PLOT: Society has gotten worse, and low-key possessions seem to be the cause of crime and murder. It’s up to a gritty, worn-out exorcist and his new recruit to tackle the evil head-on.
LOWDOWN: Training Day, only with exorcists, is basically what The Seventh Day (WATCH IT HERE) is trying to be. It has its heart in the right place but can’t quite figure out how it wants to tell the tale at hand. When you have Guy Pearce as a broken, acholic detective-type (only as an exorcist) and Stephen Lang as an Archbishop barking order like M from Bond, I’m in. Like all f*cking in. But before we jump into what doesn’t work, Let’s dig into what does. I got myself an Old Fashioned, and I recommend you mix yourself up something as well. Cool? Good, let’s do this.
The Seventh Day starts in Boston in ’95, where Father Louis, played by the great Keith David, is preparing to exorcise a demon from a young boy. With the help of his young assistant Peter, they try and save the young boy’s life. Flashforowrd to the present, and Peter is now a grown man with a giant chip on his shoulder played by Guy Pearce. The Archbishop (Lang) introduces him to his “new” trainee, who will be the next one ready to fight evil on the streets. As a simple story, I like the idea of demons taking over undercover and an Archbishop unofficially sending out priests to clean up the streets.
Guy Pearce can’t fail as his acting chops are expert level, and I’d argue he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. Sh*t, even as a kid in the theater watching L.A. Confidential, I knew this guy was a master. As Peter, he hams up the Boston accent and seems worn down as the exorcist trainer who’s trying to put out more recruits on the streets to battle the increasing evil. With his stubble and f*ck-all attitude, Pearce carries the movie on his shoulders, breaking the rules and showing his new trainee Father Daniel (Vadhir Derbez) how to “really” get things done. Lang plays his role low-key but emotes like a king and has a presence that owns it here.
The banter and chemistry between Pearce and Lang should have been more front and center. The Seventh Day may limit their screen time together, but it’s definitely one of the movie’s best parts. If this has shown us anything, these two need to work together in a bigger capacity. As a gritty training story, this may have worked out better as the first act keep things more subdued and present a world that’s infested and where evil hides in others’ good deeds. But as things progress, The Seventh Day leans way more into its horror roots, and it’s where we start to see that this ride is going to get a helluva lot bumpier.
This is a weird statement to make, coming from someone whose entire childhood consisted of Full Moon Features, Jason Vorhees, and the whole 80s genre films in Family Video, but the horror here is stale and clichéd. When sprinkled in, like in the homeless camp when they’re trying to sniff out a hiding demon or when they visit the murder scene of a child killer, things work well enough, but every exorcism seems like a ’90s straight-to-DVD scene in terms of execution. It’s hard to outdo the OG (The Exorcist), but cheap CGI and been there, done that plot points, ain’t it.
Though there are scenes here and there that work, it makes things even more frustrating as it gives you hope. There is a scene where the two priests need to get ahold of a child murderer in custody (Brady Jenness ) so they can confront the demon inside him. Sh*t gets crazy, and we end up with a creepy thought-out scene that raises the stakes and slaps you across the face, only to immediately go back into generic and safe horror-for-dummies. It’s heartbreaking to see promise in a movie as I’d rather it fail outright than present some cool ideas populated with great actors.
GORE: We get some decent blood with a couple of stabbings and some CGI gore, but nothing too intense.
BOTTOM LINE: To have Guy Pearce, Keith David, and Stephen Lang in an exorcism movie that’s clearly influenced by Training Day and NOT pull it off is a sin in itself. With some scenes piquing my interest while others are playing it so safe you’ve seen it a hundred times before, It’s hard to invest in The Seventh Day. Pearce has the most depth, and maybe focusing on his journey with more of a world with a dark underbelly could have saved this, but Vadhir Derbez is miscast as Father Daniel and should not have been the focul point. He couldn’t quite pull off the novice priest who needs to step up when the situation arises. Lang excelled as the Archbishop, and yet The Seventh Day doesn’t use him enough. With a few great scenes, I’d say it isn’t a total loss, but it should have been a lot better with the talent involved.
The Seventh Day releases theatrically and On Demand on Friday, March 26, 2021, by Vertical Entertainment and Redbox Entertainment.