Eddington

There are certain moments in film history when we get a unique film experience of a specific film, no matter what category we are talking about. For example i remember back in the 80´s i experienced my very first film from legendary director David Lynch and that was the body horror film Rabid. It was the year 1989 and it was the very first moment i got to watch David Lynch film Rabid on VHS. I borrowed the film from our neighbor family The Ostwalds ( they always got VHS films to their home since they knew one of the video rental store owner´s in our hometown ). Rabid turned out to be a very unique film esperience that basically tells the story of a young woman named Rose Miller ( played by actress Marilyn Chambers ) who crashes in a terrible motorcycle accident. She survives but is forced to go through surgery. What she doesn´t know is that this surgery have mutated her, feeding on other humans blood. A well made body horror film worth checking out. It was in the early 90´s i also got to experience another David Cronenberg classic known as Videorome. This was not my first movie to see actor James Wood, i had actually seen him in Oliver Stone´s drama thriller Salvador before i watched Videorome. It is a completely different film experience from Rabid but very well made and a fascinating. I especially love the fact that director David Cronenberg tried to explore media, how insane television can be having no limits between reality and fantasy.  Excellent performance by James Woods and i highly recommend the Arrow blu ray release of Videorome. Speaking of unique films perhaps you have heard of director Ari Aster? He really got a lot of respect for his 2018 horror film Hereditary ( a film i still really enjoy today )  and the film´s cast won a lot of awards at the 2019 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards. His next film Midsommar also turneed out to be really good, showing a completely different view into Swedish traditional summer festival Midsommar celebration. I did not see his next film Beau Is Afraid, perhaps because i heard many people had very mixed opinions about this film. I did decide to check out Ari Aster´s latest film  called Eddington, a film i was planning to see in cinema but that plan failed. So i picked up a physical blu ray instead to review this film. Is this another high quality film from director Ari Aster or is Eddington his worst film as a director so far?

In the small town of Eddington people are going through the pandemic of the year 2020. Sheriff Joe Cross ( Joaquin Phoenix ) does not like wearing masks and he does not like all the rules that people are supposed to follow during the pandemic. He is not a fan of running mayor Ted Garcia ( Pedro Pascal ) so he decides to run for mayor as well. At first that might seem like a good idea, until things takes a very different turn.

I think we should clarify that Eddington is not a horror film, so if you are expecting anything similar to Hereditary or Midsommar then you will be disappointed. If you do want to see director Ari Aster do a completely different film then you have definetely entered the right place. This is basically a film that tries to capture how people experienced the pandemic during 2020. You might think to yourself:- Why make a movie about this that happened just 5 years ago? I could buy that argument if we are thinking that this could have been made into a film let´s say 10 years later, so we could get a different perspective. Either way, the film is here anyway so we might as well talk about it. I will begin saying i do think it was a good idea telling a story during the pandemic from a very small town out in the middle of nowhere. This would be a great location if you wanted to avoid meeting lots of people, especially if you don´t want to get infected by Covid 19. The most interesting part of this film is actually the mayor campaign going on in the city of Eddington. You have the local sheriff Joe Cross ( played well by actor Joaquin Phoenix ) and Ted Garcia ( another great performance from actor Pedro Pascal ), running against each other who clearly have different opinions regarding Covid 19 lockdown. To see these men argue against each other and run their own mayor campaigns, is actually quite charming in certain scenes. I also like to see the private life of sheriff Joe where he seems to have issues with his wife and her mother, as they argue over Joe´s choice to run for mayor. This film actually manage to capture the mentality of a smaller town, where you feel that people don´t really like big changes. I will say that Eddington is nowhere near as good as either Hereditary or Midsommar, this is basically a very generic film if you compare to director Ari Aster´s previous films. The length of this film is a problem landing at over 140 minutes long, and for a story that´s very simple you feel that they stretched this out a little bit too long. Otherwise i can still recommend Eddington is you want to see director Ari Aster doing a completely different film than we have seen him work on before. It´s a good looking film and i do feel it gives a realistic view into the world of politics. It may never find a big audience, but if you enjoy more independent driven stories then Eddington could possibly find it´s way to your heart.

