... but it's never fully realized.
There were many things that could have been good - the patient "doctor" echoing the things he hears from the real doctor and making him his underling in his imagination was interesting and the style of several snippets too but even with these, more positive, aspects, I found issues in the execution. Like, why make that quick smash-cut to emphasize how he pretends to be the doctor? Was that needed? Do you think the audience is that stupid? Let it be an Easter Egg where people can discover more and more echoed behavior on repeat viewings. The snippets/ segments were also so very short - it's an almost 2 hour movie with lots of main plot and SEVEN small segments... It's just too much, you don't get invested in each story with so little time for each - and it doesn't help that most of them are incredibly generic, either.
Then there are the things that just were never really good - the dialogue didn't seem amazing, and I am pretty sceptic about the mental health system aspect. Of course, I've never been to an institution for the criminally insane, but it still seems a bit harsh and counter-intuitive for people who have mental issues. The doctor was a horrible doctor - I doubt any psychiatrist would consistently treat his patients as he's apparently done. Last but not least, the title was a dead giveaway that the doctor would be patient number 7 - after seeing him with the first patient, I knew that yep, that would definitely be it.
The last thing, that was probably the biggest issue, was that it wasn't really scary. It might have been if the overall level had been higher (and some of the mentioned issues had been fixed - like the too short segments) but it was more thriller than horror.
--
All in all, it's not horrible - there's potential in there, the acting isn't bad and the cinematography was okay but nothing really special. I probably won't watch it again, but it was fine for a lazy Sunday watch.
Favourite segment: The one with the girl who wanted to bury her friend.
Award: Fakest looking tree in existence in Alfie Allen's segment. Seriously, WTH? Also, dullest wooden stakes to ever be used against vampires. Buffy would be disappointed.
There were many things that could have been good - the patient "doctor" echoing the things he hears from the real doctor and making him his underling in his imagination was interesting and the style of several snippets too but even with these, more positive, aspects, I found issues in the execution. Like, why make that quick smash-cut to emphasize how he pretends to be the doctor? Was that needed? Do you think the audience is that stupid? Let it be an Easter Egg where people can discover more and more echoed behavior on repeat viewings. The snippets/ segments were also so very short - it's an almost 2 hour movie with lots of main plot and SEVEN small segments... It's just too much, you don't get invested in each story with so little time for each - and it doesn't help that most of them are incredibly generic, either.
Then there are the things that just were never really good - the dialogue didn't seem amazing, and I am pretty sceptic about the mental health system aspect. Of course, I've never been to an institution for the criminally insane, but it still seems a bit harsh and counter-intuitive for people who have mental issues. The doctor was a horrible doctor - I doubt any psychiatrist would consistently treat his patients as he's apparently done. Last but not least, the title was a dead giveaway that the doctor would be patient number 7 - after seeing him with the first patient, I knew that yep, that would definitely be it.
The last thing, that was probably the biggest issue, was that it wasn't really scary. It might have been if the overall level had been higher (and some of the mentioned issues had been fixed - like the too short segments) but it was more thriller than horror.
--
All in all, it's not horrible - there's potential in there, the acting isn't bad and the cinematography was okay but nothing really special. I probably won't watch it again, but it was fine for a lazy Sunday watch.
Favourite segment: The one with the girl who wanted to bury her friend.
Award: Fakest looking tree in existence in Alfie Allen's segment. Seriously, WTH? Also, dullest wooden stakes to ever be used against vampires. Buffy would be disappointed.