The Train Of Death

Travelling can be quite rough if you have to drive for many hours. Sure, you can stop and rest along the highway but if your journey takes about 12 hours it´s not like you are excited about driving that long. I rather travel by an airplane, bus or on a train if i am travelling a long journey. Of course you will travel with a lot of strangers but i don´t mind, if i feel like being alone i can just listen to a podcast or watch a movie on my computer. Even though i enjoy flying to other countries the most comfortable way to travel has to be travelling on a train. You can move much easier than on an airplane or a bus and they even have a restaurant you can visit if you need a snack or a lunch. Even though i have travelled many times on trains here in Sweden i have also tried travelling on a train in both Scotland and Spain. There were some differences and i would say that the Spanish trains were a bit more modern than the train i travelled with in Scotland. Nothing wrong with the train journey itself in Scotland but they didn´t have any real restaurant on board the train just a breakfast wagon. I would like to try another train trip in Europe in the future, perhaps in Italy or France would be nice? Speaking of trains there are a lot of movies taking place on a train. You have action star Steven Seagal fighting terrorists on board a train in Under Siege 2 - Dark Territory and you also have horror movies such as the zombie film Train To Busan. I would highly recommend the South Korean horror film Train To Busan because it is really intense and very well made from director Sang-Ho Yeon. Not only are the zombies creepy but the atmosphere surrounding this zombie invasion is really intensive. Watch this film on streaming if you want a fun horor night. Speaking of horror films on trains i have heard about an Indonesian train horror film known as The Train Of Death, a title that sounds exactly what i would call if i travelled on a train with Meghan Markle. I have seen several good Indoniesian horror fims so i was quite curious about this one. Is this a must watch before Christmas arrives or is The Train Of Death just as terrible as Prince Harry´s novel Spare?

A brand new railway line is about to take off to Sangkara Resort, a tourist complex located in the middle of the forest. What most of the passengers don´t know is that during the building of this railway line a lot of railway workers myseriously disappeared for unknown reasons. On this trip they are about to face some of these workers spirits on board this train.

Making a horror film on board a train is actually a good idea as long as you have an intresting story and horror scenes that function as well. In the case of The Train Of Death this is a ghostly horror film in many ways and there is especially one thing that happens in each tunnel the train passes a tunnel, one wagon at a time is disconncted that the ghosts themselves manage to do. This makes the whole train journey far more complicated of course. In the past i have seen some impressive Indonesian horror films and i would probably say that The Train Of Death lands somewhere in the middle between the Indonesian horror films that i remember, i would call this pretty serviceable horror film. The best part of The Train Of Death is without a doubt to see the demonic ghosts attacking passengers and especially when it gets reallly bloody and gory. There is also a nice friendship story between the sister characters Purnama and Kembang, both payed well by actors Hana Masalan and Zara Leola, where one of the sisters is dying from a terminal disease. I do think the practical make up effects on the demonic ghosts looks good and especially one of them look creepier than i expected. Ok so we might as well dig into something i felt could have been better with this film. It takes a whole hour until something really starts to happen. We do get glimpses of the demonic ghosts but they don´t really attack until the film have crossed the 1 hour mark. This means there is a lot of dialogue scenes and in some scenes you really don´t care about certain characters on this journey. On the plus side i do think this film is well acted for the most part and looks good. I believe that if you love horror films in general i think this film could be worth checking out if you want a different take on a ghost story. Director Rizal Mantovani have made a horror film that actually feels like an old school idea while adding some more modern ingredients into the mix and manage to give us a film that´s completely fine. The Train Of Death may inspire you to travel by trains more often and i have to see that as a positive sign for this enjoyable horror film.

Rating: DDD

Alien: Romulus

Everyone have a favourite film that they can rewatch over and over again. A film that have a very special meaning for you, doesn´t matter what the reason is but you simply love that specific film. Some people love old classics such as the 1972 drama known as The Godfather from Francis Ford Coppola while others love more violent classics such as the 1976 masterpiece known as Taxi Driver from legendary director Martin Scorsese. Now i will admit that Taxi Driver is one of my absolute favourite films of all time and i can´t remember how many times i have seen it. I do remember the first time i saw this film and i must have been 12 years old at that time in 1989. My school friend Nicklas ( who collected all of Clint Eastwoods films on VHS mostly ) bought Taxi Driver on VHS so i borrowed it from him. It´s one of those rare films that have a very powerful story and absoutely fantastic characters. Not only that but this film have some brilliant acting performances as well included, especially Robert De Niro as the insane taxi driver Travis Bickle. If you for some reason have not seen Taxi Driver i highly recommend this film no matter if you watch it on streaming or physical media. One of my other favourite films of all time is the 1986 sci fi horror action film Aliens from director James Cameron. This is honestly one of the films i never get tired of and watch it every year. I really do enjoy the original film from 1979 but to me Aliens is the best film in this franchise. This film have spectacular action scenes, the alien costume design looks fantastic, so many great characters that get screen time and of course Ripley ( played by Sigourney Weaver ) is one of the greatest female characters of all time. I have seen every single Alien film so far in this franchise and most of them i enjoy, while Alien 3 was honestly disappointing. Director Ridley Scott returned to the Alien franchise with 2 films Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. Even though i enjoy these films for different reasons it felt like the Alien franchise needed a different director to give us a different look into this legendary sci fi horror universe. So here we are with the latest film in the franchise known as Alien: Romulus who this time is directed by Fede Álvarez ( director of the really good Evil Dead remake from 2013, a must see ). Since i am always curious  what a new film in this franchise would give the audience of course i had to give Alien: Romulus a chance. Is this a surprisingly good sequel or does this film prove that it is time to stop making more film in this franchise and do something more creative instead?

In 2142, a Weyland-Yutani prob recovers a large cocoon from the wreckage of the USCSS Nostromo. Months later, at the rundown Jackson´s Star colony on the perpeturally dark LV -410. orphaned colonist Rain Carradine ( Cailee Spaeny ) learns that her work has been forcibly extended by Weyland-Yutani. Determined to escape, she joins a plan with her brother Andy ( David Jonsson ) - a malfunctioning android reprogrammed by her father - her ex boyfriend Tyler Harrison ( Archie Renaux ) with a group of other young people. The group commandeers the hauler Corbean IV to reach Renaissance, a Weyland-Yutani  split into the modules Romulus and Remus to steal cryostais equipment. Once they go onboard the Renaissance they will soon find out this station is not abandoned.

I have to say that there is especially three details that we really should appreciate with Alien: Romulus. First of all the set design of all the futuristic buildings. I get the feeling that director Fede Álvarez might have been inspired by the 1982 sci fi classic Blade Runner in some ways, while you can tell he is clearly inspired by James Cameron´s Aliens rather than the original Alien film. The futuristic look of certain locations match well with the story that Alien: Romulus is trying to tell us. I think if you are going to make a film such as this then this is exactly one of the details you should think about, make the spaceship look cool as well as the futuristic buildings. The chemistry between the main characters Rain ( played by actress Cailee Spaeny ) and Andy ( played by actor David Jonsson ) is surprisingly good. Their scenes together give these characters some charming scenes while they also go through rough times together like family members. I especially think David Jonsson manage to act quite well as an adroid. The space scenes are really beautiful and capture the right environment surrounding this spaceshift crew in a very stylish way. Ok so i have to mention some negative details specifically one character i did not like at all. And that is the annoying character known as Bjorn ( played by actor Spike Fearn ), I understand he attacks Andy because his mother was killed by an Android in the past, but the way this character deliver dialouge and show off his personality just don´t work for me. Every time he showed up i just felt annoyed and wished he wasn´t in the crew. I also feel that the story is very similar to other Alien films in the past and i kind of wished they would try something more original with this film like an unexpected twist. With that said this is a great looking action horror film and the practical effects is of course something i really appreciate. The alien design is quite effective as well and reminds me more of the 80´s design. I would probably say that Alien: Romulus is one of the better sequels compared to Alien 3 and Alien: Covenant considering there is a lot of details to appreciate about this film, especially if you love the 1986 film Aliens. Director Fede Álvarez shows once more he knows how to make great horror films and he definetely proves he have passion for this specific genre. If you are a true fan of Alien in general i think you will have a good time with Alien: Romulus.

