Patient Seven

Be ready to sit through 7 different stories all about monsters and the unnatural. I only liked story 4 but even that one was hard to hear due to the strong accent and no captions. I mean , if nothing else is on then I would watch this but it would not be my first pick. You might get what you want as far as being entertained elsewhere.

I sat down to watch "Patient Seven" for two reasons; the first was because this is a horror movie, and the second was because Michael Ironside was in it. And I had no idea what the movie was actually about prior to sitting down to watch it, so I had no expectations.

And as the movie came to an end, I must admit that I was genuinely entertained by what directors Danny Draven, Paul Davis, Ómar Örn Hauksson, Dean Hewison, Joel Morgan, Johannes Persson, Nicholas Peterson, Erlingur Thoroddsen and Rasmus Wassberg managed to piece together.

Each of the eight segments ("The Body", "Undying Love", "The Sleeping Plot", "Death Scenes", "Evaded", "The Visitant", "Banishing" and "Evaded") were actually equally entertaining in each their own distinct way. And that was quite some accomplishment in my opinion. And they were spun together nicely enough by a good narrative.

The acting in the segments was good, and people were really doing good jobs with their individual roles, both during the segments and also in the narrative lead up to the segments. It was nice to see an ensemble of cast putting so much effort and energy into their roles.

The special effects in the segments were good. And having good and believable special effects and CGI effects is crucial to a horror movie, as it is usually a make or break outcome. So thumbs up to the effects team for their effort on "Patient Seven".

"Patient Seven" does have some nice enough surprises and plot twists along the way. I will not reveal any of them here, because I honestly think that you should take the time to sit down and watch the movie, because it is well worth the effort.

All in all, "Patient Seven" lands a solid six out of ten stars rating from me. This is a movie that I can warmly recommend that you watch, especially if you enjoy a good horror movie that is driven by proper story lines.

With the inclusion of an absolutely stellar performance by Alfie Allen, Michael Ironside knocks it out of the park. This is a very solid 8/10 and impressive for featuring other actors and directors I have never heard of before - and it works. Alfie Allen is mesmerizing in his role and if they decide to expand on his story-line I am sure they will have a solid hit on their hands. Michael Ironside is quintessentially a good actor. You can't take your eyes off of him for each subtle eyebrow twitch speaks volumes. Well done, folks. I don't want to give away any of the story-lines, but the way the plot weaves in and out of context to suddenly be brought hard back into focus is astounding. If you get a chance to see this take it.

Was drawn into seeing 'Patient Seven', with its cool and quite creepy poster/cover, an intriguing and quite creative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive.

'Patient Seven' actually fares reasonably well compared to other recent low-budget viewings seen recently. Have seen some mediocre to awful ones recently, but this was far better than expected. Sure, it doesn't do enough with its premise but far from wastes it. 'Patient Seven' is not great has a fair share of problems (fairly big ones too) and could have been better . There are however a number of decent, even good, qualities in 'Patient Seven'.

Lets start with the positives. The scenery is atmospheric, likewise with the decent way it's shot. The music is suitably spooky and quirky and doesn't distract at all from the atmosphere, while not exactly enhancing it. The effects are nowhere near as ropy as feared, they're not cheap and they're not overused or abused.

A few unsettling moments and horror tropes, especially in the second segment and am definitely not going to look at plastic wrap in the same way again, and the acting is better than average and often more. Alfie Allen and especially Michael Ironside actually being very good.

However, the story structure does feel over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the later stories where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. It is too much like a disjointed patchwork. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their irritating and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace is uneven, quite gripping in the first few segments but dragging in a lot of the second half and never is it exciting. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments in the latter parts of the film not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness and the lack of tension and suspense.

A lot of the film has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations. There is not enough threat here and what there is of it is used to variable success, while the psychological elements are unimaginative and are more odd than scary. Some badly sagging momentum too.

Overall, not great but surprisingly better than expected. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Something I really appreciate in a film is a clever title. 'Patient Seven' has that, and for multiple reasons, but the biggest one being that it makes you crave the knowledge of who the seventh patient is and what makes them worthy of having the film named after them. The film is presented with seven stories and then the central film tying them all together. Here are my brief thoughts on each of the segments.

Segment 1: A bad way to start the film. Bland and unimaginative.

Segment 2: Probably my favourite segment of them film. Smart, funny and a wee twist to top it off.

Segment 3: Another boring segment with very little going for it. Not sure how it made the cut. More filler than anything else.

Segment 4: I'm from New Zealand and I can tell you that patient four's accent was nothing like that which we have here. The segment itself though the accents were much better (and even featured real New Zealand money which impressed me). Not a great segment, but far from the worst. Very much middle of the road.

Segment 5: Probably the second best segment. A little drawn out but has a nice ending to go out with a bang.

Segment 6: Yuck. Nothing to like about this one.

Segment 7: Would have liked this one to be better. It should have been, but again it just ran out of steam.

The best part of the movie though is the story tying all of this together. That's where the real fun is to be had. Michael Ironside does a great job playing the creepy main character and he has more than enough to work with in the script. The film finishes very strongly and that is always a good thing for a movie to do. Leave the audience with a good taste in their mouth.