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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.

Movies

‘Pandemic Sex Party’ Trailer – ‘The Devil’s Rejects’ Producer Slices into Influencers with Grindhouse Throwback

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AI has taken over the job market and most people have become either influencers or online sex workers in Pandemic Sex Party, a new horror film from producer Andy Gould (House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects, The Lords of Salem). Described as a throwback to the grindhouse exploitation cinema of the past, the official trailer has been unleashed this week.

Bloody Disgusting has learned that production has quietly begun on Pandemic Sex Party, about a masked maniac brutally crashing the titular bash. Writer/director Myles Erfurth says don’t let the title fool you… Pandemic Sex Party is a “balls-to-the-wall gritty horror flick and pure grindhouse terror.” Today, horror fans are being invited to join the party and participate in Pandemic Sex Party’s incentive-laden Indiegogo campaign, which is now live.

“When Myles Erfurth’s screenplay for Pandemic Sex Party came across my desk, I blazed through it in one sitting,” says Gould. “I was hooked from the start by its original mix of twisted horror and great characters, as well as its clever setting and set-up. But what really caught my attention was the blood-chilling character of The Rancher. Having worked with Rob Zombie on his classic horror films, I know a thing or two about memorable villains. The Rancher, Pandemic Sex Party’s savage killer, is a terrifying new slasher icon ready to be embraced by the horror world.”

The filmmakers pledge to recapture thrills of past exploitation gold. “As an homage to the glory day of grindhouse-style films, Pandemic Sex Party will not disappoint,” says Erfurth, whose previous feature film, The Silver Stream, was an interactive live-stream horror film that starred Bill Moseley and Ice Nine Kills.

“Our story takes place in the not-so-distant future. AI has taken over the majority of the job market, and the primary source of income for young people is that of a social media influencer or online model. Being on the verge of another pandemic, Sasha, a young video game streamer, heads off into the desert for the weekend to make ‘content’ with her online model friends: Tanya, Cash, Dream and her younger sister Cherry.”

Trouble awaits at the remote location. “Once arriving at the rental house dubbed ‘The Funny Ranch,’ the group slowly begins to realize things aren’t exactly as they seem,” music video veteran Erfurth continues. “They are soon met by The Rancher, a masked killer who has a vendetta against the newly-changing world, online influencers and online models alike.”

Erfurth further previews, “The majority of modern-day horror films have become sexually watered-down. Pandemic Sex Party is going to be a wild ride.”

Exclusively watch the trailer for Pandemic Sex Party below and head over to the crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo to pitch in and get perks including a walk-on role in the movie.

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