Rating: DDD

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Whenever i hear a young generation of people discuss films in today´s society i can clearly see that they have no idea what the 1980´s brought the whole world when it comes to iconic films. I remember specifically sitting at a café downtown where a young woman in her early 20´s who works in health care just like myself talked about what films she thought might inspire others such as herself. Her example was that she brought up the original Twilight film from 2008 and she thought that maybe my generation from the 80´s appreciated this film as well. I laughed in her face without being disrespectful and said:- Oh dear, you clearly have not seen The Thing, Big Trouble In Little China or They Live from director John Carpenter. She looked at me and said:- John Carpenter, i have neve heard that name before. When she said that i knew it was up to me to help her learn very important knowledge of film history, after all we all need to experience these classics no matter what age we are. So while we had coffee i showed her pictures of the posters of all of these 3 films and she actually became curious. She had not seen any films from the 80´s that she could remember so i was in one way her guide into the magical time of the 80´s. As we were going through a list of 80´s films we came across a posters of 80´s film she noticed a poster of the film Beetlejuice. She asked me about this film and i told her what the film was about and specifically told her about the director of this film Tim Burton. I don´t know if she saw Beetlejuice but i personally have seen this film several times. It is truly one of the all time classics from director Tim Burton and the film does have a very unique style from start to finish. Not many horror comedies that talks about death in such a way as the film Beetlejuice does and of course the character Betelgeuse ( played by Michael Keaton ) turned out to be very charming. Since this film came out in 1988 it has a very big cult following worldwide for over 30 years and a lot of horror fans consider this to be one of their favourite Tim Burton films. Who would have known that they would actually make a real sequel but here we are in 2024 with the film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice from legendary director Tim Burton. I actually never thought they would make a sequel so of course i simply had to see if this film would be any good. Considering what at classic the original film is, does this sequel manage to capture the magic of the original film or is this just a desperate cash grab just to sell tickets?

In 2024, Lydia Deetz ( Winona Ryder ) hosts the supernatural TV talk show Ghost House. While taping an episode, Lydia halllucinates seeing Betlegeuse, the demon who tried to marry her 36 years earlier, in the audience. Shortly afterwards, Lydia´s stepmother, Delia Deetz ( Catherine O´Hara, informs Lydia that her father Charles, had been eaten by a shark. Since Lydia is no longer close to her daughter Astrid Deetz ( Jenna Ortega ), the loss of Astrid´s father will of course not make the situation any better. They all travel Winter River, Connecticut, for Charles funeral. Lydia finds the attic where the previous owner built a scale model of the town. She also finds a flyer of Betlegeuse ( Michael Keaton ) when Lydia enter to prevent Astrid from saying his name three times. However, things get complicated when a ghost named Jeremy Frazier ( Arthur Conti ) tries to trick Lydia into the Afterlife to use her as a sacrifice to bring himself back into the real world. Lydia have to stop him and have no other option, she have to bring Belegeuse back to save her daughter from being trapped in the underworld.

There is always some big risks to take when you make a sequel to a beloved film from the 80´s and this film could have been a completely disaster ( just look at the sequel to Coming To America known as Coming 2 America, a film that failed completely ). The good news is that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice manage to bring back both some nostalgic feelings while adding some nice surprises, especially in two new characters. So let us talk about what works with this sequel and i have to say the Afterlife world bring some charming scenes in this film and to be honest i actually had more fun here than in the ordinary world. In the Afterlife world there are especially two characters known as Delores ( played by actress Monica Belluci ) and Wolf Jackson ( played by legendary actor Willem Dafoe ) who especially bring out some of the most enjoyable moments of this sequel. Im not saying Michael Keaton is bad in this film as Betelgeuse, he does deliver some great scenes. But the mystery and powers of the character Delores is without a doubt one of my personal highlights of this film. When it comes to other characters we do get to see Lydia back here ( of course played by Winona Ryder ) and we also get to see actress Catherine O´ Hara return as Delia who you remember from the first film. Both of them are just fine in this film but i have to say young actress Jenna Ortega gives this a different approach with her character Astrid. It comes to no surprise that director Tim Burton knows how to do horror and there are some funny scenes here that feels like they belong among dead people in the Afterlife. There is also other throwbacks to the original film while adding some new details as well. So is this film just as funny as the original film? Honestly no, at least not for me personally. I feel that this was a missed oppurtinity since the original film did have some really funny scenes. To be honest i don´t think this film will be as nostalgic as the original film, it´s almost impossible to reach the same level as the 1988 classic. Overall i will say i still had a good time with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice thanks to great characters and the entertaining scenes in the Afterlife. Director Tim Burton knows how to combine horror and comedy and proves this again with his latest film. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a film for true fans of Tim Burton and the original film as well, just don´t expect too much or you might be disappointed.

Rating: DDD

A Halloween Special: Girls Nite Out ( 1982 )

A lot of people worldwide celebrate Halloween weekend in many different ways. Some love to dress up as their favoutite horror characters such as Leatherface, Jason Voorhees or Senator Ted Cruz ( i should warn you, anyone coming close to Ted Cruz might be so scared that they actually run in fear ). And then you have people who carve pumpkins or loves to go trick or treating across the street hoping to get some candy. I personally have one favourite way to celebrate Halloween weekend and i dress up as congress woman Marjorie Taylor Greene and sit with a sign that says:- Im stopping climate change by sitting on this wall. I personally feel that this is the most brilliant Halloween celebration anyone have ever done in history and i am pretty sure no one have ever done this before. I do enjoy to have coffee spiced with pumpkin flavor while watching a horror film, because everyone knows this is the big horror weekend of the whole year. Over my 47 years living on this planet i have seen so many horror films im trying to remember as many as possible. Luckily i do have several recommendations for Halloween weekend and for example i would recommend 3 horror films from the specific year of 2007 and they are known as Dead Silence, 30 Days Of Night and the antholohy Halloween horror film known as Trick ´r Treat. If you manage to watch these 3 films on streaming or on physical media during Halloween weekend i guarantee you will have a lovely time. If you would rather watch something older from let´s say the 1980´s then i would highly recommend director Tom Holland´s classic vampire horror film Fright Night from 1985. It is one of those vampire classics that definetly holds a very special place in the hearts of horror fans worldwide. Not that long ago i was asked to do a special Halloween movie review of a horror film that one of my readers picked. As you all know i am always grateful to be asked to write about any film they would like to see me review. The film that was chosen is the 1982 horror film known as Girls Nite Out, a film i have not seen before. Is this a perfect film to enjoy during Halloween weekend or is Girls Nite Out not the fun experience i was hoping it would be?

