Seven Days to Live (2000)

not as good as all the hype

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Trying to restart after the devastating death of their son, Ellen (Plummer) and Martin (Pertwee) move to a big house out in the country. Martin is an author who begins writing his new book, while Ellen who is still trying to cope with the loss of her son starts experiencing unsettling and eerie things. She begins to receive visual messages warning her she has seven days to live. The movie begins to count down each day as she receives new messages. Ellen also starts seeing her dead son around the house and she begins to investigate the history of the house. Built on a marsh where thousands of bodies had been dumped the evil that surrounds the house is casting its spell. Martin becomes extremely agitated and he directs it at Ellen, as he becomes increasingly hostile. This film made in New Hampshire and the Czech Republic is a mix of ideas from other horror films. Martin's character truly turns into Jack Torrance of "The Shining" with abuse towards his wife and his writing. A great early scene has Ellen looking at an old photograph, and one of the people in the photo comes to life and looks at her. Effective but lifted from "Phantasm" when the Tall Man did the same thing. The ending scene in the basement with the house sinking into itself and creatures rising from the water in the form of shadowed zombies is scary and unnerving. Some suspense is delivered with some moderate chills sprinkled throughout. Amanda Plummer is a fine actress but her casting as the lead Ellen seems like a stretch here. This is not exactly dripping with originality but it is serviceable has a decent time waster.

OK, it does sort of remind you of The Shining, and you can find bits of other films here, but are there any truly new ideas today? Very few, I am afraid, so let's see what Sebastian Niemann does in his first feature film. He won an award for his first film, a short.I thought that Amanda Plummer (Pulp Fiction, The Fisher King) did a really good job as someone who was slowly going crazy with those daily reminders of her impending death.Sean Pertwee (Equilibrium, Renaissance) did an excellent job of channeling Jack Nicholson.The rest of the cast was support, and there was, of course, the requisite special effects to give the film a great ending. It seemed to drag in the middle, but you didn't dare leave until you saw what was going to happen.I have to say that I thought this was a British film when Pertwee said he "...needed to take a fag break." I was surprised that it was German. I don't remember fags in Germany.

OK...this might not be the worst movie ever made, but it's close.SPOILER... (Can you really spoil a movie that stinks this badly?)Readers Digest version of the plot:Grieving couple move into house that's been empty for 20 years. Wife starts seeing signs saying she is going to die in 7 days (hence the title of the movie). Husband doesn't believe her. She does research into the house and finds out that every couple that lives in house dies and/or kills themselves. She tells husband, he ties her up. She gets away and interminable chase begins. Sheriff who was present last time comes to a momentous decision and goes to help wife. Possessed husband is saved by wife saying "I love you", they get out...the house sinks into the swamp...the end.Yet the house is standing again at the end credits.I couldn't like anyone in this movie. The wife, who should have left early on, sticks around FAR too long, the "loving" husband is antagonistic and mean even BEFORE he becomes possessed, and the sheriff seems to be a wimp.The movie defies logic in several places, and the plot is the derivative tripe that makes you laugh, rather than scares you. The acting is the kind of stilted over-acting you see in a bad high school play. The special effects (as little as there were of them) weren't very good. And you can just forget about suspense...What they meant to be suspense, just made the movie drag.I gave it a 2 for a three reasons:1. I liked the music. 2. The cinematography was pretty good 3. I was feeling generous when I wrote this reviewI would say don't watch this movie for any reason, but it might be fun to watch it with a group of friends with the sole purpose of laughing at it.

I have to agree with the other reviewers that the movie was a send-up of The Shining, with lots of grass around instead of snow. The film had a kind of grainy, low budget feel to it, which I thought added to the element of creepiness quite a lot. It also had a bit of earthiness lacking in a lot of American films. Overall, I thought it was an enjoyable film.I think that Secret Window may have borrowed a small element, in the form of the police officer. When Amanda Plummer visits the retired officer, she finds him painting and comments that it's not quite the thing you'd expect from a police officer. Mort Rainey finds the sheriff doing embroidery. Nifty, that.A shame about the dog, though. Seven out of ten for being a good, solid, creepy film--even if it didn't have a huge amount of original material.