Botched (a.k.a. 13) is a 2007 horror comedy film directed by Kit Ryan and starring Stephen Dorff, Jaime Murray, Sean Pertwee, Jamie Foreman and Geoff Bell.
Richie Donovan works as a professional thief for Groznyi, a Mafiya boss, to pay off his debt for being smuggled into the U.S. as a child. After a diamond heist goes wrong, Donovan is given one last chance to pay off his debt by going to Russia to steal a priceless antique cross. Donovan is joined by two Russian allies—brothers Peter and Yuri—assigned to him by Groznyi, and the trio succeeds in stealing the cross. But while they are attempting to flee the penthouse, the elevator stops on the unfinished 13th floor and will not move: stranding the three thieves and the other passengers in the car. Initially thinking the elevator had been stopped by the police, the thieves take the other passengers hostage. However, when they agree to send one hostage down as a sign of good faith, something in the elevator beheads the hostage, and they realise they have been trapped by something far more sinister than the police.
No connection to the reality TV show about plastic surgery.
Botched contains examples of:
- An Arm and a Leg: Boris loses a hand when Sonya tricks him into getting caught in his own malfunctioning Booby Trap.
- Bits of Me Keep Passing Out: Boris gets injected in the face with a paralytic, which gradually causes his face to freeze and makes him harder and harder to understand.
- Booby Trap: Boris and Dimitri rig up a Booby Trap in an attempt to trap Sonya, but Boris winds up caught in it himself and loses his hand.
- Building of Adventure: The main action all takes place in a Moscow skyscraper, with the majority of it occurring on a single floor.
- Caught in a Snare: Dimitry gets caught in a snare laid by Alex and hung upside down, at which point Alex uses a sword to turn him into Half the Man He Used to Be.
- Chekhov's Gun: When Boris asks the elevator passengers if they have any weapons, Anna pulls a nail file out her purse, which doesn't impress anyone. During the final confrontation, Anna uses the nail file to stab Sonya in the neck.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Barring the prologue, the events of the film take less than a day. And as Richie is sent straight to Moscow following the botched diamond robbery, even including the prologue, the entire thing can take no more than about 3 days.
- Fakin' MacGuffin: When Donovan opens the case to retrieve the stolen cross, he discovers that Peter has swapped it for a crude substitute made of two pieces of a broken ruler strapped together.
- Genre Mash Up: Criminal Procedural + Slasher Movie
- Genuine Human Hide: Sonya and Alex have the faces skinned from their victims framed and hung as artwork around the 13th floor. And a large piece of flensed human skin is used as wallpaper to display a quotation.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: After Dimitry is Caught in a Snare, Alex cuts him in half at the waist with a sword.
- Heal It With Fire: After Boris has his hand cut off by his own Booby Trap, he cauterizes the stump with fire.
- The Heist: Groznyi sends Donovan, Peter and Yuri to steal a priceless cross from the penthouse of a Russian oligarch. They obtain the cross, but escaping the building proves much harder than they anticipated.
- Historical Character's Fictional Relative: Sonya and Alex believe they are descendants of Ivan the Terrible. It is not established if this is true or merely a delusion on their part, but, if it is true, then Groznyi is as well, as he is their brother.
- Human Sacrifice: Sonya and Alex are abducting people to the 13th floor and sacrificing them in an attempt to resurrect Ivan the Terrible.
- Just Keep Driving: A garbage truck causes a fatal car crash and drives on without stopping.
- Mistaken for Servant: On meeting the well-dressed Anna in the elevator and learning she works for the media company, Dimitry assumes she is a secretary, only to be told a few moments later that she is a junior vice president. Cue Verbal Backspace.
- One-Word Title
- Phony Veteran: Boris claims to be a veteran of Spetsnez, but he has to consult his mercenary magazine to work out how to rig up a Booby Trap, and it doesn't even work.
- Psycho Party Member: During the initial raid to steal the cross, Peter shoots a woman for no reason: an act that angers the leader Donovan and terrifies his brother Yuri. As the situation disintegrates, the increasingly paranoid Peter tries to resolve it with threats and violence, which almost invariably makes things worse.
- Religion of Evil: Although Sonya pretends to be a Christian, she and her twin brother Alex have actually constructed their own religion worshiping their supposed ancestor Ivan the Terrible, and dedicated to reviving him through Human Sacrifice.
- Shear Menace: The first hostage to die is beheaded by a giant pair of scissors that emerges for the lift doors.
- Verbal Backspace: Dimitry tries to chat up Anna and, on being told she works for the media company in the building, he says "Oh, a secretary?", only for Anna to tell him she is a junior vice-president. He immediately continues "I meant do you have a secretary?" and she icily tells him "Two".
- Verbed Title