At a remote Ohio college, a killer dressed in the school´s bear mascot suit stalks several  young women participating in an all-night scavenger hunt.

If you remember college movies of the 80´s where sex and acohol was a big part of that period i can tell you that Girls Nite Out makes sure we have both of these ingredients included. I would imagine that if a Swedish Feminist would see this film in today´s society she would definetely not be happy, but luckily i am happy instead. You see i happen to enjoy this light hearted sense of humour where everything is not meant to be taken seriously. The 80´s was a time filled with lots of nudity, sex and alcohol so why would Girls Nite Out try to do anything differently? If you can accept all of this i think you might actually have some fun with this film. There are some really wacky characters in this film that would probably be thrown out a party if things would get too wild. For example the characters Charlie Keiser ( played by actor Larry Mintz from the 1986 classic Tough Guys ) and Ralph Bostwick ( played by actor John Didrischen ) are exactly what we need at a college party where limits does not exist and you just live for the moment. Wonderful to see legendary actor Hal Holbrook from classic anthology horror film Creepshow in this film as well as the character Jim MacVey. When this film changes direction later on and become a traditional slasher film we do get some blood and violence included. I wouldn´t say that the slasher scenes are very frightening but maybe it´s because i have seen so many horror films that it takes quite a lot to affect me personally. One thing i do feel Girls Nite Out manage to do quite well is combine college comedy with slasher horror scenes. The plot isn´t anything you will remember much of and that´s completely fine, not all slasher films need a complicated story to function. So anything negative to say? To be honest this is not a film that we are supposed to think too much about and just have fun with it. Director Robert Deubel deliver a college horror film that knows what audience it was made for and give us a simple but fun time for fans of the slasher genre. Girls Nite Out is a pure nightmare for Swedish feminists and that´s good enough for me to recommend this film. Party on people im going for another whiskey.

Rating: DDD

A Halloween Special: Bram Stoker´s Dracula ( 1992 )

If you go back and read about horror stories from the past you will find out that people used to believe in a lot of things. For example in Scandinavia people believed that trolls actually existed while in countries like Austria they believed that the Christmas demon known as Krampus was in fact real. But then we have historical horror stories that actually happened in real life such as The Villisca Axe Murder House in Villisca, Iowa, USA. In the year of 1912 at this house there were six children and two adults brutally murdered by having their skulls completely crushed by an unknown perpetrator with an axe. You can actually stay at this house if you dare, where they say people have heard screams from children. Let us move forward to a completly different country and let´s talk about a very special author who grew up in Ireland. We are of course talking about author Bram Stoker who in the year of 1897 released his world famous gothic horror novel Dracula. If you talk to horror fans worldwide about horror novels regarding their favourite books in this genre, there is a big chance that this classic novel will be in the top ten of that list. I have read this book myself right after the millenium in the year 2000 when i bought myself a copy. This is an excellent novel that you should read if you love horror in general. It may be very old but it still very effective and very well written by author Bram Stoker. It was this novel that inspired the character known as Dracula to become a horror icon in cinema for many years and i have seen the 1931 horror film Dracula with legendary actor Bela Lugosi, a film that basically gave this character a franchise for many generations ahead. In my opinion the really good Dracula film that got me hooked up on this character was the 1958 horror film Dracula with legendary actor Christopher Lee as Count Dracula. There were plenty of sequels made with Christopher Lee as Dracula, some were ok while others were not as good as i was hoping they would be. Since then the Dracula franchise continued on in many different versions but it was in 1992 when director Francis Ford Coppola ( director of classic films such as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now ) really wanted to bring the novel of Dracula to life with his adaptation of the novel called Bram Stoker´s Dracula. I saw this film in cinema in early 1993 and fell in love with the film. It´s been quite some time since i revisited this film so decided to do a special review of Bram Stoker´s Dracula for the upcoming Halloween weekend. Is this still a very solid horror film or have this film aged more than i expected and lost some of the magic it once had?

In 1462, Vlad Dracula ( Gary Oldman ) returns from a victory in his campaign against the Ottoman Empire to find his beloved wife Elisabeta ( Winona Ryder ) has commited suicide after his enemies falsely reported his death. A priest of the Romanian Orthodox Church tells him that his wife´s soul is damned to hell for commiting suicide. Enraged, Vlad desecrates the chapel and renounces the Christian God, declaring he will rise from the grave to avenge Elisabeta with all the powers of darkness. He drives his sword into the chapel´s stone and drinks the blood that pours from it, becoming a vampire. In 1897, solocitor Jonathan Harker ( Keanu Reeves ) takes the Transylvanian Count Dracula as a client from his colleague R.M. Renfield ( Tom Waits ), who have gone insane and is now an inmate at Dr. Jack Seward´s ( Richard E. Grant ). Jonathan travels to Transylvania to arrange Dracula´s real estate acquisitions in London. There, he meets Dracula, who finds a picture of Jonathan´s  fiancée Mina Murray ( Winona Ryder ) and believes she is the reincarnation of Elisabeta. He leaves Jonathan trapped at his castle with some female vampires while he travels to London to make Mina his Elisabeta.

It doesn´t take very long until we see that Bram Stoker´s Dracula have a very erotic tone in this film. Especially where the almost completely naked vampire women show their bodies and manage to set the right tone for this film, where lust and passion becomes one with these creatures of the night while they feed on fresh human blood. I do think this gives the film strength daring to cross over some of the typical Dracula ingredients we have seen in much older film adaptations, where nudity feels like a much welcome detail that matches really well with darkness. There are so many different details that i appreciate with this film adaptation based on Bram Stoker´s classic book. For example the costume design in this film is really well designed, you can tell they really made a big effort to try and capture the right look for each of the most important characters we meet in this film. I also feel that the background story of  Count Dracula is told very well with some fascinating details regarding his life as a human in the past, as well as we get a sense of how hes struggling being the monster he is transformed. We have to talk about the acting in this film and i have to say, Gary Oldman as Count Dracula is not only one of the best acting performances i have seen Gary Oldman do in his career but i also feel that his portrait of Count Dracula is extremely powerful, emotional and very effective. Especially in the scenes where he show himself as a vampire beast, the make up effects are absolutely brilliant to his incredible performance. Legendary actor Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing doesn´t need any introduction, right from his first scenes as this character you feel his presence by his powerful dialogue. Cary Elwes is here as well and it comes to no surprise he´s just as good as you would expect him to be. What about the horror influences, do they match well with this film? I would say for a vampire film this may be one of the best looking films in this specific horror genre. There is no doubt in my mind, this is definetely the best film adaptation of Dracula we have so far and it may be the greatest we will ever have. Director Francis Ford Coppola really proved with this film that it is possible to make a very powerful vampire film with all the right ingredients. A must see if you want to see a true horror vampire classic, Bram Stoker´s Dracula hits all the right notes.

