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
