Sommerleigh Pollonais, Horror Head Writer
Plot: A renowned exorcist teams up with a rookie priest for his first day of training. As they plunge deeper into hell on earth the lines between good and evil blur and their own demons emerge.
Review: I’m gonna cut right to it on this one. The Seventh Day was a huge disappointment for me. With a cast that included Stephen Lang and Guy Pearce I was expecting some cool priest vs demon action. Instead what I got was a lacklustre, predictable story with actors who seemed like they wanted to be anywhere else but there.
I can name at least three shows with a very similar premise that you should watch instead. And because I love you guys, I’m gonna do just that. The Exorcist television show was fantastic and didn’t deserve to be cancelled so soon. Don’t ask me why, but Deliver Us from Evil just has that special something and I watch it at least once a year.
And then there’s the movie that popped into my noggin while I watched this one because both films are eerily similar. It’s called The Rite and starred Anthony Hopkins as an old priest training a young up-and-coming priest to fight demons and save souls. (SPOILER ALERT begins here) Both movies have very similar beats to them and both have the same twist. Which means if you’ve seen The Rite, you know where The Seventh Day is heading (SPOILER ALERT ends here). I happen to think The Rite is a much better movie than people gave it credit for. It’s slow for sure, but the final act is deeply chilling and almost makes up for the entire thing. Sadly I can’t say the same about this movie.
Stephen Lang (Avatar, Don’t Breathe) is actually very believable as the head of the church who brings Guy Pearce’s Father Peter, an unconventional priest who has deep scars from an exorcism gone wrong, and Vadhir Derbez’s Father Daniel, a young priest who wishes to learn the ways of the force so they can battle an unprecedented wave of possessions that has been occurring. Pearce is a great actor (see Memento and Ravenous for proof) but here he seems incredibly bored with this role and makes little to no effort to make any impact. Derbez, a Mexican actor, isn’t terrible but I think the language barrier may have caused him to struggle here, as his line delivery is wooden in a lot of places.
So take my advice and go watch any of the abovementioned movies/television show I recommended instead of this one. While this movie may have more blood and gore than your average possession film, the cheap jump scares, lazy acting, and uneven pacing fails to make it memorable and it would be a sin for me to say otherwise.
Sommer’s Score: 4 out of 10
So have you seen The Seventh Day? What did you think of it? For my Top 5 Exorcism Movies (That Aren’t The Exorcist) you can click here. Or for Featured Writer Alice’s review of Mexican exorcism film The Day of the Lord you can click here.
Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes.
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