Rating: DDDD

The Crow

I have been told in the past by my mother Lena that i have a very good memories of years, especially what happened during the 80´s and 90´s in our own lives plus big events that took place during these time periods. I will admit that some things have been more difficult to remember from the early 80´s but when it comes to the 90´s i can mention quite a lot of things. But not all things that i remember are positive and there is espcially one date in the year of 1993 that i will never forget. I even remember what i did that day when i heard the news on April 1st in 1993. I was watching morning news before going to school that martial art action actor Brandon Lee have been killed while filming his latest film The Crow on set on the night of March 31. When i arived at school this was something everyone was talking about in my class, everyone was really shocked. One of my school friends Mathias went down on the lunch break to the closest super market to buy the Swedish newspaper Expressen so we could read about this horrible tragedy. I remember as we sat down in the school cafeteria we started talking about the roles of Brandon Lee and Mathias mentioned classics such as Showdown In Little Tokyo and Rapid Fire. I had seen both of these films on VHS back in the day and i even owned Showdown In Little Tokyo on VHS from the UK ( since the Swedish VHS version was censored ). After a couple of months we found out that the Swedish ciname date for his last film The Crow was announced and it was November 18 that year. I went to see this film on the premiere weekend in my local town and all of my friends loved this film. The Crow turned out to be something completely different from what we have seen before based on a comic book character. Brandon Lee was brillant as the character Eric Draven and the film felt very epic with beautiful city scenes and dark images. Director Alex Proyas delivered a film that not only looked really good but worked really well as an action film. After this film we had several years of different sequels and even a TV series with martial arts action actor Mark Dacascos. The sequels were not good but the TV series was ok at least. After many years there was a buzz in Hollywood about doing a remake. In one way i wasn´t surprised but it didn´t feel like we needed one. Not only because the legacy of Brandon Lee but also because that film was meant to be left alone as it is. But here we are in 2024 with the new The Crow remake starring Bill Skarsgård as Eric Draven. 

At a rehab center for addicts we meet Eric Draven ( Bill Skarsgård ), a young man who is not popular at all and pretty much spend most time on his own. The new rehab patient Shelly ( FKA Twigs ) find herself falling in love with Eric as she not only find him fascinating but also his dark poetry and paintings. They are slowly building a relationhip where nothing can tear them apart. One day while spending time together Shelly finds out people from her past are visiting the rehab center to get her, Eric understand that her life might be in danger. They both escape the facility and make it to the city. Unfortunately crime lord Vincent Roeg ( Danny Houston ) knows how to locate people with the right connection and find them both. Roeg´s men kill them both but Eric wakes up in another world where he meets Cronos ( Sami Bouajila ) who tells him he is in a purgatory-style halfway house where he have been given a chance to get Shelly back to life. He must revenge those who killed her or it won´t work. Eric have no other option than to revenge her death to rebuild a future with the love of his life.

I personally don´t have a problem with a remake as long as it is done in a professional way with great performances and a solid story. It depends on what category the remake belongs to and there are actually remakes that turned out to be better than i expected ( especially the 2003 horror remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a film i revisit now and then still to this day ). When it comes to this latest modern version of The Crow you might think that they would be respectful to the original fim from 1994 knowing it has a huge fan base worldwide. To be completely honest i have some big issues with this remake and i will get into why i don´t think this remake is not that good. First of all this film have no depth or any similar darkness that surrounded the original film and made it so unique. This film feels more like a Dollarstore copy of The Crow that was just made to look cool for a younger generation. I think what they should have done is at least made an effort to make this film look cool in a more updated version as well as keep the mystery and darkness surrounding the character Eric Draven fascinating or at least interesting. Another detail i feel this film lacks off is very boring dialogue. It is almost as if most actors are just saying what they need to say but without any effort or passion in delivering dialogue. If you have seen the original The Crow film you remember that dialogue was a detail that was important since Brandon Lee actually did deliver dialogue that matched the story so well. Here in this latest The Crow remake it is almost like Bill Skarsgård is just waiting for his coffee break instead of caring about the character. The love story between Eric Draven and Shelly ( played by actress FKA Twigs ) doesn´t feel as deep as i would have liked it to feel. The music selection is quite strange with for example Joy Division when i feel Black Light Burns song Lie would have been a much better choice. Ok so to the small positive things and there are a few action scenes i can accept, especially the Opera scene that´s quite violent and fun to watch. The horror influences could have been much more effective in this film to be honest. We do have legendary actor Danny Huston as the main villain Vincent Roeg, at least hes more fun to watch than most other characters. At the end of the day this is not the remake i was hoping to surprise me. It is boring, pretty lifeless to be honest and nowhere near the quality of the original film. Director Rupert Sanders did give us the entertaining adventure fairytale action film Snow White And The Huntsman in 2012, but his attempt to give The Crow new life for a new generation doesn´t have much to offer. A few action scenes saves this film from getting the lowest rating i have but i still can´t recommend this one. See the original film instead, that´s the best advice i can give at this point.

Rating: DD

Oddity

Everytime you go to a clothing store there is a chance you will see some mannequin dolls. Usually it is to show off some clothes that´s new for the season or they might use them for other purposes as well. Whenever i see a mannequin doll in a store i don´t really think much about them, but i do remember when i saw a strange one in Germany on my second trip there in the autumn of 1998. I was on a cruise ship vacation to the German city of Kiel and in this city they had like a horror shop with everything from horror merchandise, VHS horror movies, horror board games and some strange horror objects i have never seen before. Inside this store there was a strange looking mannequin doll standing towards a wall and it was especially the face that looked strange. It was almost like it had been burned and was deformed in some ways. If i had a camera with me i would have taken a picture but i didn´t carry one with me and back in 1998 we didn´t have cell phones with a camera so i can only describe it. It was definetely the most creepy mannequin doll i have ever seen. I remember that the owner noticed that i was looking at it and first spoke in Germany and i said:- Im sorry i don´t speak German. He said:- No worries, i was just saying a pretty cool mannequin doll right? I said:- Yes indeed, i have never seen anything like it. We talked about the mannequin doll and he told me he bought it from an older gentleman who collected mannequin dolls in the countryside. A very bizarre story and he said this older man was seen as very odd having this odd hobby collecting them. I had to leave after our conversation and go on board the boat again ( we were only allowed a couple of hours on land until the boat leaves ), since i had dinner before visiting this store. A creepy memory of my mannequin experience in Germany. Speaking of mannequin dolls there are some horror movies that include mannequin dolls worth a watch. For example if you have not seen the 1988 horror movie Pin from director Sandor Stern ( who also directed Amityville 4 - The Evil Escapes ) this is a film you should check out if you want a horror film with a mannequin doll, or from a medical standpoint would be called a anatomy doll. An interesting story where you have to figure out if Pin really exist or if it´s just your imagination. Legendary actor Terry O´Quinn plays Dr. Linden and as always deliver solid acting. Let´s stay within the mannequin dolls territory and talk about a horror film known as Oddity. This is a film i have only have read the plot about and seen the poster and it did caught my attention for the cool poster design. This is an Irish horror film and i have really enjoyed Irish films in the past so of course i had to give Oddity a chance. Is it possible that Odity is much better than i expected or is this a film that will mostly be forgotten about once you have seen it?

One year have passed since Dani ( Carolyn Bracken ) was found brutally murdered in her and her husbands Ted´s ( Gwilym Lee ) house. One day Dani´s blind sister Darcy ( Carolyn Bracken ) shows up at Ted´s house where he introduce her to his new girlfriend Yana ( Caroline Menton ). Darcy believe she knows what happened to her sister since she is a psychic medium and confront both Dani and Ted. But something seems odd with the strange gift that Darci brought with her to the house.

