Cowen Rosewell wakes up one day and decides to start his video project for college: Seven Days in the Life of Cowen. How exciting could seven days be around your average college student?

Well, Cowen also happens to start his project the same day a freak storm hits his hometown of Hungerford; a strange cloud cluster looms over the town hall and lightning strikes, knocking out all radio and phone signals, and causing a fire in the old factory.

Cowen continues to video the antics of himself and his flatmates: Adam, his sister Philippa (Phil) and Kipper; after a day of drinking, Adam throws up out of the window as the local Councilman falls unconscious in the street, the group go out to help but he’s already gone…leaving a small pool of blood behind.

The next morning, Jenine arrives at the flat to invite the group around to her house for a party; Adam and Phil have already embarrassed Cowen in front of her by writing ‘Cock Suka’ on his forehead while he was asleep and letting him answer the door – Cowen is initially upset, but forgives and forgets, and they all head out to the party. On the way, they pass various people acting strangely, but ignore it.

The group enjoy the party. Cowen and Jenine rekindle their feelings, having dated previously, and plan a date for the following week. After taking a pee somewhere in the garden, Cowen passes a window to see the Councilman – Jenine’s dad – smacking his head against the window repeatedly; Cowen tries to tell Adam what he just saw, but the girl next to Adam suddenly coughs up blood and collapses. Jenine accuses Adam of slipping her something and tells everyone to leave.

The next day, Cowen phones Jenine to apologise and explain what he saw her dad doing in his office; she tells him that her dad has locked himself in – kicking the keys under the door to her – and is simply just stressed out before hanging up. In the kitchen, Phil opens the door to the postman who instantly tries to choke her; Adam defends her, grabbing a knife and stabbing him, it doesn’t have any effect and he continues his attack until he’s sprayed in the face with deodorant; the postman’s face is badly burnt and drops dead in their living room. The group decides that, because Adam is on probation, they shouldn’t call the police and just dump the body in the dumpster since no one checks them.

While moving the body, Cowen notices a strange hole on the back of the postman’s neck; the next morning, he convinces Adam to take a look but he brushes it off from the glass he’d landed on; Cowen explains that the knife had no effect but deodorant did, and wants to test his theory.

I had to pause the film for a second here to follow their line of logic. They refused to get the police involved, despite video evidence of self defence, because Adam is on probation – however, Adam can risk assaulting someone with deodorant to the face over a hunch?

Luckily, the random citizen they choose just happens to be affected by the spray; Adam and Cowen chase him to the old factory where they see a group of people acting strangely. Adam slips away to have a better look, but Cowen is spotted and runs back to the flat; Adam isn’t far behind but is clearly acting different and is sprayed in the face, causing a strange insect to escape from his neck and killed by Cowen.

The group decide they should try to get out of town and Cowen wants to grab Jenine on the way; they break into the supermarket where Kipper works to grab more deodorant and are ambushed by the infected laying in wait. Safely back at the flat, and with fifteen cans of spray, Kipper plans their route to Jenine’s and they head out with weapons in tow; Jenine is hiding in her room as someone already tried to break in, and she won’t leave until they’ve sorted her dad out. They get the insect out, but it’s too late for her dad.

A mistake by Phil, on the way home, puts her in danger and Adam freaks out after rescuing her, causing a fallout between them; Jenine tells Cowen she has keys to her dad’s car that’s parked at the council office, he tells the group he plans to go at dawn but Phil sneaks out instead, wanting to make up for the mistake.

Cowen convinces Adam to stay behind to protect Jenine for him; he heads out with Kipper and they’re ambushed, only to be saved by Terry (Hungerford’s worst PC in my opinion). Terry leads them to the council office where they find Phil and Terry begins the drive back to the flat; Terry explains that people have disappeared, even his own colleagues who went to the factory, and that he had to kill his own Sargent in self defence. Up ahead, there’s a group of infected in the road and Terry flips the car while turning to avoid them.

Phil is taken by the infected from the car, Terry has died in the crash, and Kipper and Cowen arrive back at the flat to discover Adam and Jenine have been taken, too. The pair decide they should head to the factory, but have to split up then they find two children abandoned in a car; Cowen goes to the factory alone, people are locked inside a pen outside the factory and Cowen promises to help them later; deep inside the factory, he finds people wrapped in a strange web-like cocoon. Cowen is attacked by an infected, who drags him to another area where he finds Adam and Janine; in the darkness, some Ivan Ooze looking monster attacks a woman and advances on the trio, only to be shot dead by the rescue team.

The trio are led back outside by the military and reunite with Kipper. They look to the sky and see a huge spaceship overhead.

Later, looking into the camera, Cowen explains that there is an invasion and they don’t know how many insects have been released; Britain’s communication with Europe has been cut off and they didn’t find Phil. Cowen turns the camera around to a city of destruction.

I don’t like ‘found footage’ films, so I have a negative feeling about this film from the beginning; its only saving grace is that the special effects – as few as they were – are really good! The storm looks real and eerie, the postman’s burnt face looked professional and the insects are realistic. However, aside from the main five cast, the acting in places is poor and the fight choreography is terrible; two main scenes that stand out is Adam’s fight with the postman, where Adam jumps before he’s actually thrown, and the infected beating on some victims looks unconvincing.

As I stated above, there is that strange plot based logic of ‘we’re not calling the police but let’s assault some random person on a whim’, and Hungerford’s worst cop suddenly becomes rambo for five minutes.

2.5/5: Is it a bad film? No, but it’s not the most entertaining found footage film I’ve come across either. I must be good enough for some, because it has a sequel, which I will check out for the sake of curiosity.