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Sundance ’10 REVIEW: A Third Look at ‘7 Days’ Completes Trifecta

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We’ve already posted two reviews here for Daniel Grou’s (Podz) French-Canadian thriller 7 Days, which follows a doctor who seeks revenge by kidnapping, torturing and killing the man who murdered his young daughter. Both Ryan and Mr. Disgusting’s thoughts were extremely positive, but if you need a third opinion you’ll find Roxanne’s thoughts beyond the break. The best part? You can watch this sucker by boosting up OnDemand and then chime in with your thoughts below.
Ice-covered roads and fishtailing semis made for a tense, white-knuckled commute from Park City to SLC on Saturday night through yet another Utah snow storm. The anxiety-inducing hour and a half trek through the mountain pass paled in comparison, however, to the tension fest that is Director Daniel Grou (or Podz, if you prefer)’s 7 DAYS. Rarely does a film have the ability to capture so strongly both the physical and psychological aspects of horror. Exploring the concepts of vengeance and retribution, Grou expertly weaves through the moral high and low grounds of his characters.

In the beginning the audience is obviously on the side of Doctor Bruno Hamel: the avenging father who carefully arranges to brutally torture his daughter’s rapist and murderer over the course of seven days and kill him on her birthday. Summaries of the film make mention of the ambiguity of our protagonist-at some point the savagery of what Dr. Hamel does to his daughter’s killer becomes so overwhelming that you begin to wonder whether you’re supposed to be rooting for him or not. Gasps rippled through the theater at the very first act of torture, so viciously was it executed.

Kudos to the superb editing of the film-knowing just the right moment to cut to the secondary storyline of Detective Mercure trying to track Hamel down. As much as the ‘torture porn’ term has been thrown around, this isn’t gratuitous violence we’re seeing. Despite how disturbingly gruesome and truly nausea-inducing as the physical torture scenes are, each scene between Hamel and his daughter’s killer is expertly crafted. Grou raises the physical and psychological tension for both the torture victim and the audience to it’s absolute limit before pulling back. A palpable sigh of relief could be heard each time we left the room where Hamel keeps his victim (and victim he’ll become in your mind more so than murderer, even when describing what he did to Hamel’s daughter). Watching Hamel unravel over the course of the week is almost as painful to watch.

Ultimately the film is more about guilt and grief than revenge. The crux of the film can be summed up in two lines of dialogue between the detective and one of his lieutenants, to the effect of ‘should we really be trying this hard to save a murderer? ‘ To which he responds, ‘it’s not the murderer I’m trying to save.’ Because we never do stop rooting for Hamel, even when he’s enjoying the screams of his captive. This one will stick with you long after the final frame.

Rating: 4/5 Skulls

Gamer, writer, terrible dancer, longtime toast enthusiast. Legend has it Adam was born with a controller in one hand and the Kraken's left eye in the other. Legends are often wrong.

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‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’ Adds “Chucky” Actor Teo Briones and More to Lead Cast

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Chucky Actor Teo Briones
Pictured: Teo Briones in "Chucky" Season Two

The Final Destination franchise is returning to life with Final Destination: Bloodlines. With filming now underway, THR reports that three actors have joined the lead cast, including “Chucky” actor Teo Briones.

Brec Bassinger (“Stargirl”) and Kaitlyn Santa Juana (The Friendship Game) join Teo Briones, who played Junior Wheeler in season two of “Chucky,” as the leads in the sixth installment of the horror franchise.

Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein (Freaks) are directing the fresh installment that also includes Richard Harmon (“The 100”, Grave Encounters 2), Anna Lore, Owen Patrick Joyner, Max Lloyd-Jones (The Book Of Boba Fett), Rya Kihlstedt (Obi Wan Kenobi), and Tinpo Lee (The Manor) among the cast.

Production is now underway in Vancouver.

What can we expect from the upcoming Final Destination 6? Speaking with Collider, franchise creator Jeffrey Reddick offered up an intriguing (and mysterious) tease last year.

“This film dives into the film in such a unique way that it attacks it from a different angle so you don’t feel like, ‘Oh, there’s an amazing setup and then there’s gonna be one wrinkle that can potentially save you all that you have to kind of make a moral choice about or do to solve it.’ There’s an expansion of the universe that – I’m being so careful,” Reddick teased.

Reddick continued, “It kind of unearths a whole deep layer to the story that kind of, yes, makes it really, really interesting.”

Final Destination: Bloodlines is written by Lori Evans Taylor (“Wicked Wicked Games”) and Guy Busick (Scream), with Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) producing.

Producers on the new movie for New Line Cinema also include Dianne McGunigle (Cop Car) as well as Final Destination producers Craig Perry and Sheila Hanahan Taylor.

This will be the sixth installment in the hit franchise, and the first in over ten years. Each film centers on “Death” hunting down young friends who survive a mass casualty event.

The latest entry is expected in 2025, coinciding with the original film’s 25th anniversary.

 

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