Rating: DDD                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Black Creek

During the early 90s i watched a lot of martial arts action movies at my local VHS rental store Videomix. It didn't matter if it was Jean-Claude Van Damme, Brandon Lee, Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan or other action stars such as Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Billy Blanks, Jet Li, as long as I got to see lots of kicks and gun battles i was pleased. Who cared about the plot of each film? It was the action scenes that really mattered where the fighting scenes made the biggest impact. Martial arts action movies during this period of the 90s was very popular on VHS. If we were lucky you would get to see at least 6 different new martial arts movies coming out in one single month, where most of them were low budget martial art films from Cannon Group, PM Entertainment or at some occasions a bigger studio like Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer would finance the film such as Death Warrant with Jean-Claude Van Damme. During the 90´s i bought VHS movies from England and one of the films i remember buying was the 1992 martial arts action film Rage And Honor. Directed by Terence H. Winkelness ( director of the 1987 classic boddy horror film The Nest ), this was my first introduction to martial arts action star Cyntha Rothrock. I had seen her name before on VHS covers but i was not familiar with her work. She turned out to be really cool as she does her own fighting scenes. She is not the lead actor of this film, that is martial art action star Richard Norton as the character Preston. Either way i just remember enjoying this film for being a pretty traditional cop action film. One advice, see the funny performance by actor Stephen Davies as the homeless Baby. He is completely hyped up and talks constantly. I did see some other films with Cynthia on VHS such as China O´Brien, Tiger Claws and Lady Dragon. Cynthia Rothrock never stopped making films and not that long ago she released her film Black Creek, that she was able to make thanks to fans of martial arts cinema through an Indiegogo campaign. You can still get a physical copy of this film on this page, if you would like to show your support. I got myself a physical copy to review this film and being a fan of martial art films in general. Is the western film Black Creek a must watch or is this unfortunately not as good as we were hoping it would be?

Rose Jennings ( Cynthia Rothrock ) return to her brother´s home where she finds out he have been brutally killed by the evil leader Damien Sinclair ( Richard Norton ) running a gang of outlaws. In the town of Black Creek it becomes clear that they don´t like Rose visiting, she is too nosy on what Damien and his men are doing across town. She swear to revenge her brother´s death as she gets help from her new friend Xiyang ( Don "The Dragon" Wilson ).

Ever since the idea of Black Creek came out on social media i was looking forward to this film. Seeing several martial arts action stars united together in a western action film did look good on paper. So, does this film manage to pull this concept through? For the most part i would say yes, i have some smaller issues with Black Creek but let´s get into the good. Actress Cynthia Rothrock knows exactly how to deliver martial arts entertainment, even if shes over 60 years old she can still punch and kick ass, i wouldn´t mess with her in a desert bar. Cynthia deliver a solid performance as her character Rose and i like the fact that she does not try and make her character too rough. There is a good side within Rose and you get a sense of that. I also like the cotume design on Rose, it seems that they knew exactly what clothes she could use to do her martial arts scenes and still keep the western influences look authentic. Now, there are especially two other characters in this film that definetely deserve to be talked about so let´s begin with the character Damien ( played by legendary martia arts actor Richard Norton ). Damien is the perfect evil leader of a film such as this and Richard Norton really prove himself that he knows how to potrait this character. The next character i have to mention is the character known as Xiyan ( played by legendary martial arts champion, and actor Don "The Dragon" Wilson ). This could perhaps be the best acting performance i have ever seen from Don Wilson, he should really do more western films in the future. His scenes with Cynthia Rothrock are the best acting scenes in this entire film, they have a very special screen presence together. The fighting scenes in general look as good as i was hoping for, they are well made and you can tell they don't cut down on the violence. The negative note on this film is the length, there are some very long dialogue scenes and they are not terrible, they just go on a little bit too long. Otherwise i think this is a good looking western film and the combination of martial arts match well with the story. To see legendary martial arts actor Richard Norton in a final fighting scene together with Cynthia before he passed away is beautiful, and Black Creek becomes a tribute to both martial arts and the western genre. Directors Shannon Lanier and Mike Möller have made one of the better martial art films this year, you should definetely check out Black Creek this upcoming Christmas.

