Seven Snipers Review: Could’ve Used Fewer Snipers

Sandra Sciberras’ Seven Snipers is an occasionally tense but generally tedious thriller with a couple of standout performances.

It’s not like Seven Snipers is terrible, though; it’s only underwhelming, and more boring than truly awful. What should have been a tense experience, then, turns into yet another case of wasted potential, especially considering its talented cast.

Seven Snipers takes place in the Queensland countryside, where an ex-military sniper, Voodoo Child (Mitchell), lives with her sixteen-year-old daughter, Anja (Annabel Wolfe). The former tries to live a simple life, rejecting offers to buy her property, and the latter is going through a rebellious phase, refusing to have meaningful interactions with her mother and preferring to spend time with her boyfriend, the well-intentioned Michael (Lee Tiger Halley).

Things take a turn for the worse, though, when a man named Phillips (Ryan Kwanten, of Glorious) arrives at the house and eventually admits that he’s been sent by a dangerous criminal named The Dragon (Tim Roth, of Pulp Fiction), who was long thought to be dead, and is now seeking revenge from Voodoo Child. Knowing the kind of danger she’s about to face, our protagonist decides to call a couple of her old friends from work, who arrive at the property, willing to help her. But as they soon find out, facing The Dragon turns out to be more difficult than anticipated.

Seven Snipers’ premise is not without merit: a sort of cat-and-mouse (well, mice) game between one of the best snipers in the world and a group of underarmed and unprepared soldiers who, additionally, have to protect a teenager. This could have resulted in an exciting and suspenseful experience, but unfortunately, the movie squanders most of its potential by limiting the action to the house and its surroundings, and by having its characters run around and walk around the place, taking shots at The Dragon from time to time. It feels repetitive, and grows old really quickly.

Moreover, and without trying to spoil the movie, the fact that The Dragon is so good at sniping is conveyed through his very fast and efficient killing of a couple of the more forgettable secondary characters, which feels a bit funny (especially as he does this over and over again), and makes said characters feel underdeveloped, more like cannon fodder than true human beings. Thus, the only truly important figure in Seven Snipers, apart from the mother, the daughter and The Dragon, is sniper Milk (Ioan Gruffudd, of Ava), one of Voodoo Child’s closest friends, who also turns out to have a history with Anja.

As our protagonist, Radha Mitchell gives a strong performance, playing her like a stoic but never stiff sniper-turned-mother, capable of doing anything to protect her daughter, not only from the violence his old enemy has brought to their home, but also from important secrets from the past. It had been a while since I’d seen Mitchell in a new film; I hope she returns in bigger and better things. Annabel Wolfe is equally impressive, managing to turn Anja into a believable character, despite her acting a bit silly and even illogical at certain points.

For his part, Tim Roth looks a little bored; this is the kind of role – that of the vengeful and violent psychopath – he could play in his sleep, and at certain moments, he seems to be doing exactly that. And although Ioan Gruffudd’s role is at times thankless, he’s got enough charisma to turn Milk into the only legitimately believable secondary character. In fact, I have no idea why the film had to be about seven snipers; considering most of them are cardboard cutouts with no discernible traits, Seven Snipers could have easily been Three Snipers instead and would have been more interesting, featuring better developed characters.

There’s nothing horrible about Seven Snipers, but there’s nothing particularly cool about it either. There are some nice performances here, as well as a couple of interesting ideas in the form of flashbacks that manage to flesh out the relationship between Voodoo Child and The Dragon, and even some surprising deaths. But this is all ruined by a ridiculous lack of excitement, some inept VFX (there are some really wonky shots of CG fire here), and a general sense of cheapness. Seven Snipers never manages to justify its own themes or story, apparently content with simply existing as a wearying production of limited ambitions.

Seven Snipers will be available to watch on digital platforms from June 5, 2026.

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