Two out of
Five stars
Running time:
95 mins
The Seventh Dimension has some nice ideas and makes a virtue of its low-budget constraints but it's ultimately undone by some dodgy acting and a script that feels like you're being ranted at by a conspiracy theorist for 90 minutes.
What's it all about?
Written and directed by Brad Watson, The Seventh Dimension (aka The Fourth Dimension or Beacon77) stars Kelly Adams and Lucy Evans as Sarah and Zoe, two students who show up at the door of Zoe's tutor, Malcolm (David Horton), in order for Zoe to declare her undying love for him after a recent tryst. However, it turns out that Malcolm is part of a group of hackers-slash-conspiracy theorists that includes wheelchair-bound obsessive Declan (Jonathan Rhodes) and moody goth Kendra (Calita Rainford) and the girls arrive just as the group hack into the Vatican and unlock the mysterious Bible Code.
When the hackers discover that the Pentagon are on their trail (using psychic spies), the flat goes into lockdown, trapping everyone in the apartment. And when the flat is attacked by what appears to be poltergeist activity, the group realise that they might have uncovered more than they bargained for.
The Good
The film does have a few things in its favour – for one thing it makes the most of its low-budget constraints by setting almost the entire film in the flat, managing to achieve a claustrophobic atmosphere without feeling too stagey. Similarly, the plot may be bonkers but at least it takes its bonkers premise and runs with it, going gleefully over the top, even if it doesn't quite work.
The Bad
Unfortunately, the budget clearly only stretched to one decent actor (Adams) and her character is frustratingly passive throughout. Similarly, the jargon-heavy dialogue makes it feel like being you're being ranted at by a conspiracy theorist for two hours, or at least by an idiot telling you why you HAVE to read The Da Vinci Code.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about the film is that having claimed to have unlocked the secrets of every conspiracy theory in the world, it fails to come up with anything interesting, clever or shocking, instead settling for lines like “Hey, you'll never guess who killed Marilyn Monroe...”
Worth seeing?
Badly acted and over-written, The Seventh Dimension has the occasional moment but it's not as clever as it thinks it is and it's frequently laughable (in a bad way) rather than scary or disturbing.