Seven Snipers

Like anyone else, there are days when I come home and want the simplest thing possible. That mindset often carries over to the movies I watch. Sometimes I don’t want to keep track of whose sister’s brother’s stepfather is hiding a secret baby. Sometimes I just want a straightforward story: boy meets girl, they fall in love, and that’s that. Of course, love is rarely that simple, but my point is that there’s something refreshing about a movie with a simple premise, a handful of locations, and a story that knows exactly what it wants to be. Sandra Sciberras’s Seven Snipers is that kind of movie. And, spoiler alert, there are indeed seven snipers.

Out in the middle of nowhere, Kris (Radha Mitchell) lives with her daughter Anja (Annabel Wolfe) and seems perfectly content being left alone. Life is relatively peaceful, although Anja’s rebellious streak is starting to test Kris’s patience. Parenting, it seems, is one challenge she still hasn’t quite figured out. That quiet life is interrupted when a man claiming to be a businessman shows up looking for something. Of course, what he wants isn’t quite what it seems.

You see, in another life, Kris was known as Voodoo Child, a highly skilled sniper. A man she believed was dead is now searching for her, and thanks to this visitor, he finally knows where to find her. Realizing what’s coming, Kris sets out to find Anja, who has snuck away on a camping trip with her boyfriend. But tracking down her daughter is only part of the problem. Knowing she’ll need backup, Kris calls in a favor and reunites her former crew to help protect her family and finally take down The Dragon (Tim Roth) once and for all.

Written by Andrew O’Keefe, Seven Snipers embraces simplicity when it comes to its story, even if it loads up on characters with rifles. The result isn’t anything epic, but Sciberras does a great job creating a constant sense of dread. There’s an underlying feeling that even seven snipers may not be enough to stop one truly dangerous shooter. In fact, you could argue that a few fewer snipers might have actually helped the movie. Most of them aren’t given enough development for us to care much about them, so when they’re taken out, the emotional impact is limited.

Still, despite those shortcomings, Sciberras crafts an engaging cat-and-mouse thriller that manages to keep you invested. The tension is effective, and the film does a nice job of keeping you on your toes.

Seven Snipers leans into its simplicity, and while it doesn’t hit every shot it takes, it lands enough of them to deliver a solid, entertaining thriller. Where it misses most is in a couple of choices that were likely made for budgetary reasons. The CGI is one of them. There’s a car crash and several effects shots involving blood that never quite look convincing, and they pull you out of the movie whenever they appear. I understand why those decisions were made, but they don’t do the film any favors.

The other issue is the supporting cast of characters. Mitchell delivers a strong performance, and Tim Roth does what Tim Roth does best—play an effective bad guy. For me, that’s usually enough. Unfortunately, many of the other characters feel underdeveloped and interchangeable.

That may make it sound like I didn’t enjoy Seven Snipers, but that’s not the case at all. I was able to look past its flaws because I could clearly see what the film was aiming for, and more often than not, it hit the mark. At its core, it’s an effective game of survival and strategy, elevated by a few strong performances and enough tension to keep you locked in throughout its brisk 87-minute runtime.

Brian Taylor

Member of the North Texas Film Critics Association, and lover of all things Cinema