At certain moments every year we come across a horror film that actually feels a bit refreshing and turns out to not be too predictable. And that´s exactly how i felt while watching Oddity since this film actually tries to stay away from mainstream horror films and moves in a different direction. Are there elements of mainstream horror in Oddity? Sure, but considering the mystery surrounding the strange mannequin doll you see in this film that´s a detail that really helps Oddity become interesting. If you look at the details of this mannequin doll you can clearly see it looks like no other mannequin doll you have ever seen. This is something i really appreciate that they decided to make this doll very different from what we have seen before. I think it´s important to be creative if you are going to include a doll in a horror film instead of copying other films in a similar genre. But that´s not all to be pleased about and i have to talk about the gorgeous cinematography from Colm Hogan ( who also did cinematography on the beautiful Irish film Foscadh ). You can tell he really wanted to put in a lot of effort in certain scenes by capturing a very powerful presentation. The acting in this film is of top quality right from the start until the finish and there is especially one actress we need to talk about. And that is actress Carolyn Bracken ( who i recognized from the horror film You Are Not My Mother ) who actually plays two sisters in this film. How she was able to play these two sisters and make them feel like two very different characters, that´s very difficult to do as an actor and she does this brilliant. The horror scenes are very effective and they are more atmospheric than i expected so that was a nice surprise. Director Damian Mc Carthy does not only deliver one of the most good looking horror films of this year but this is definetely one of the better horror releases in general this year. Oddity is powerful enough to show that there is hope for the horror genre if you use the right tools and creativity as well. A must watch if you are a true fan of creepy horror films and want to experience something different and fascinating. Irish horror is alive and well and Oddity is a living proof of that.

Rating: DDDD

The Deliverance

There are those who believe that evil spirits are among us everyday. They can be found in an old hotel, an old factory or even in an old house. A spirit from a human who didn´t leave completely to the other side and may be seen by certain people. I have in the past told a story before of what happened to me personally as a very young boy, for some reason i seemed to have blocked that memory but my father never forget that day. It was 1983 in my hometown known as Uddevalla ( a smaller city in Sweden ) and while my father was upstairs in our home i was in the kitchen. Next to the kitchen was a pantry that used to be closed for the most part unless they needed to put cans or other groceries in there. According to my father he came downstairs and saw me completely pale of fear. He have never seen me so frightened. When i finally began to speak i told him how the spirit of a very old man appeared right out of the pantry while the door was closed with a very evil look. My father still remember that day even today and even though he didn´t know who the man was, he was always curious of why the spirit of this old man showed himself infront of me. Either way i have tried to remember what happened but it seems like i can´t recall that moment at all. Speaking of spirits we have seen in a lot of horror films over the years different kinds of stories based on true events. I personally may not believe every story that claims to be true but there are exceptions of course. Like the story regarding the 2013 supernatural horror film known as The Conjuring telling the story of the Pellon Family moving into a farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island. As the family begin to live their lives at their new home paranormal events occur the very first few nights. The Conjuring is based on a paranormal case of the famous paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren ( in the film played by actors Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga ). A very effective horror film no matter if you believe in this case or not that should be seen from director James Wan. The sequel The Conjuring 2 is also worth checking out. Every year there are plenty of horror films released that includes evil spirits and i can mention at least 10 films you should see in this category of horror. Either way i decided to give the  Netflix horror film The Deliverance a chance just to see if it would be any good. I have read some positive comments online from people who watched this film so i felt curious to see if this is something i would appreciate as well. Is this a perfect horror film to watch while it´s getting colder outside in the autumn or should you skip this one completely and watch The Conjuring instead?

Ebony Jackson ( Andra Day ) is a mother of three: eldest teen son Nate ( Caleb McLaughlin ), teen daughter Shantee ( Demi Singleton ), and youngest son Dre ( Anthony B Jenkins ). The four of them have just moved into a new home, the third in a short time frame. They are joined by Ebony´s elderly mother Alberta ( Glenn Close ), who is going through a cancer disease. The family is struggling with money and at the same time Ebony is still a struggling alcoholic. One day Ebony hear Dre talking to someone who isn´t there. Dre claims he is talking to his friend Tre and at first Ebony doesn´t feel worried about it. But once strange things begin to happen in this house it seems that they are not alone.

Since there are so many supernatural horror films to choose between you could easily say that The Deliverance does not bring anything new to the table. Once you have seen this film i guarantee you will remember at least 5 films you have seen in the past that feels similar to The Deliverance that includes supernatural horror, That doesn´t mean this is a bad film in any way because i actually enjoy it. So let´s get into what i appreciate with this film and i will bring up one detail i feel could have been done better. To the positive i will say i think the story of a struggling single mother is actually quite effective in this film. Lead actress Andra Day ( who did a really good performance as Billie Holiday in the biographical film The United States vs. Billie Holiday ) playing the character Ebony give us a realistic portrait of a strong black woman carrying a lot of pain inside of her. Andra Day manage to capture this pain through facial expressions and her dialogue as well. Trying to give her children a good childhood who is an alcohol addict, while her elderly mother Alberta ( played really well by legendary actress Glenn Close ) is struggling with cancer. This is actually the strength of The Deliverance giving us a struggling middle class family just trying to survive. I do think the children give solid performances as well. Ok, so no to my biggest issue with The Deliverance. If you are going to do a supernatural horror movie that´s effective you need to make the horror scenes work well with the story. This is something that i feel doesn´t feel as effective as i was hoping to see. Im not saying this film fails as a horror film but certain scenes feel mellow when i want to be scared, If you want to capture the audience you have to create certain moments where the atmosphere grabs you such as in The Conjuring. Director Lee Daniels ( who is the director of The United States vs. Billie Holliday ) may not take any chances with The Deliverance and rely on old school 1970´s horror, if you are a fan of exorcist films then this might be worth a look. I can´t really complain about The Deliverance it´s a simple horror film but does it´s job by delivering a good looking film with a solid cast. Does anyone have any holy water left? I might need some for my demonic neighbor.

Rating: DDD

The Moor

Every year there are missing children and teenagers who may never be found, and if they are found hopefully they turn out to be ok. Unfortunately in some cases some of these children are taken by child trafficking kidnappers or even murdered. Different parts of the world have different statitics of how many children are missing every year so let´s bring up one example. In the United Kingdom there are over 100.000 children missing every year, just let that sink in for a moment. Those are really horrible numbers and of course some children will luckily be found at some point so there are moments where we do get some positive news. I remember when i was Marocco on vacation where i found out that there are a lot of migrant children who disappear and no one knows what happened with them. One of the people i talked to actually worked at a nonprofit organization helping people in need in Marrakech so he told me some information regarding Marocco. When you hear things such as this you feel sick, no child should have to be taken away for trafficking, child slavery in any form or used in any other way. There are several films in the past that brings up missing children in many different stories, no matter if it´s connected to trafficking, a serial killer or someone who just kidnap children to get paid by the parents if they want their child back. One example of a missing child story is the 2019 Netflix film known as Fractured from director Brad Anderson. This film tells the story of father Ray Monroe ( Sam Worthington ), his wife Joanne Monroe ( Lily Rabe ) and their young daughter Peri Monroe ( Lucy Capri ). While driving to celebrate Thanksgiving weekend at Peri´s grandparents she needs to go to the bathroom. They stop at a rest stop while Ray clean up the backseats after spilling coffee. While Joanne goes to look in the restroom if Peri forgot something there a dog confronts Peri near a working site. She falls together with Ray after he jumps after her falling in the pit. She is injured and need a hospital. Ray remember a hospital on the way and get them there as fast as he can. As his daughter get help only one parent is allowed to the xray room. So Ray waits outside in the waiting room but finds out many hours later that no one at the hospital have seen his wife or daughter. He will not stop looking for them until someone reveal the truth. This is a really solid thriller and i think every parent would do the same as the character Ray does, until we find out what really happened. Sam Worthington proves he can act well in this genre and the twists in the plot works as well as the film takes a completely different turn towards the end. Definetely worth a look if you want to watch a good thriller on Netflix. There is a British folk horror film that came out this year known as The Moor that have received some positive reviews. The Moor is inspired by missing children stories and i am always interested watching a film bringing up this subject. Is this a film you should see this Halloween or is it not as interesting as it may sound?