Rating: DDD

Red Sonja

During the 80´s it seemed to be a time period where you would make films with sorcery, swords and fantasty combined. It was like stepping inside a world you would only read about in books or comic books, where monsters and mythical creatures existed and brave men and women would fight against evil. No matter if they armed themselves with swords, an axe or knives, every lethal weapon could make a difference. It was during the 80´s some of the best sword and fantasty films were made such as the 1981 film Conan The Barbarian ( the very first big film role for Arnold Schwarzenegger ), the 1981 film Excalibur, the 1982 film The Sword And The Sorcerer as well as the 1982 classic The Beastmaster, where V The TV series actor Marc Singer played the iconic character Dar who can communicate with animals.  Since i mentioned Conan The Barbarian we actually had two more sword fantasy films during the 80´s with Schwarzenegger. The first one was Conan The Destroyer released in 1984, the official sequel to the 1981 original Conan The Barbarian film. This is a film that divide fans of Schwarzenegger, i would say it´s not as good as the original Conan film but still entertaining enough to be worth a watch. Then just one year later came a film adaptaton on the comic book character Red Sonja where actress Brigitte Nielsen played the main character. In this film you see Arnold Schwarzenegger play the character Lord Kalidor, he kind of reminds you of Conan in some ways but have a different personaliy. Red Sonja as a film is quite a mess but im actually a fan of this film. Does it have bad acting? Yes, and im perfectly fine with that. Birgitte Nielsen is actually quite fun as Red Sonja and the dialouge is terrible as well. It´s just a cheesy fun sword fantasy film if you are in the right mood from director Richard Fleischer ( who also directed Conan The Destroyer ). For many years there was talking about doing a Red Sonja remake and for a moment it seemed impossible to get this movie made. But here we are in 2025 with a brand new remake with actress Matilda Lutz takes over the role as Red Sonja. Is this even better than the 1985 film or is this remake a piece of trash that never should have been made?

A young Red Sonja´s ( Sofia Weldon ) homeland, Hyrkania, is invaded by barbarians, slaughtering most of her people and forcing her to flee into the woods nearby. Seperated from her tribe, she searches for other Hyrkanian´s while worshipping the forest goddess Ashera. Many years have passed and Sonja ( Matilda Lutz ) is a survivor taking down mercenaries, hunting animals for horns. She tracks their location down where the mercenaries collect exotic creatures for gladiator games honoring Emperor Dragan ( Robert Sheehan ). Sonja is caught killing mercenaries and captured by the men of the Emperor. They decide to use her to the gladiator games, especially to entertain their visitors who expect to see bloody fights. The only way to get out into the real world is winning the game, or your life ends inside the arena.

Since i am a fan of sword, sorcery and fantasy films in general i knew this might be something in my taste. The question is do we really need a Red Sonja remake in modern days? I think it is a good idea considering so many films just repeat themselves, while with a fantasty sword film you can bring out different ideas and have some fun with this genre without taking it too seriously. So compared to the 1985 film does this remake bring anything different to the table? I would say yes, this is a completely different version of Red Sonja that we saw in the original film. I think this was a good desiscion not trying to repeat yourself and do a different approach on this character. There are two very negative details regarding this film that i will mention so let´s get to the positive first. Actress Matilda Lutz ( who i recognized from the 2023 Netflix thriller Reptile ) as Red Sonja is definetely very different from actress Birgitte Nielsen´s version and i appreciate the changes. I don´t think it would have worked making her look similar in modern days, and i feel that Matilda Lutz manage to portrait this character good enough to make myself pleased with the result. I especially appreciate seeing her doing physical battle scenes, where you get to see her try to live into the life of her character. There are some scenes where you can tell she´s not the one doing all the stunts and that´s ok, as long as the action scenes are entertaining im all up for this. The female character Annisia played by actress Wallis Day ( who you might recognize from the TV series Batwoman as the character Kate Kane ) have a charming evil personality and i especially like her conflicts between her and Red Sonja. One of the biggest issues with this Red Sonja remake is the terrible CGI effects in certain scenes, they feel like they came from a low budget fantasy film from the  early 2000´s. If you don´t have the budget to make good CGI effects perhaps practical effects would have looked better. The main villain Draygan feels a little bit weak against a strong warrior like Red Sonja. Compared to the original film i will say that this is a better sword fantasy adventure than the 1985 film. The battle scenes are more well made, Red Sonja herself is more developed as a character and the plot feels more structured than the 1985 film. If you don´t like these kinds of films you will not like this film either. This is a film purely for fans of Conan The Barbarian and similar films and i appreciate the effort they made making this film. Director MJ Bassett may not have made a film that will find a bigger audience, but if you you just want a simple adventure there are far more worse films than this one. Thumbs up to Red Sonja from me, i guess im easy to entertain.

