Movies
7 Days (Les 7 Jours du Talion) (Sundance ’10)
“Powerful performances and a challenging message make Daniel Grou’s (also known as “Podz”) 7 Days one of this year’s first surprise films to come from way out of left field. Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, this French-Canadian thriller tells a deeply immersive story that at no point strays from its intended path and delivers with such a punch that you’ll be talking about it for 7 days after. “
For another opinion, read Ryan Daley’s review:
Powerful performances and a challenging message make Daniel Grou’s (also known as “Podz”) 7 Days one of this year’s first surprise films to come from way out of left field. Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, this French-Canadian thriller tells a deeply immersive story that at no point strays from its intended path and delivers with such a punch that you’ll be talking about it for 7 days after.
7 Days follows Bruno Hamel (Claude Legault), a thirty eight year-old surgeon who loses his eight year-old daughter Jasmine (Rose-Marie Coallier) to a “monster” who goes by the name of Anthony Lemaire (Martin Dubreuil). Anthony rapes and murders Bruno’s little girl, leading Bruno down a dark path that includes abducting and torturing the “monster” for several days. –official festival synopsis
In recent years, the idea of torture in a film puts an immediate bad taste in my mouth. That’s exactly what makes 7 Days such a success. I think it’s safe to make the presumption that many filmmakers would focus solely on the torture aspect of the film, conjuring up fierce and brutal ways to make the audience lose their lunch. Podz (the name still makes me giggle) does the opposite by intensely focusing on the characters and the story.
Adapted by Patrick Senecal from his own novel, Podz never loses sight on the lesson that Senecal is attempted to relay in 7 Days. While I’ll leave it up to you to interpret what you will, the film weighs heavily on right and wrong, revenge, repent and forgiveness. The audience in taken deep into the lives of Bruno and his wife, who both deal with their loss in very different ways. Podz pulls the strings of the audience by tinkering with their emotions; one second they’ll be screaming for Bruno to beat the living shit out of Anthony, then a minute later they’ll be second guessing their own emotions. It’s a remarkable piece of work that treads on some incredibly deep notions.
But don’t be completely fooled, there are a few scenes that enter the realm of “torture porn”, but are simply used as an aid to the story and emotional confusion Podz is trying to pour on the audience. When it’s brutal… it’s BRUTAL.
Again, that’s simply not what Podz was going for, and as a viewer you should go in knowing what to expect. 7 Days is an impressive piece of work by Podz from his camerawork to his visual style. As for the acting, it only aids in the film’s intensity and helps drive home that last emotional peak where Bruno needs to decide how to end the madness. In the end, 7 Days carries a solid message that is dished out brilliantly. If it were you, could you live with yourself if you didn’t do anything?
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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