When I was invited to the press screening of this film I was intrigued by its idea. A British film called THE FOURTH DIMENSION, about "a trio of computer hackers about to embark on the ultimate job on the world’s most mysterious mainframe; the Vatican’s top secret archives, to unlock the secret to the Bible Code. Whilst doing so, they unlock more than they bargain for with supernatural and, ultimately, fatal results." You'll have to agree, it does sound an ideal SCI-FI-LONDON film. When I turned up at the screening, the title had changed to THE SEVENTH DIMENSION, and with the current fad of turning films into 3D in post-production, I was wondering if that's what the additional three dimensions were going to be. When it started, the film was resolutely two-dimensions, which is one more than the characters.

As I've already said, the film has an interesting concept. It worked with Darren Aranofsky's PI, and Dan Brown has made millions off Vatican conspiracy theories (facts or rumours, depending on your viewpoint). The trouble with this film is the ideas aren't properly realised at the most basic level, the screenplay. I got the feeling that writer-director Brad Watson had read The Da Vinci Code, did a bit of Internet research into Bible codes and tried to construct a story around it, but using the first rule of low budget filmmaking – shoot with what you have in terms of locations and props. Unfortunately, this film, despite its huge difference, suffers from the same problem that plagued THE DA VINCI CODE movie – too much expositional dialogue to get the dense concepts over. This might work on paper in a novel, but in a movie, especially one that purports to be a thriller, it does not work. Show not tell, is another of the cardinal rules of filmmaking. However, if you are going to do a dialogue heavy movie you need to have a knack for it, like QT or even Kevin Smith, otherwise it comes across as contrived and amateurish. Low budget genre movies are not renown for their plausible scripts, especially when it comes to supernatural thrillers, so they tend to keep the dialogue to a minimum and ramp up the visual scares and gore, and this film does those quite well when they are needed, but if you are trying to cram in big ideas as well then you just have to make sure the talkie parts are faultless and convincing.

Technically, the film is competently made. The cinematography by Tim Wooster is probably the highlight of the film, and the cast do their best with the dire script, which undermines any truth they could put into the roles. Maybe Watson needs to stick to directing, or get an outside expert to go over the screenplay before he goes into production again.

Overall, a disappointing experience but it does drive home that importance of having a good screenplay, no matter how great the idea or the cast and crew are.

THE SEVENTH DIMENSION is on limited release from 12 July.