In 1996 a young boy named Danny ( Dexter Sol Ansell ) goes missing inside a store after his friend Claire ( Billie Suggett ) use him to trick the store owner to steal candy. As she waits outside the store for Danny to return to her, he is nowhere to be seen. The store manager says he followed with a man who claimed to be his father. 25 years later the father of Danny named Bill ( David Edward-Robertson ) asks Claire ( Sophia La Porta ) to help him investigate where David went missing. Bill contact a medium and they assemble a team to head out to the moor, a very large mountain terrain where according to the medium is the location they should find Danny. As they search the locations where the medium give information of, there is much more hidden beneath these hills than they expected.

As most of us know who have seen a lot of great British thrillers and horror movies over many years you know they are usually well made and include great acting performances, sometimes even better than American horror movies. In the case of The Moor i will have to be honest and say this is definetely for you if you are a fan of British films in general. Let us begin with what i feel work with this film and i have to say the location of Yorkshire fits very well with the plot. You really do feel like they knew this location would match the story and it does feel like it´s possible a child could have been buried out in this rough mountain terrain. The area is massive and director Chris Cronin capture this in a beautiful way with majestic scenes, even when it´s very rainy and windy at certain moments. The search for the young boy who went missing 25 years ago is very well told thanks to the solid acting performances, and i have to say actor David Edward-Robertson playing the boys missing father Bill really capture the facial expressions of a man carrying so much pain not knowing what happened to his son. The horror scenes works well once they finally get started, it takes a while before certain things start happening during the 2 hours runtime of this film. Ok so now to one of my issues with this film. Towards the end it´s almost like this film turns into a found footage film and ends kind of unexpected. When they managed to build up tensions so well around 90 minutes into the film it feels that towards the end it´s supposed to feel like a suspensful ending. It felt more like they ended this film too simple, and they had such a great story that could have made the mystery even more effectful. With that said i do think this film is a good choice if you are looking for a horror film that actually includes great acting ( something we don´t see too often unfortunately ) and love horror films in general. Director Chris Cornin is clearly a talented horror director and i appreciate the way he told this story when we know missing children is a big problem worldwide. Even if there are some paranormal events in this film i think it´s good that we bring the subject up how parents struggle not knowing what happened to their children. The Moor should find it´s rightful place in the horror community and i suggest you give it a chance. This is a film that holds up well and i am sure will be enjoyed by horror fans of all ages.

Rating: DDD

Longlegs

As long as i can remember i have always been a fan of atmospheric horror movies. What do i mean by atmospheric? Films that manage to capture my attention because they don´t need lots of blood or flesh wounds to be good. With the right location, sound effects and a well crafted plot this can be much more effective than the traditional horror films. It doesn´t have to be a complicated plot either it´s mostly about how effective you use the right sounds and manage to capture fear in a realistic way. There are several titles we could discuss that belongs in the category of atmospheric horror films such as the 2018 horror film Hereditary ( well worth a watch ) but let´s talk about a completely different film that does not get mentioned often. And that is the 2019 psychological horror film The Lodge from directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. The Lodge was released by independent production company Neon and tells the story of Richard Hall ( Richard Armitage ) who´s wife Laura Hall ( Alicia Silverstone ) takes her own life after she finds out her husband plans to marry a woman named Grace Marshall ( Riley Keough ), a woman he met while researching a book about an extremist cult. Grace was the only survivor of the mass suicide, led by her father. Laura´s death devastates her and Richard´s children, teenage Aiden Hall ( Jaeden Martell ) and young Mia Hall ( Lia McHugh ). Six months later, Richard announces that they will spend Christmas with Grace at the family´s remote Massachussets lodge to get to know each other. What was supposed to be a lovely Christmas turns into a pure nightmare. The Lodge manage to combine religious cult horror and psychological horror very well crafted together. There are some scenes that are more creepy than i expected, where we find out about the past of this sadistic cult. I did review this film and gace it a very high rating and i still really enjoy The Lodge, not only because i love religious cult horror films but i also feel that this is a very well made film in several ways. I highly recommend this one no matter if you watch it on streaming or on physical media. Speaking of the distribution company Neon i finally got a chance to sit down to watch the horror film Longlegs that have both been praised by some critics and criticized by others in a more negative way. Since i am a fan of several releases from distribution company Neon, is the horror film Longlegs definetely worth a watch this Halloween or should you definetely skip this one and choose a classic horror film instead?

In the 1990´s, FBI agent Lee Harker ( Maika Monroe ) is assigned by her supervisor William Carter ( Blair Underwood ) to a case involving a series of murder-suicides in Oregon. Each case involves a father killing his family and himself, leaving behind a letter with Satanic coding signed "Longlegs" whose handwriting belongs to none of the family members. Lee discovers that each family had a nine-year-old born on the 14th of the month, the murders all occured within six days before or after the birthday itself, and the murders form an occult. One night Lee get an unknown visitor leaving her a birthday card from signed "Longlegs", that also includes Satanic coding as well. For each family they find murdered it´s becoming more difficult to deal with her work life and personal life, where Lee barely sleep anything. But she made a promise to solve this case no matter what it takes.

While watching Longlegs i noticed a very interesting detail. It felt like this film was inspired by the famous Zodiac serial killer that took place between the years 1968 - 1969. Especially with the coded letters that they find with every victim the killer used codes to communicate. This detail is just one of the interesting things i find fascinating with the film Longlegs but the other part that captured my interest is the atmospheric horror scenes during the investigation of these horrible murders. There is also a connection to religion in here as we find out that Satanists are connected to these ritual murders. The investigation itself is actually quite interesting especially between FBI agent Lee and her supervisor William. The acting from both actors Maika Monroe and Blair Underwood are both solid, where especially Blair really manage to capture the right personality for William who reminded me of the 1987 character agent Eliott Ness ( played by legendary actor Kevin Costner ) in the classic The Untouchables. One of the strongest acting performances comes from actor Nicolas Cage in this film as the very disturbing and odd character Dale Kobble, also known as Longlegs. At first i didn´t recognize him completely so they did a really good job with the make up effects on him. The horror scenes are pretty effective and even the brutal scenes that we do see at certain moments works well. I would also say that this film manage not to be too predictable and that is thanks to the character of Longlegs. Any issues i have with this film? I could probably find some smaller details if i digged deeper but in general i had a good time with Longlegs. It´s not the most original horror film i have seen but it is definetely better than some ordinary releases. Director Osgood Perkins directed the gothic supernatural horror film I Am Te Pretty Thing That Lives In The House released on Netflix, a film i did enjoy. I would say that Longlegs deliver more stronger horror scenes compared to that film so i am pleased he stepped it up and managed to surprise me. If you are a fan of atmospheric horror you should check Longlegs out, you might enjoy this film as well as i did.