Rating: DDD

Bambi: The Reckoning

About 7 months ago i was invited to a female friend´s children´s birthday party. There were 8 children there with adults and the children seemed to have a great time. They played some games and then of course the birthday boy blew out the candles of the cake. After this they all sat down to watch the cartoon Disney movie Dumbo on Disney +. I had not seen this film and my female friend ( who have basically seen all Disney animated movies ) was suprised and said:- You have not seen Dumbo in all these years? It was alright i guess, the thing about me is that i have never been a huge fan on animated Disney films in general so there are a lot of titles i have not seen. For example i have not seen Oliver & Company, The Great Mouse Detective, Pocahontas ( i don´t know the animation in this one always looked bad to me ), Dinosaur, Home Of The Range and many more titles. So, the good thing about this is that if i ever wanted to do a Disney movie marathon i would have lots of titles to choose between. Will probably never happen but you never know what the future holds. One film i do remember though is the 1942 animated Disney film Bambi. A charming simple story regarding a white-tailed male fawn named Bambi, who learn to walk and talk by his rabbit friend Thumper, where he also meet the skunk Flower and the female fawn called Faline. Bambi is about to face reality as he one day sees the Great Prince. Bambi is a pretty harmless animated children´s movie, but considering how old this film is i have to say the animation is really well made. Is it one of my favourite Disney films? No, that would probably be 1997 animated Disney film Hercules that i actually saw in cinema at that time. You may have seen low budget horror films using classic animated characters such as Winnie The Pooh, Peter Pan and Popeye. Well it´s time for Bambi to get a different version as well in the horror film Bambi: The Reckoning from director Dan Allen ( who directed the low budget horror film It Came From Below ). I did like the trailer for Bambi: The Reckoning so i was curious about checking this film out. Is this a must see for true fans of Bambi or is this just a low budget horror film to cash in from using the title of a classic animated Disney film?

Being disappointed in her ex-husband not caring about their son, mother Xaxa ( Rosanne McKee ) travel with her son Benji ( Tom Mulheron ) to the family home of Benjo's beloved grandmother Mary ( Nicola Wright ) in a van. It is during this journey they encounter the savage beast Bambi, who have a taste for human flesh. 

Since i have seen several films made from Winnie The Pooh Blood And Honey similar films i knew that Bambi: The Reckoning would probably remind me of similar films. With a limited budget you have to be as creative as you possibly can. I will say this, compared to films like Piglet and Popeye´s Revenge i would say that Bambi: The Reckoning looks better on a technical film making level, have better acting included and the story does feel more interesting than both of the films i mentioned earlier. The CGI effects of Bambi is actually better than i expected considering the budget of this film and i do enjoy when he attack a whole family inside a house. The creature design of Bambi is actually pretty cool and the fact that they designed this version of Bambi being so creepy, i really appreciate the effort. There are a few brutal death scenes and especially one scene surprised me, where a whole body gets split into half. That´s exactly what a film like this needed to feel more entertaining. There are some very traditional horror scenes in here we have seen before, what makes this film work other than Bambi itself is some of the characters of this film. I like the chemistry between son Benji and mother Xaxa, played by actors Tom Mulheron and Roxanne McKee. The scenes that they have together matches well with the plot, having a family driven story included into the horror elements can be effective if it´s done well. Actress Nicola Wright ( who i especially love in the British horror film The Curse Of Humpty Dumpty ) does another great performance as grandmother Mary. I do like the performance from actress Samira Mighty, too bad she didn´t have more scenes in this film. As a horror film in general i would say that Bambi: The Reckoning is effective considering there is no unique story here. Everything is very old school, it almost feels like an 80´s horror movie in a more updated version. Director Dan Allen bring back animal horror with this film like we used to see in the 1970´s except here they use CGI effects instead. If you just want a simple but effective B horror movie then this film should do the trick. Bambi: The Reckoning proves that animal horror still is an important part of horror society, make sure to get your digital copy or physical release to support independent horror. 

