I watch a lot of horror movies. A LOT. Like, 3-4 every week. In fact, I often stream ones publicly available and watch them over the internet with my friends. Yesterday I watched this movie with my friends. We went into it knowing the budget and knowing the IMDb score was very poor. We were absolutely blown away and super impressed by the quality presented in the acting and the effects. This movie has gotten a lot of hate for various reasons. The trailer was absolutely terrible, and apparently consulting the forums the makers were suspect of using sockpuppet accounts to upvote this film.This movie DESERVES good ratings though. We watched several movies after this that had budgets of $1 million+ and at the end of the night, we all agreed that this film blew the rest away. There's a absolutely terrific buildup and a great payoff to a lot of the scares in this movie. Things I like about this movie:Seems VERY real compared to most found footage films. Characters are VERY believable, fantastic and underrated actors combined with subtle effects (that are impressive in hindsight) make this seem real. Several chat members watching this movie with me that joined in late asked if this was real.Uses tropes, but uses tropes incredibly well. Mr. Kellogg absolutely did his research before making this movie. It has several themes present in Blair Witch and other "found footage" movies. However, it takes the formula and polishes it very well. There is a great buildup and arc to the story, and the few things that could be considered jumpscares in this movie have a buildup of their very own and you know they are coming. Surprisingly disturbing and unsettling imagery. This movie, especially during the climax, is FANTASTIC. The scene of the ghost running down the hall near the end genuinely made me uncomfortable and I loved it. Whoever did the effects for this movie deserves praise. What they did on a $5000 budget is nothing short of a honest to god miracle.Satisfying ending. I wont spoil it, because this movie deserves to be watched.What I don't like: A LOT of screaming, sometimes borderline annoying. Although this in itself made the situations seem more real and believable, one female actor specifically had a very loud and pronounced scream, and due to her frequent screaming my stream chat was being spammed by "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" and emotes during many scenes where she was yelling. Yes, it was so bad it became a f***ing meme.The camera was very shaky at times and made it hard to appreciate what was going on. Again, this made it seem more real, but at the same time it made it hard to be spooked when you had to squint through camera shaking to see the ghosts. There was a lot of "What the f*** was that" in chat during these scenes, not due to fear but due to genuine confusion due to how hard it was to see during these segments.One of the female actors was genuinely annoying as a character. Again, she acted very well (all the actors were great at their worst), but she was just annoying, especially once the ghost possession happens to another female character. (Sorry for vague wording but i'm doing my best to spoil this as little as possible).This is an insanely ambitious and well made movie, but I feel like people aren't giving it a chance due to how, well, REAL it looks. There are a lot of surface level imperfections in regards to it being a film, but thats why its so good. It seems REAL. It doesn't seem like characters reading off a script, it seems like a genuine situation where the camera-work is sometimes very shoddy and the characters have overlapping personalities (Like in real life, where everyone isn't forced into a role). I applaud Mr. Kellogg, and I cant wait to see more from him. This movie single- handedly restored my faith in indie-horror.I have visited IMDb for several years, but this movie is the reason I finally made an account. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie.

I enjoy this film far more than I should. There's decent character development. A few jump scares and an adequate amount of tension. The characters are pretty well rounded and their motivations for being there are clear (with the exception of Brooke.) Carter (although portrayed by the writer and director) is horribly annoying and a character I was hoping would meet an early demise. John was a smarmy suburbanite and he played it well. Lena was annoying and silly, but fortunately, not there long enough to be as bad as Carter. Randy was also irritating, but the character was supposed to be and it worked. Nick was extremely vanilla and "just there." Brooke, who is extremely attractive could grate my nerves at times. I also was frustrated with never knowing why she needed to stay, even after terrible things were happening. My biggest problem with the film was the idea that a network would green light this show and just toss these people in with no real direction. Most reality competition shows have a host and others involved to make certain things go according to plan. The lack of that hurts the credibility of the film. Also there being no way to communicate was silly. Forgetting ghosts, this is an old building and someone could have been injured, but no way to contact help? That makes no sense. Also, for an abandoned building, the kitchen was well stocked. Why? Another problem was that virtually all of their tasks were to explore or to have séances, nothing very original. It won't win any awards, but it's a fun little film that should be watched on a rainy Friday night.

Straight to video crap is generally pretty worthless. I got "7 Nights of Darkness" in an 8 movie horror pack at Wal Mart for $5, so my expectations were pretty low (one of the other titles, "Evidence of a Haunting" is bottom drawer junk).Anyhow, "7 Nights of Darkness" is an SOV horror film done entirely in the format of reality TV show with the actors handling the cameras while they wander through a "spooky" abandoned asylum (for 7 dark nights) in hopes of winning a million dollars. It's a post-"Ghost Hunters" version of "House on Haunted Hill". For plot and such there's nothing especially original, but somehow the actors bring it to life.A cast of nobodies left alone with the cameras manage to create honest banter and what sounds like improvised dialogue. This doesn't really turn the movie into a horror classic of any description, but it does make the characters feel real, which is a rare thing.Having seen this, I hope director Allen Kellogg gets more work, there's some potential there. I personally prefer the kind of horror guys like Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento created, but this little cheapie was a nice surprise.

This film has the worst acting ever in recorded history. The premise of the movie seems to be about reality TV contestants. Too bad the actors and actresses resemble nothing even close to how people in the real world act. Don't waste your time watching this one. This kind of movie has been done over and over again. It always turns out to be the same, no reality to it whatsoever, substandard scripting and really bad acting from true amateurs. There is better acting in porn than what you'll see in this one. The camera work is at times very suspicious, if you're told it's gonna be a reality show, and you see different stationary cameras all of a sudden move for better angle, then you know it's all downhill from there with reality flying out the window.