Filthy Review - Sector 7

Sector 7 (2011)

Review by Jude Felton

Sector 7 was the first 3D movie to come out of Korea, and it shows. Not necessarily in the execution of the 3D effects (I watched the 2D Blu-ray version), but in the style of the movie and the plot that comes along with it. Sector 7 is a monster movie set in an isolated location with a cast ripe for the killing, and for the most part it is a stupidly entertaining movie. You can tell from the offset that this is aimed squarely at a mainstream audience that likes to dabble in the scary stuff. What you aren’t going to get is the subtle style of horror that the Koreans do so well.

The basic outline of the plot concerns Hae-jun, who works on an offshore oil rig. Hae-jun, along with the rest of the crew, has been searching in vain for oil and time is running out before the powers that be pull the plug on the operation. Of course, they aren’t going to up anchor and head home just yet, because we have a monster movie to see.

And yes, the monster does eventually make an appearance. The first hour or so of Sector 7 spends most of its time with us getting to know the crew and their relationships, and random scenes of folk racing around the rig on bikes. Then, when the monster hits, the movie takes on an Alien/Aliens-esque approach, as one by one the creature hunts down the crew.

It’s all very glossy, with plenty of swooping camera shots and what I can imagine to be plenty of 3D action. It’s also all very predictable. Aside from the stalk and kill approach to events, we also learn the origin of the monster, which also leans into Aliens territory. My overriding feeling throughout the movie though was this; if you can imagine the first two Resident Evil games, stuck them on an oil rig and had a Licker as the monster, and featured no zombies, you would have Sector 7 in a nutshell. Hae-jun could even be the Korean master of unlocking!

The monster itself is fairly cool, although a little too small for my liking, and is a resilient bastard. Rendered using CGI, the images vary between looking really good right through to looking pretty poor. The film itself is CGI heavy and it does show in places.

The acting is nothing special with the cast performing their roles of clichéd characters adequately, and Ji-Won Ha, as Hae-jun, is lovely to look at but doesn’t have the power range of someone like Sigourney Weaver. So, at times, she comes across as a spoiled brat who can’t get her own way.

This is big budget B movie schlock at its, maybe not finest, glossy best. It’s a SyFy movie with a budget, it doesn’t always work but there are some fun moments to found.

I got the feeling that if the movie had not been tied down by the trappings of being a 3D movie that they could have crafted a really cool and tense monster movie; the location is certainly cool. As it stands Sector 7 is a middle of the road movie that neither blew me away nor completely disappointed me.

Sector 7 is available now on Blu-ray and DVD from Shout! Factory.