Rating: DDD

New Life

Physical media may not be as big as it used to be but there are people like myself who still buy them. I love to have a big movie collection of many different categories, i can watch any classic i want without looking on Netflix if they have any of the titles that´s on my mind. Usually i buy some more titles during holiday weekend like Christmas when they sell out certain titles and if im lucky i can get some really good deals. However, at certain times i have preordered films that i really want to see during it´s release week and especially ordering the films from other countries than Sweden. You see some independent films doesn´t get released here compared to in the UK, Germany and France, so i have bought a bunch of titles over the years all across Europe. For example from Germany i did buy a physical blu ray copy the 2019 sci fi horror film The Dustwalker, a film that never was released in physical media here in Sweden. I especially loved the front cover of The Dustwalker, it reminded me of B movies of the 70´s and 80´s with a creature that looked like a deformed sand worm. Luckily the German release wasn´t completely dubbed ( some physical releases are in Germany ). The film itself turned out to be average only and i did review this film in this blog, so if you want to know my personal opinion regarding this film go read my review published back in 2020. If i mention the name of Sonya Walger some of you might recognize this name. If you have seen the survival psychological TV series Lost that went on TV between the years of 2004 - 2010, you might remember her character Penelope. That was actually the first time i have seen actress Sonya Walger on TV so when i saw she released a horror thriller called New Life this year i decided to order a physical blu ray from France since it was released there in September. I thought it would be interesting to see her doing a independent horror film that´s completely different from the TV series Lost. Is this a film you should check out this Halloween weekend or is it not as good as i was hoping it would be?

A young woman named Jessica Murdock ( Hayley Erin ) is travelling across America on her own, trying to find somwhere to sleep and eat. She finds an old barn out in the middle of nowhere and the next day enter the old house. The owner Frank ( Blaine Palmer ) and his wife can see she have had a rough time and they offer her to stay for a meal. She is more than welcome to stay at the farm and help if she wants but Jessica wants to move on with her journey. What Jessica doesn´t know is that she is carrying the deadly disease Ebola and everyone she meets along this journey could be infected. She has to be stopped or many people could end up in a body bag.

Since i didn´t really know anything about this film other than seeing the movie poster i basically knew nothing about the plot of New Life. And to be honest that´s actually the best way to approach certain films, especially if you want to know as little as possible in case the film have some unexpected twist. New Life may seem like a horror film only through the poster but this is more of a mixture of a thriller and a horror film. The most interesting part about this film is that the private contractor known as Elsa ( played by actress Sonya Walger ) is suffering in the early stages of the disease ALS, where she can feel it is becoming more difficult to work even though she have promised to finish this job. The second part of this film that´s also interesting is that the main character Jessica ( played by actress Hayley Erin ) is carrying the disease of Ebola and doesn´t know it, yet everyone she is near becomes infected and will eventually die. So you have two different characters both dealing with very serious health issues where private contractor Elsa have to capture Jessica before she get more people infected. I suppose in some ways this film reminded me of the virus thriller Contagion from 2011 even though these films do have very different plots. In general the acting is good especially from actors Sonya Walger and Hayley Erin and i do feel that you get to know interesting details regarding some of the characters. I like the approach this film does regarding an investigation that´s quite different from we are used to see. For example when Elsa is trying to hunt down Jessica she can´t run, she has to use a walking stick since the ALS disease is making her weaker. The few horror scenes we are offered here do work and i do enjoy the plot in general. Anything that could have been done better? I am not sure, i think this film in general managed to made me pleased with the final result. New Life may not be original but i do feel this film have found a way to combine two fascinating characters into the plot. Director John Rosman deliver a beautiful looking film that may not be for everyone, but if you are interested in diseases and a deadly virus i feel that you should give this film a chance. New Life is definetely worth a watch if you want to see something different from most VOD releases.

Rating: DDD

Daniel´s B Movie Autumn Madness: The Bates Haunting ( 2012 )

Autumn!

The month where we get colorful trees, we can light some candles when it gets darker and get cozy in our sofa or chair in front of the TV and watch films. Just imagine a fresh brewed coffee or perhaps a freshly made cup of tea while the dark surrounds your home while it´s getting colder outside. I don´t mind autumn even if it´s not my favourite time of the year, that is actually when we get to sacrifice humans during Swedish Midsummer. This is a tradition we started since director Ari Aster guided us how Swedish Midsummer should be celebrated through his horror film Midsommar. A truly wonderful film and really show the true spirit of Swedish summer. Anyway, let´s talk about the season of autumn again. For me personally autumn is the perfect season for horror films and i do enjoy watching a lot of different categories. No matter if it´s zombies, vampires, monsters, mutated animals, anyhthing works in my autumn basket. I remember in the autumn of 1990 when i first saw Alfred Hitchcock´s classic film Psycho on VHS, i had heard about this film in school since a school friend of mine named Henrik said i have to see this one. So i recorded it from TV on VHS and watched it during a rainy cold night. It turned out to be really good and legendary actor Anthony Perkins as the lead character Norman Bates gave a very powerful performance. After i watched this first film i did get my dad to rent both Psycho 2 and Pyscho 3 on VHS since he could tell i really wanted to see the other stories of Norman Bates. I do enjoy these sequels also but for completely different reasons compared to the original film, however i never watched the 4th film. I have it in a blu ray box of Psycho film so i will eventually check it out. Speaking of Bates Motel in the Psycho franchise there have been many films who made low budget horror films inspired by the Psycho films or the motel. One of those films that clearly seems to have been inspired in some way of this franchise is a low budget horror film simply called The Bates Haunting. When i picked up the DVD of this film from the UK it is called The Haunting Of Bates Hotel, so the original title was changed for the UK release. Either way i decided to check this film out to get into the autumn atmosphere with a horror film i have never heard of before. Is this a film worth picking up on a physical copy or is The Bates Haunting just as terrible as The Trump Prophecy, one of the worst films i have ever encountered that i unfortunately remember?

One year ago, Agnes Rickover ( Jean Louise O´Sullivan ) attended opening night at the Bates Motle and Haunted Hayride to see her best friend Lily Hanson´s ( Aleksandra Svetlichnaya ) dramatic show debut. A horrific accident resulted in Agnes witnessing Lily´s fiery death in a spectacle gone wrong. A year have passed and Agnes is struggling with the death of her friend, while she needs to have a job she have no other option but accept one at the same haunted house area where Lily passed away. While she is dealing with traumatic memories there is also something mysteriously going on in this area when people suddenly are brutally murdered.

When you see a title such as The Bates Haunting you might believe this film is connected to the original Psycho film in any way. It really isn´t honestly, it feels more like they used the Bates name to make fans of the Psycho interested watching this film. You could say that the haunted house attraction that you see in the film is inspired by the film Psycho and that might be the case, but it still doesn´t feel very connected to be honest, at least not in a way that actually could have worked. So how do i describe The Bates Haunting? Imagine mixing a Halloween themed b movie with young happy party people who are all excited going to a ghost house similar to Norman Bates motel while adding a ghost ride as well. There is a side plot as well where a young woman was brutally murdered being burned alive. Ok so let´s get to the best part regarding the low budget horror film The Bates Haunting. Without a doubt the best part of this film is in the corn field where the dead burned woman seems to be coming back to life. The make up effects are cheap but i do like the idea behind the burned woman showing herself long after her death. The idea behind a haunted house regarding Bates Motel is a fun idea if they would have made an effort to actually make that work. Unfortunately there is not a lot of things to enjoy about this film since it lacks of effective horror scenes or any fun characters. It is almost as if they just made this film for college youngsters who don´t care if the acting is bad or the fact that there are really not many interesting characters in this film. Regarding the main character Agnes ( played by actress Jean Louise O´Sullivan ) i do think shes one of the better characters in this film, at least there are some scenes where actress Jean Louise get a chance to make an effort to lift up her character. We do get to see Jackass actors Bam Margera and Ryan Dunn in some very short scenes but to be honest they don´t really help the film become more fun. Director Byron Turk have an interesting idea regarding The Bates Motel and i do like the concept of a haunted house of the legendary motel. At the end of isthe day it feels like The Bates Haunting was constructed to sell physical copies of this film using the title for marketing than actually making a interesting connection to Norman Bates. If you are 15 years old this film might scare you, i definetely need more than that to be scared at all.