Rating: DDD

Jacker 3 - Road To Hell

There are a number of different reasons why i prefer independent films over big budget Hollywood films. Two of the biggest reasons is that independent films usually have more interesting stories to tell and these films have more interesting characters than big budget films usually deliver. I will also say this, sometimes i feel that independent movie posters are also more appealing than bigger film studio posters. So when ever i get an oppurtunity to dive into independent films i have never heard of, i will happily check them out. Since there are many independent films made worldwide ( especially made in America ) i like to look at other countries as well, to see what they have to offer. For example not that long ago i sat down and watched the 2016 British independent crime thriller drama film called Retribution, directed by Danny Albury and David Bispham. What caught my attention for this film was the trailer from the start, it seemed to be a film in my taste. Retribution tells the story of debt-collector Dan ( Dan Richardson ) who goes on a 24-hours rampage through London in an attempt to avenge the brutal attack on his teenage daughter. This film is around 76 minutes long and within that playtime it manage to deliver solid action scenes, pretty solid acting from the cast and even if the story is very simple it matches well with the plot. Lead actor Dan Richardson have no problem bringing old school action entertainment as the debt-collector who will do anything to revenge those who hurt his daughter. Does this film deliver anything unusual or original? No, but im completely fine with that since i feel that this film was made for an audience who appreciate revenge films from the 70´s. If you want to watch the film you can watch it on Tubi, or watch this film on the YouTube channel FilmIsNow Action Movies channel where they have plenty of independent films to choose between. If you are a fan of independent films you might recognize the name of Phil Herman. He have produced and acted in a lot of independent films over the years and he have also directed some as well. Over the years i have reviewed a couple of the films he worked on such as Horrortales.666 Part 3, I Slay On Christmas and Phil Herman´s Unearthed. I was asked if i could review a film called Jacker 3 - Road To Hell and of course i was excited to see what this could be. I have not seen the previous Jacker films so i went into this film not knowing anything of the previous films. Is this one of the best films that Phil Herman have been working on or is this not as good as i was hoping it would be? 

Serial killer Jacker ( Phil Herman) have returned to finish the job he once started, and this time no one will stand in his way. 

While Retribution is a straight old school revenge action movie you could say that Jacker 3 - Road To Hell is a mixture of different genres. In a way this film also have old school action roots filled in with the main plot. but i would also say that this film also have horror elements as well. This is basically a film about the main character Jacker and we follow him through his journey to kill anyone who gets in his way. A serial killer with no empathy and i have to say actor Phil Herman as the Jacker is the highlight of this film. He delivers fun dialogue, do some fun slasher scenes and im surprised how he is able to attack so many and manage to get away ťrom everyone. Apparently the Jacker is that kind of serial killer character of who is able to slip away from law enforcement. We also see other characters  from the previous Jacker films such as Gloria ( played by actress Debbie D ). Shes exactly the right kind of character to a film such as this, a bit goofy, sensual and doesnt take herself seriously at all. One thing Jacker 3 definitely seems to be influenced by is 1970's action horror films. During certain scenes you can see that this specific time era is shining through. If i have to mention one smaller detail that i felt could have been improved is the length of this film. It's not too long thankfully, around 1 hour and 46 minutes. But certain dialogue scenes feel a bit drawn out to the point it gets a little bit boring. If you love serial killer films with horror influences then Jacker 3 - Road To Hell could be what you are hoping to see. A simple, yet easily entertaining film that will most likely be appreciated by independent movie fans who also enjoy practical make up effects. Director James Panetta brings back old school VHS violence while having some fun with the characters. Lesson learn kids, never let the Jacker crash your birthday party celebration, you might end up with more trouble than you wished for. 

