Sector 7 is a Korean horror film based on an offshore oil rig with some legend surrounding it. The movie begins in 1985, with a deep sea diver technician examining a drill bore that’s become stuck. Within moments of inspecting it, he encounters these very small and bright creatures that are almost fairy-like in nature. They seem surreal and good, but soon after disaster strikes. Fast-forward to 2011, and a new crew has been working the Sector 7 rig, with no success. But Hae-jun (Ji-won Ha) is convinced that the crew cannot quit now, that they have already invested too much. As the team is about to leave the rig, Jeong Man (Sung-kee Ahn) steps in to keep the rig running for just a while longer. His timing is curious, but the crew — including Hae-jun, a love interest, a small science team, and a few workers — decide to make the most of it and get back to drilling for oil.
Soon after, they successfully discover oil, but they also find something else. As you might predict, this small group of people, stranded and stuck in the middle of nowhere on a dark and stormy night, suddenly face a terror they have never known before. Sector 7 has a lot of typical monster movie themes in it, which fans of the genre are likely to eat up. As someone who doesn’t watch a lot of horror movies, I still found Sector 7 too predictable, and the monster ultimately too unbelievable. Further still, the monster (done in CG) looks a little too out of place, such that it isn’t intimidating or even very interesting. Several actor performances on the other hand are far more genuine and merit-able, but these aren’t enough to fully dig Sector 7 out of a rut of mediocrity.
Though the movie itself isn’t all that great, the 3D Blu-ray is interesting at first look. I watched the movie in 3D and found it compelling, although I should admit I am still fairly new to 3D and am probably more forgiving (and inexperienced) than most. In going back through parts of the movie in 2D, I came to the obvious conclusion that Sector 7 is a great looking movie — from a technical standpoint at least — no matter which way you view it. The 3D effects are well done, and it’s clear that some scenes are setup expressly for 3D. These work out well enough and do a lot to keep you watching even when the formula for the movie is established somewhere around the halfway mark and the potential for fading interest peaks. Audio options include a 5.1 Korean and a Stereo English track with English subtitles.
Extra features are very few, but worth a quick look. Expect just a generic ‘making of’ feature in SD, that includes some production footage as well as very brief cast and crew interviews on set. Here, they talk about the challenges of making the movie (with so much green and blue screening involved) and the like.
To the summary…