A septet of short thrillers vaguely based on the seven deadly sins.
While recent portmanteau horror movies have seen mixed success, this shoddy effort is almost entirely devoid of merit. Writer-director Benjamin Rider is clearly out of his depth and drowning in a high-concept hell of cardboard characters, amateur acting and woeful writing. There is little-to-no consideration of costume, production design or mise-en-scène, and each story is more pointless than the last.
The nadir of this inane nightmare is a baffling, psychedelic mess about a priest on an ecstasy trip; it looks like a naff nineties music video, with VFX knocked up on Microsoft Paint.
There are some fairly admirable influences on display – beyond the obligatory Tarantino homage there are nods to Aronofsky’s early work – but Seven Devils offers no glimpse of potential talent for Rider. In every respect, this film is diabolical.
Seven Devils is a micro budget anthology feature film set around the seven deadly sins. (97 mins, colour + black and white, UK)
Written and directed by Ben Rider –
Starring Cornelius Geaney Jr., Julia Papp, Darren O’Connor, Emily Stride, Augustina Amoa, Stacey Leigh, Gregory Champkin, Michael Luke Walsh, Richard Summers-Calvert, Louise Tyler, Aurora Fearnley, Michelle Lehane, Kim Waters, Rosalyn Mitchell, Alexander Hughes
VOD and DVD release set for May 2016.
