synopsis

Nick Yarris tells his life story, in the style of a one-man show. In a non-linear structure provided by Sington's editing, Yarris reveals his early life, youthful transgressions, arrest, and time on death row, with several twists and turns. No one else appears on screen. Supplementary archival footage, some original animation, and sound effects are occasionally included as Yarris describes events.

Reception

''The Fear of 13'' premiered at the 2015

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

, where it was nominated for Best Documentary Film. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 94% based on reviews from 16 critics, with an average rating of 7.38/10. ''

Time Out Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to: Time * Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team * Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken * Timeout (computing), an enginee ...

'' ranked it with four stars out of five, with the summary "This death row documentary sets up an intriguing mystery that'll keep you gripped until the final moments". ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' also gave it four stars, and praised Yarris's storytelling skills: "''The Fear of 13'' is riveting and that’s mainly due to its extraordinary subject".

Mark Kermode Mark James Patrick Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter and podcaster. He is the chief film critic for ''The Observer'', contributes to the magazine ''Sight & Sound'', prese ...

awarded the film three stars, and summarised its themes by writing "Yarris leads us on a labyrinthine journey that has as much to say about the art of storytelling as it does about the iniquities of crime and punishment."

References

External links

* * Director's website * * Freely available for viewing on WatchDocumentaries.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Fear of 13, The British documentary films Documentary films about crime in the United States Biographical documentary films 2015 documentary films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films