Was drawn into seeing 'Patient Seven', with its cool and quite creepy poster/cover, an intriguing and quite creative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive.

'Patient Seven' actually fares reasonably well compared to other recent low-budget viewings seen recently. Have seen some mediocre to awful ones recently, but this was far better than expected. Sure, it doesn't do enough with its premise but far from wastes it. 'Patient Seven' is not great has a fair share of problems (fairly big ones too) and could have been better . There are however a number of decent, even good, qualities in 'Patient Seven'.

Lets start with the positives. The scenery is atmospheric, likewise with the decent way it's shot. The music is suitably spooky and quirky and doesn't distract at all from the atmosphere, while not exactly enhancing it. The effects are nowhere near as ropy as feared, they're not cheap and they're not overused or abused.

A few unsettling moments and horror tropes, especially in the second segment and am definitely not going to look at plastic wrap in the same way again, and the acting is better than average and often more. Alfie Allen and especially Michael Ironside actually being very good.

However, the story structure does feel over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the later stories where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. It is too much like a disjointed patchwork. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their irritating and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace is uneven, quite gripping in the first few segments but dragging in a lot of the second half and never is it exciting. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments in the latter parts of the film not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness and the lack of tension and suspense.

A lot of the film has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations. There is not enough threat here and what there is of it is used to variable success, while the psychological elements are unimaginative and are more odd than scary. Some badly sagging momentum too.

Overall, not great but surprisingly better than expected. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Given that PATIENT SEVEN is a very low budget horror anthology, just above the level of an indie, and given that the material contained within it is entirely predictable without a single surprising twist, I was fully prepared to hate it. That I didn't is testament to the efforts of the cast members, who are far better than expected in a film of this type.

Headlining the show is an aged Michael Ironside, who delivers a wonderful and convincing turn as a shrink whose job is to interview a series of mentally ill patients in order to discover the answer to a larger mystery. Each patient's story is told in flashback which is where the short horror films come in. The best one is British and features Alfie Allen and Hannah Tointon in a well-shot story. Despite the familiarity of the vampires and zombies and the like, Ironside's excellent acting sees this one through, successfully, to the finish.

Dr. Daniel Marcus (Michael Ironside) you may call me Dr. Marcus, visits Spring Valley Mental Institute to conduct research for his latest book. He has unorthodox methods and forces patients to face the truth. The film is more of an anthology with the tales of six patients which can be classified: 2 demons, 2 killers, 1 zombie, 1 vampire. Then there is patient seven which ties them together.

The film is professionally produced, in case you are tired of all the amateur films out there. It even had a decent sound track and the stories were fair, even if short. Patient seven is the twist which we have experienced before and half-way expected even without any clues.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.