Review of The Seventh Sign (1988) by Timothy S — 27 Oct 2014

You've got to have a pretty smart screenplay (perhaps written by someone like William Peter Blatty, for instance) to convincingly pull off a religious-themed horror film. The writers behind "The Seventh Sign" are clearly not operating at that level, and as a result this film suffers the same fate as many others just like it.

It's filled with enough ominous portents, hammy overacting and ridiculous imagery to fill two films, and because of that, none of this ever feels real. The story could have been interesting, but the directing here is so lackluster that the film just lies here, inert and sluggish. Carl Schultz has spent much of his career working in the television medium, and his feature never approaches the kind of urgency the material requires until the finale.

Demi Moore is just fine in the lead role, managing to capture the necessary vulnerability with just enough strength to make you like the character. The rest of the cast, on the other hand, is quite transparent including a less-than-chilling Jurgen Prochnow who actually becomes a hero of sorts after the big reveal. He disappears in the third act and is effectively forgotten about, so much so that it is quite jarring when he reappears at the end.

There are a lot of intriguing ideas here that are worth exploring in more detail, most notable how a handicapped killer on Death Row fits into the puzzle, but unfortunately, not enough is done with that. As a result, "The Seventh Sign" feels half-baked and unfinished, a rare film that may have actually benefitted from being longer. It has a lot to say, and a lot of ideas that never quite come together like you want them to. It also suffers from a distinct and painfully noticeable lack of energy.