Rating: DDD

War Of The Worlds

Recently i was sitting down going through a list of how many great films came out 20 years ago in the year of 2005. When you think about it this was a very unique year for films with cinema releases such as Batman Begins, The Descent, Sin City, Brokeback Mountain, A History Of Violence, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Devil´s Rejects, Cinderella Man, Capote ( one of actor Philip Seymor Hoffman´s best acting performances ), Syriana, Flightplan, Saw II ( i really enjoy this sequel, a must see if you have not seen it ) and many more titles. What is so nice about going back in movie history is that you sometimes forget about certain titles that you have not seen for a long time and you might want to watch them again. That´s exactly what i did when i heard a new War Of The Worlds movie have come out on Amazon Prime and i thought about Steven Spielberg´s film version of War Of The Worlds released in 2005. I remember i saw this film in cinema back in the day, especially because i used to be a big fan of the 1988 sci fi horror TV series War Of The Worlds that used to run every week on Swedish TV channel Kanal 5. The 2005 film is based on the 1898 cult classic science fiction novel War Of The Worlds by author H.G. Wells, a book i have not read yet but i know i should at some point. The film tells the story of hard working single father Ray Ferrier ( Tom Cruise ) who is getting ready to have his children Robbie ( Justin Chatwin ) and daughter Rachel ( Dakota Fanning ) staying at his house. He have a good relationship with his daughter Rachel but things are clearly not good between Ray and Robbie as they struggle to get along. While waking up after sleeping to prepare for another night shift, Ray finds out from Elizabeth that Robbie took his car and drove off. Enourmous thunderstorms begin to happen outside across the streets as Robbie return safe, but the weather lightning becomes worse. Turns out this is aliens travelling underneath the ground to rise up in enormous machines, ready to wipe out humanity. Of all the War Of The Worlds versions i have seen i think director Steven Spielberg´s version is the best one so far. The film is well made, great acting performances and most of all great CGI effects. We have had other versions of War Of The Worlds from 2005 come out over the years, i did enjoy the BBC TV mini series The War Of The Worlds from 2019 ( i can recommend this one ). So here we are with a new version of War Of The Worlds this time with Ice Cube taking on this classic story withing the sci fi genre. Is this just as good as previous versions or is this the worst film adapation so far based on H.G. Wells classic book?

Threat analyst William Radford ( Ice Cube ) is one of the best at making sure America is safe, he can locate any threat withing the digital world and trace criminal activities. When he is informed that something strange is happening worldwide with drastic weather changes, he begin to see enourmous machines appearing across the world as if this is an alien life form attacking human beings. William does everything in his power to make sure his children Faith Radford ( Iman Benson ) and David Radford ( Henry Hunter Hall ) is in safety. What do these visitors want? Why are they attacking human civilization?

I know this film have had a lot of negative reviews ever since War Of The Worlds came out on Amazon Prime. So i decided not to look at all the reviews and just go into this film with an open mind instead. Who knows, i might disagree with what most of the films critics are saying regarding this film. After seeing this new updated version of H.G. Wells story there are some things we need to discuss. Let me start with the positive and i do think legendary hip hop artist, actor Ice Cube as the lead character William Radford have a couple of charming dialogue scenes. Even though we basically see him sitting infront of a computer in the whole film he does have that Ice Cube vibe that we are familiar with. The soundtrack of this film does include some good stuff, especially the song Keep Your Head Up with jazz, blues and funk artist Wolfgang Valbrun. Ok, so that was the positive and now we have to talk about the negative as well. I do like that director Rich Lee tried to make a different story of War Of The Worlds with a more modern version. The problem is that it doesn´t really work since he did not make the story match well with the bad CGI effects. If he could have spent more time fixing the flaws that the CGI effects have in this film ( and trust me there are plenty of bad CGI scenes ), this could have been an interesting update on this classic story. Another detail i feel become pretty clear is that the other actors who is seen on their mobile phones, trying to act into their characters feel very forgettable. Once you have seen this film i bet there isn´t one single character you will remember other than Ice Cube´s character William. The editing of this film is all over the place with a lot of references to the company Amazon, as if they want to promote the company heavily into this film. This is supposed to be a sci fi action film, not a commercial for Amazon services. We have to talk about the action scenes as well and as you may now by now, i am a huge fan of action films in general. I tried to find at least one action scene that is pretty cool and i had problems even remembering one specific scene that at least looks ok. Director Rich Lee is perhaps mostly known for being a music video director and i do remember his music video for the band Evanescence and the single Good Enough. Nice song, and the video matches the lyrics. Considering that director Rich Lee worked with visual effects on the 2002 sci fi action classic Minority Report with legendary director Steven Spielberg you would think he would be a good pick for making an updated version of War Of The Worlds. He clearly wasn´t the best choice, he doesn´t seem to have passion for this project because this is a very forgettable film. Ice Cube saves this film from falling completely but i can not recommend this film for Amazon Prime watchers. Watch the 2005 version again instead and at least you will have a good time.

