7 Nights of Darkness

This story has been done many times. It is a little different since it combines the "contest" concept with the found footage format. I liked some of the scares. They were well done.

There is a lot of screaming in this movie. I mean, a lot of screaming. I usually don't notice that too much, but this one almost got on my nerves.

Its not a bad found footage movie to watch. Its better than its sequel.

After the popularity of the Paranormal Activity franchise many companies decided to cash in and make their own similar micro budget movies of the same genre. One company made 9 movies under the franchise name of Paranormal Investigations, this is one of them.

Filmed for an estimated $5000 budget this follows a group of reality TV show participants spending 7 nights in an abandoned asylum in order to win $1 million! As with every other one of the Paranormal Investigations movies I've seen it's shoddily made with very little actually happening and a whole lot of shaky camera work & senseless screaming.

To it's credit near the end 7 Nights Of Darkness does manage to get under the viewers skin a bit, but it's simply too late.

Another incredibly boring 90 minutes of lifeless ghost genre "Action"

The Good:

Couple of creepy moments near the end

The Bad:

The abandoned asylum thing has gotten really old now

Scene separators are annoying

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Mens lavatories are notoriously haunted

Buckets are scary

Threatening to sexually molest an unconscious restrained woman is totally an okay thing to do

The first 30-40 minutes are rough to watch, but the movie gets better from there. It was the first time in a long time that I actually jumped at a couple scenes. My recommendation is to watch it as if you and some friends were filming it, rather than watching it as you would a main stream horror film. Based on pure "scared feeling", i chose to give it a 6, which I believe is why you would watch a movie like this. If you are looking for great effects and A list acting, then continue your search. Overall, I would recommend it to a friend, but I would say to rent rather than buy it.

No drugs/alcohol/sex. Scene with very light violence. Excessive swearing.

Decent premise, really annoying beginning. I think that it must be improved in the beginning, the dialogue is so bad. One character in particular is way too annoying, I found myself wishing he would die first. The guy with the dark hair and glasses. It won't take long to figure out who I am talking about.

Like one reviewer said, way too much talking in the first parts. It's like trying to sleep when there's a party in the other room. The voices are just as annoying. Everyone trying to talk at the same time. I almost didn't make it through the first 20 minutes, or the first 5 minutes for that matter, but I stuck it out. I am a sucker for punishment. The acting is very bad. I suck, and I could do a better job. I think a fence post would have pulled it off better.

This movie had the feeling that it was done by a bunch of film students, and somehow it slipped out into the DVD market. A quick look at the credits and you'll see that I am most likely right, if you last to the credits that is, and oh don't miss the extra bit after the credits.

If you can see this for free, watch it simply for how bad it is, but don't go out of your way to see this. Like the idea, but hated the movie? Check out Grave Encounters, they pulled it off way better.

Originally I gave this movie a 4 out of 10, but looking back on it now I think I will change it to a more than generous 3.

I am a fan of "found footage" films. This one started out much the same way as others in the genre do, a groups of strangers spending the night in a haunted house. But comparatively, this film falls short of its competitors.

Unfortunately, none of the characters were likable enough to care what befalls them. Likable characters I believe is a pretty important factor in found footage films because they are the ones revealing the story to you. But in this film, their acting seemed forced and unnatural, and natural is what you're suppose to be going for in found footage films. The characters didn't even care what was happening to each other, which just compounded the viewers lack of caring about them.

The scares were too few and far between and didn't last very long. They never explain anything about the history of the house they were in, so the viewer couldn't even connect with the ghosts.

The fact that nothing is explained could work for some found footage films, but not this one because it lacked so many other things. The film seemed like someones pet project, with a slightly higher video quality.

I wouldn't see it again and I wouldn't recommend it to fans of the genre.