Just like in the recent Australian revenge thriller The Horseman, we have another Father who's snapped and is now taking matters into his own hands on account of his little girl's demise. Where that film brought a more in your face, action oriented style, 7 Days bring you a more heady approach that focuses on despair, grief and self-conflict. But that's not to say this one, on any level, is less brutal.

As I hinted at, 7 Days is a story of a Father's vengeance for his 8 year old daughter that was raped and murdered. He masterminds a plan to get the perpetrator alone for 7 Days so he can quell his own flooding emotions. It's a simple story that people across the board can relate to, but only a select few would ever try to tackle; and it shows, as this is no joy-ride for the Father, and his actions against his daughter's killer are eating him up inside.

7 Days is an engrossing film; with it's bleak and unforgiving style, it captured me right from the get go, and didn't let loose until the final scene. And at it's core were the performances by the actors involved, who all did stand-out jobs. But I have to really commend the man who played the murderer, Martin Dubreuil. He did an amazing job as a man going through a smörgåsbord of pain and mental battles. One scene in particular, where himself and our lead (Claude Legault) had a face to face; it literally had my breath at a stand-still.

I was not expecting to enjoy this film as much I did. I'm super hit or miss with any film that has torture in it; as I think most people are. I feel like I've seen every single one as well; from the mainstream Hostels to the cheap and ugly, Scrapbook, to the overly ridiculous and vile, The Butcher. And as a whole, the sub-genre is pretty weak. But when torture is used as a secondary outfit in a movie, instead of the go to ploy, then I feel, there's hope for the sub-genre. This movie first and foremost delivers a story that thrusts you into the Father's shoes, and urges you to relate through either simple but affective symbolism, affective and violent outbursts, or scenes of pain-staking solitude. And also adding in a sub-plot with a hardened but sensitive detective that's trying to stop our protagonist, the film only intensifies.

7 Days is a graphic, intimate and emotional film that tells the story of questionable actions from the side you're supposed to be caring for. As the man descends deeper into vengeance he'll quickly reach a fine line that may be impossible to turn back from. You take this journey with him, not knowing which way he'll go.

When police arrest a man for the rape and murder of Dr. Bruno Hamel's 8-year old daughter, the distraught father (a strong performance from Claude Legault) seeks revenge, kidnapping the suspect and subjecting him to a week of unimaginable suffering while the police desperately attempt to track them down.

Revenge is sweet, as the saying goes, but 7 Days challenges this notion: after inflicting untold pain and suffering on his victim, Bruno doesn't feel any better—he is just as empty inside, his grief no less severe than before, his anger unabated. The film questions whether, despite our understandable wish to severely punish the human garbage who commit such evil crimes, revenge might not be the wisest route to take.

Superb performances, tight direction from Daniel Grou, and some truly disturbing imagery make this film hard to ignore, but it is its highly debatable central theme—to torture or not to torture— that makes 7 Days a more powerful viewing experience than many of the 'torture' films that we've had to endure post-Saw.

I suppose we all have had a moment when we read a story of brutality, the rape or murder of someone done in an excruciatingly violent way by someone who has no remorse. That's what happens here and the ugliness it brings to the parents of the little girl would get anyone's hackles up. So this director contrives such a situation and then goes into the "what if" mode. What follows is about as ugly as anything I've ever seen on film. The rest of the movie is about the brutalizing of the killer. It's not just that he is tortured, but we are invited in to watch his torture in graphic detail. Because the torture is mostly physical, there is nothing redemptive about it. The father becomes robot-like in his daily devotions to the art of vengeance. He ignores what he is doing to his family and becomes an automaton. He creates machines and devices that inflict horrors. I really don't want to spend any time with someone who would enjoy watching this and the fact that it was popular makes me wonder what we are made of. I'm not averse to severe punishment for criminals, but this is beyond the pale.