Patient Seven

The movie is divided into segments that are horror themed. The plot summary listed is inaccurate. There is no true conclusion therefore it leaves you wanting more.

I really enjoyed this film, mainly to see the wonderful Michael Ironside. His depth of character is spot on in this film, as a slightly demented psych doctor, or so we are to believe. Not even thinking of the title, I forgot all about "patient 7". I got so engrossed in each character, it slipped my mind. Alphie Allen's "killer" was a fun thing to watch. From the moment he curses at the children (and let's us understand what night it is, and why he chose to leave the blood on his face!). All in all, very pleasing film. I will point out however, a bit of continuity mistakes in the time line of the film. When Michael Ironside is reminiscing about his past and we see the scene of him as a young boy discovering the car, I was disappointed. If he had been imprisoned for 30-plus years, that car model wouldn't have existed! It would have been early to mid 1980s (since you see a smart phone being used by Alphie's killer, the film must be set in at least 2008 or higher). Also, the plastic water bottles they were drinking from didn't exist until well into the 90s.

Dr. Daniel Marcus (Michael Ironside) you may call me Dr. Marcus, visits Spring Valley Mental Institute to conduct research for his latest book. He has unorthodox methods and forces patients to face the truth. The film is more of an anthology with the tales of six patients which can be classified: 2 demons, 2 killers, 1 zombie, 1 vampire. Then there is patient seven which ties them together. The film is professionally produced, in case you are tired of all the amateur films out there. It even had a decent sound track and the stories were fair, even if short. Patient seven is the twist which we have experienced before and half-way expected even without any clues. Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

I thought it was great, kinda like an anthology movie. Really enjoyed the Zombies and vampire concepts. A little bit cheesy at times but that's all part of the fun. Give it a go!

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.

I'm so glad I didn't miss this one due to poor reviews! Yes, it's far from revolutionary, and it isn't super scary, but it does have that awesome, spooky, kind of old school charm to it. Honestly, in the seas of pretentious horror crap with pathetically weak story lines, this simple yet entertaining 7-piece has an almost soothing effect. It WOULD'VE been awesomer if they pushed that clichéd oldschool angle a bit further, but it works just fine the way it is. Some of the sequences are downright 100% awesome, some don't work that well, but overall it never gets boring. I see many complaints about the main story, but that story is basically just a glue to tie the 7 shorts together, and it works more than well in that regard. If you love Halloween anthologies as much as I do, you'll probably like this one, too. Give it a go. If you have older/teen kids, invite them as well. Cheers!

Given that PATIENT SEVEN is a very low budget horror anthology, just above the level of an indie, and given that the material contained within it is entirely predictable without a single surprising twist, I was fully prepared to hate it. That I didn't is testament to the efforts of the cast members, who are far better than expected in a film of this type. Headlining the show is an aged Michael Ironside, who delivers a wonderful and convincing turn as a shrink whose job is to interview a series of mentally ill patients in order to discover the answer to a larger mystery. Each patient's story is told in flashback which is where the short horror films come in. The best one is British and features Alfie Allen and Hannah Tointon in a well-shot story. Despite the familiarity of the vampires and zombies and the like, Ironside's excellent acting sees this one through, successfully, to the finish.

Have you ever wondered what a movie would look like if you took 7 completely unrelated stories and stuffed them all into a single movie? Well, look no further. That's the entire premise of this movie. The stories themselves are actually quite interesting on their own but if you jumble them together like this they lose their magic. It just seems like sloppy storytelling to me: a doctor just barges into a mental institution and interviews six severely disturbed individuals. So the entire movie basically consists of nothing more than 1 on 1 interviews between the doctor and the patients and everybody's origin story. Disclaimer: The movie ends with a big plot twist which kind of undermines the entire narrative that led up to the event. I still don't really know how I feel about it to be honest. Just thought I'd give it a mention.

My quick rating - 5,5/10. One of a few problems with anthology movies is they tend to have good episodes, and bad episodes. Just like anything else. This can also be good since you will have different audiences viewing the material and one or two bad doesn't pull you completely out of the entire movie. So this story is seen through the analysis of a doctor/writer (wonderful as always, Michael Ironside) interviewing patients of a mental hospital to get the "real" feeling of the crimes that got them locked up. Without breaking each down, they each are stories of various insanity levels that don't ever go over the top but are able to get just enough of a response for you and Ironside to to get a feeling of them. This is not done through cheap scare tactics but conveyed through quality performances from the actors/actresses. I would also not being doing justice without pointing out the astounding part played by Alfie Allen. I was also partial to the little girl in her segment, what a little brat. Anyway, the stories were adequate, some better then others, and none outstanding. Another positive note, they were able to tie the whole thing together in the end.

... but it's never fully realized. There were many things that could have been good - the patient "doctor" echoing the things he hears from the real doctor and making him his underling in his imagination was interesting and the style of several snippets too but even with these, more positive, aspects, I found issues in the execution. Like, why make that quick smash-cut to emphasize how he pretends to be the doctor? Was that needed? Do you think the audience is that stupid? Let it be an Easter Egg where people can discover more and more echoed behavior on repeat viewings. The snippets/ segments were also so very short - it's an almost 2 hour movie with lots of main plot and SEVEN small segments... It's just too much, you don't get invested in each story with so little time for each - and it doesn't help that most of them are incredibly generic, either. Then there are the things that just were never really good - the dialogue didn't seem amazing, and I am pretty sceptic about the mental health system aspect. Of course, I've never been to an institution for the criminally insane, but it still seems a bit harsh and counter-intuitive for people who have mental issues. The doctor was a horrible doctor - I doubt any psychiatrist would consistently treat his patients as he's apparently done. Last but not least, the title was a dead giveaway that the doctor would be patient number 7 - after seeing him with the first patient, I knew that yep, that would definitely be it. The last thing, that was probably the biggest issue, was that it wasn't really scary. It might have been if the overall level had been higher (and some of the mentioned issues had been fixed - like the too short segments) but it was more thriller than horror. -- All in all, it's not horrible - there's potential in there, the acting isn't bad and the cinematography was okay but nothing really special. I probably won't watch it again, but it was fine for a lazy Sunday watch. Favourite segment: The one with the girl who wanted to bury her friend. Award: Fakest looking tree in existence in Alfie Allen's segment. Seriously, WTH? Also, dullest wooden stakes to ever be used against vampires. Buffy would be disappointed.