Here's what the creatures had to say:
Trash - "An awkward guy working as a dishwasher is, surprise, secretly a serial killer. Of course he kills nasty women. Of course he rapes corpses. Of course he's going to blather on and on about his bullshit murder mandate. We've seen this story so many times, a common first idea of so many uninspired genre writers, and it's almost never done well. I mean, The Voices doesn't really work, and it's way more interesting than this. It's such a shame that a director who seems like a powerful new voice in underground cinema kicks off his filmmaking career with such a poor, typical script. There's some oddness buried in it, like the occasional appearance of a creature holding a microphone up to the narrator’s mouth, some sort of spectral interviewer that goes entirely unaddressed and unexplained -- in a way that made me wonder if it was even in the text at all. I wish there was more of that! Alone, I would have hit “eject” on the DVD after the first half hour, but sadly I did not have that option in the theater. I was bored and frustrated, and trying really hard to be polite, because oh boy I hate forcing myself through this! When I was younger, the explicit slaughter scenes and dismembered corpses would have at least given me reason to fast forward through to watch the good parts, but nowadays, I don't even have the patience for that." - 1.5 Stars
Math Mage - "Slenderman interviews a serial killer, the unreliable narrator babbles half literate philosophy while hallucinations mock him and he gruesomely kills a lot of people." - 2.5 Stars
Huntress - "Without a doubt, the special effects are the winning element of 7th Day. All of my favorite parts are tied to it; the crazy over the top gore and silent secondary character are going to stay with me for a while. This movie paints a pretty good picture of how the main character imagines himself, but by the end of it I wondered how many of the events really happened." - 3.5 Stars
The Impostor - "Interesting take on the psyche of a perverted serial killer. We see the day in the life of Allen who makes his "selections" to murder and dismember to feed his hunger. While there are some gross out moments and cool gore at times, the rest of the film fell a bit flat for me, especially after seeing Pig Pen beforehand which I thoroughly enjoyed. 7th day definitely would fit in the dark black comedy sub genre for me. I'm not sure if most was intentional but there were a few funny laugh out loud moments. The voice over was okay, I can tell the Dexter like vibe it was going for, but I wasn't wowed by 7th Day. Good watch with company, I honestly don't think I'd finish watching this alone. Overall nice directorial debut from Jason Koch." - 2.5 Stars
Lord Battle - "7th Day is an unflinching exploration of what goes on in our quiet neighbor's house, or what the dishwasher does after you're through being mean to him at work, and how one channels all this unguided frustration... Urban Fantasy is what I call these dark genre explorations or suburban/city life and what separates a great Urban Fantasy from an amateurish Walter Hill knock off is cinematography. 7th Day perfectly frames and shoots the city in a way that both feels familiar and looks otherworldly, and what I mean by otherworldly is that a white trash living room looks like a Terry Gilliam set and an alley overgrown with weeds looks like a lost part of the city taken by nature." - 4 Stars
Math Mage - "Slenderman interviews a serial killer, the unreliable narrator babbles half literate philosophy while hallucinations mock him and he gruesomely kills a lot of people." - 2.5 Stars
Huntress - "Without a doubt, the special effects are the winning element of 7th Day. All of my favorite parts are tied to it; the crazy over the top gore and silent secondary character are going to stay with me for a while. This movie paints a pretty good picture of how the main character imagines himself, but by the end of it I wondered how many of the events really happened." - 3.5 Stars
The Impostor - "Interesting take on the psyche of a perverted serial killer. We see the day in the life of Allen who makes his "selections" to murder and dismember to feed his hunger. While there are some gross out moments and cool gore at times, the rest of the film fell a bit flat for me, especially after seeing Pig Pen beforehand which I thoroughly enjoyed. 7th day definitely would fit in the dark black comedy sub genre for me. I'm not sure if most was intentional but there were a few funny laugh out loud moments. The voice over was okay, I can tell the Dexter like vibe it was going for, but I wasn't wowed by 7th Day. Good watch with company, I honestly don't think I'd finish watching this alone. Overall nice directorial debut from Jason Koch." - 2.5 Stars
Lord Battle - "7th Day is an unflinching exploration of what goes on in our quiet neighbor's house, or what the dishwasher does after you're through being mean to him at work, and how one channels all this unguided frustration... Urban Fantasy is what I call these dark genre explorations or suburban/city life and what separates a great Urban Fantasy from an amateurish Walter Hill knock off is cinematography. 7th Day perfectly frames and shoots the city in a way that both feels familiar and looks otherworldly, and what I mean by otherworldly is that a white trash living room looks like a Terry Gilliam set and an alley overgrown with weeds looks like a lost part of the city taken by nature." - 4 Stars
The Great Hornito - "7th Day felt like an ultra gory version of The Machinist. This was not as bleak as Pig Pen but I thought how dirty and sad everything was was very effective as well. The soundtrack was great but this movie was so gory that I'm surprised I liked it so much." - 4 Stars
Dabbles - "Really didn't really care for this one. I did like the gore and the slenderman reporter, but other than that I did doze off for a couple of moments" - 3 Stars (I'm allowing this review since the goblin only fell in and out of sleep for minutes at a time, not exceeding 15 minutes total)
The Overlook Theatre Final Rating*
(Below is for after you've seen the film)
A couple months prior to our 7th Day screening, The Ascendant programed a marathon for the Overlook creatures. This marathon was supposed to give us an inside look at films that best described his taste. Pig Pen appeared as a previously unseen third film as I requested that at least one film in the marathon would be new to everyone. Pig Pen was such a good example of the type of film we like to promote that an official screening for review would have to take place. The Ascendant suggested that when we screen Pig Pen we use the bluray copy (to fix some audio issues) and show it with 7th Day, Jason Koch's first film.
On 5/25/2017 the summoning spell was cast and the creatures arrived to partake in the bloody cleansing of our Jason Koch double feature. I first showed Pig Pen and followed it up with 7th Day. My thought process behind this was some fiends religiously show up late, either due to scheduling issues like work or lack of excitement (remember just because they are attracted by the lure of the Overlook, it doesn't mean they actually like horror films) and a couple regulars had seen Pig Pen before so it seemed like the obvious lead in.
When feeling out an indie horror film among friends in a theatre setting, there always seems to be someone that tries to MSK3 the feature right off the bat. Luckily this isn't always the case but when it is, it's usually the Math Mage. The bleakness of Pig Pen mixed with the raw emotional performance laid down from Vito Trigo proved too much for our resident wizard and he was quickly silenced. In fact I personally love Vito but I would have never expected the resounding positive reaction he got by portraying such an evil... Anyway, in hindsight showing Pig Pen first set the bar a little high... This however doesn't mean that the post-film conversation wasn't fruitful. The Great Hornito quickly began to explain how he thought none of what had taken place actually happened and reminded everyone how he constantly would contradict his actions by his statements to his demon reporter (dubbed Slenderman by the ghouls in attendance). I tend to agree with the luchador as I think everyone who's ever worked a terrible job and has had to clean a grease trap has also fantasized about dismembering their coworkers.
- Lord Battle
The Overlook Theatre materialized in a residence for a screening on 4/25/2017
*Based on the star ratings turned in by character reviewers, others viewed and got to "Dislike" or "Like" but that does not affect the rating.
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