Rating: DD

The Ritual

All over the world in different time periods of history you can find many well known cases of exorcism. There are people who believe a demon can take over the body of a human and control you or an evil spirit who intend to harm you. No matter what you believe in or if you believe in exorcism at all, i find it fascinating reading about classics cases of documented exorcisms that according to witnesses actually happened. Over the years i have read about some cases that happened in the past and i especially remember a couple of exorcism cases. Let´s bring one of these cases up in here and i choose to talk about the exorcism case of Michael Taylor in 1974. This took place in October in the small village of Ossett in Yorkshire County, England. It is said that Michael Taylor was possessed by at least 40 demons as the exorcism took place during October 5 - 6 at St. Thomas Church in Gawber. The exorcism was headed by Vincent, the Angelican priest of St. Thomas, and was aided by a Methodist clergyman, the Rev. Raymond Smith. As the exorcism finally ended they believed they managed to remove all 40 demons. But as they allowed Michael to go home, they had a feeling that something didn´t feel right, as if at least 3 demons--insanity, murder and violence--were still left in him. While Michael returned home, he brutally murdered his wife Christine. He attacked her with his bare hands, tearing her eyes and tounge out and almost tearing her face off, then strangling their poodle. He was found by a policeman, naked in the street, covered in blood. At his trial in March, Michael was acquitted on the grounds of insanity. He was sent to Broadmoor Hospital for two years, then spent another two years in a secure ward in Bradford before being released. Since we usually don´t hear a lot about exorcism cases in England i feel that this case is fascinating. They actually mention the case of Michael Taylor in the 2021 horror film The Conjuring - The Devil Made Me Do It from director Michael Chaves, even though this film is based on another exorcism case of Arne Cheyenne Johnson that took place in 1981. A good film by the way, not as powerful as the previous The Conjuring films but still worth a watch. Speaking of exorcism films i have been curious to see the exorcist horror film The Ritual since this summer from director David Midell ( who directed the critically acclaimed 2019 drama thriller The Killing Of Kenneth Chamberlain ). I was especially curious about seeing legendary actor Al Pacino as an exorcist priest. Is this a solid horror film in general or should you watch the 2005 horror film The Exorcism Of Emily Rose instead?

In 1928, in the quiet farming town of Earling, Iowa, a young woman named Emma Schmidt ( Abigail Cowen ) begins to suffer from terrifying and inexplicable supernatural phenomena. She is tormented by night terrors, violent outbursts, speaking in languages she doesn´t know, and an unnatural hatred towards anything sacred. Her family, devout Catholic Christians, believes she is possessed and seek help from the Church. Their desperate plea reaches Father Theophilus Risesinger ( Al Pacino ), a seasoned priest of the Capuchin religious order known for conducting exorcisms. Riseinger travels to Iowa with a reluctant companion, Father Joseph Steiger ( Dan Stevens ). Steiger is skeptical of demonic possession but promise Riseinger to help him during his exorcism sessions.

One detail that i really appreciate especially in horror films is if the film is shot on a professional level, where you can tell that the director made an effort to make the horror scenes effective. If you know how to film a horror film and make an impact on the audience, that alone can help the film work well with some other ingredients included. In the case of The Ritual there is especially one big problem with this horror film and that is how director David Midell decided to make this film. He moves the camera around a lot, in every scene basically. No focused shots that we usually see in quality horror films, it´s like he´s walking around with the camera as if this could be a found footage horror film but it´s not. This is a very traditional excorcist horror film and i would probably have viewed this film differently if this was supposed to be a found footage horror film. This is also another problem with The Ritual that this is a very basic exorcism film. If you compared this film with others within this specific genre there is not much that stands out. Even the exorcism scenes ( for the most part ) don´t really add much to make this film interesting. And to be honest i have to say actor Al Pacino as the exorcist priest Theophilus is actually a pretty weak performance from such a legendary actor. I can mention at least 10 films where i would recommend his performances and The Ritual is nowhere near on that list. I will say that Stranger Things actress Abigail Cowen as the possessed young girl Emma is one of the few highlights of this film. At least you can sense that she tried to make an effort into making her character feel like she is possessed. Of course you also have actor Dan Stevens ( who i really enjoyed in the gothic horror Netflix film Apostle, worth checking out if you have not seen it ) as the character Father Jospeh. Hes not horrible like Pacino but i would have liked some more steady balls from his character, he is a bit too soft. The Ritual is not the worst exorcism film i have seen and i have seen a lot of them, ( one of the worst is definetely the 2020 exorcism film The Last Exorcist ), but overall i can´t really find much positive to say regarding this film. Director David Midell tries to tell a traditional exorcism film but doesn´t have an interesting story to tell. I swear once you read my review of The Ritual you have already forgotten about this film, it is a film that will most likely dust on DVD shelves.

Rating: DD