Rating: DD

The Mouse Trap

I am going to be very honest and say i have never been a huge Disney fan when it comes to animated characters or films. Sure, as a small child i did watch Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Donald Duck and other Disney characters on VHS on cartoon shows in the early 80´s, but once we got access to real cartoon shows like Thundercats, He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe, G.I. Joe, Bravestarr, Rambo, Starzinger,  i really dumped Disney quite big. At some points i did watch some Disney films with my little sister just because she wanted to watch some on VHS, but other than that i never were interested in their animated full feature films. So if you would give me a list today of all the Disney animated films they have made since the 1930´s up until recent years i may have seen.....10 of them completely? At least if we are talking their animated films, i have seen a lot of other Disney films that are not animated. I will say this im happy that Disney have brought a lot of joy to children worldwide and to adults as well who enjoy their films. I have no problem with their animated films in general they are just not my cup of tea sort of speak. I do enjoy Pixar animated movies more to be honest and there are some Pixar films i can rewatch and still be entertained. In recent years you might have heard that classic characters such as Winnie The Pooh entered public domain on January 1, 2022 which means that you are allowed to use the name and so they did in a low buget film called Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey released in 2023. Considering the very limited budget the film was a big financial success. I did review this film and it wasn´t that good at all but i did enjoy the sequel more ( which you can read a review of in here as well ). When characters such as this enter public domain it means other films makers can make films based on classic characters. So this is why we now have films such as The Mouse Trap clearly inspired by the Disney character Mickey Mouse even though they try to make some changes not to ripoff the character completely. I did see a trailer and to be honest it didn´t make me excited but i decided to give The Mouse Trap a chance since i don´t mind low budget horror films. Is this the most positive surprise in the horror scene at this moment or is The Mouse Trap even worse than we ever could have imagined?

Alex Fen ( Sophie McIntosh ) is working late at the amusement arcade when a group of her friends surprise her at work as they have prepared a birthday party for her 21st Birthday. She is very surprised and thankful they thought of her so they begin to celebrate. What they don´t know is that someone else is inside this building who´s not there to celebrate but actually there to end people´s lives.

I can be very open minded to low budget films and accept a lot of things knowing a film was made on a very limited budget. I can even enjoy a film that makes no sense at all as long as the film is entertaining enough to give me some good laughs. When it comes to a film such as The Mouse Trap this is the perfect example when you really don´t put any effort into making a horror film that could have been a fun idea. This is basically a so called slasher horror film with a masked mouse man that doesn´t really do much at all, and this film was supposed to be made for slasher fans. If you were hoping for lots of blood and some gory scenes you can forget about that. This is the complete oppisite of that and feels more like a Hallmark Channel softball production with no Christmas tree included. Perhaps the characters are more interesting in this film? Honestly no, there is not one single character i felt like i cared for and that alone is of course a very bad sign. This film clearly made it clear from the beginning they don´t want to be connected to Disney in anyway and still they use footage of Mickey Mouse from the classic animated short film Steamboat Wille in this film. I don´t have a problem with them using the footage, it´s just a bit strange to publically say they don´t want to be connected with the legendary animated character. So what about the horror scenes are they any good? They are about as exciting as watching cookies being made in an oven for 15 minutes. Director Jamie Bailey ( who was a cinematographer on the 2017 Christmas horror movie Once Upon A Time At Christmas, a film i actually enjoy ) have a fun idea with The Mouse Trap but there is nothing with this film that deliver anything fun or exciting. This is pretty much a product made to cash in on the brand of Mickey Mouse without being officially connected to Disney. October is getting closer and in a few months i will see the lists of worst movies of this year. The Mouse Trap definetely deserves a spot on that list.

Rating: D

Borderlands

There was a time in the very early 90´s when i used to play a lot of video games on my Amiga 500 computer. I did have Nintendo 8 Bit as well and at least quite a few games but i prefered to play video games on Amiga 500. I used to order games from a Swedish video game seller found close to the city of Malmö who used to sell all kinds of games for descent prices. I remember playing classic games like Another World, Turrican 2, North & South, 007: Licence To Kill ( based on the James Bond movie from 1989 ), Golden Axe, James Pond and i also remember i owned Alien 3 as well the official video game. Those were good days when you could spend the whole weekend playing games, knowing you had to study before Sunday ended for school starting all over again on Monday. I also remember one of the last Amiga 500 games i got before switching over to playing Super Nintendo was the official game of Batman Returns also based on the official film. Unfortunately i remember i was disappointed that Batman Returns on Amiga wasn´t that fun at all to play and i was a big Batman fan of the Michael Keaton movies at that time. As the 90´s moved on i finally upgraded myself by getting my very first Playstation 1 machine back in late 1995. I basically gave up on the Amiga 500 games since Playstation had so many cooler games ( especially better graphics in certain games ). During the 90´s the movie industry tried to make several games into movie adaptations and we all remember how bad Super Mario Bros from 1993 is. Even worse was the 1994 film adaptation of Double Dragon, i can´t even believe they allowed this project to happen. Luckily the 1995 martial art film Mortal Kombat turned out to be suprisingly good and i still enjoy that film. Since then a lot of different directors have tried to bring other games into film adaptations with very different results. One of the better film adaptations in my opinion is the 2006 film Silent Hill while the 1999 sci fi film Wing Commander turned out to be terrible. A lot of gaming fans have heard of the Borderlands games and i did play the first game when it came out on Playstation 3 back in 2009. I don´t really know why i never played the other games, i suppose i wasn´t spending much time on playing video games as i used to do in the past. So when i got the news that Hostel director Eli Roth ( director of the classic horror film Hostel, still a fun time ) was working on a film adaptation of the videogame franchise Borderlands i was curious. How would he pull this off considering his past with horror films mostly in his catalogue? I decided to give this film a chance by watching it on VOD instead of going to the cinema. Is this one of the better movie adaptations based on a videogame franchise or is Borderlands just as terrible as the 2021 film God´s Not Dead - We The People that made no sense at all?

On the planet of Pandora, Roland ( Kevin Hart ), a mercenary soldier apparently gone rouge, kidnaps teeenager Tiny Tina ( Ariana Grenblatt ) with the help of Krieg ( Florian Munteanu ), a "Psycho" who was insitutionalized  in the same facility. Meanwhile, on another planet, bounty hunter Lilith ( Cate Blanchett ) is contacted by Atlas ( Edgar Ramirez ), a powerful corporate magnet. He convinces her to rescue his daughter Tina on the planet Pandora. Lilith accept the mission and travel to Pandora where she meets Claptrap ( voice of Jack Black ), who will help her locate Tina. She manage to find her but this also causes other issues that Lilith didn´t expect.

How many of you remember the 2020 film adaptation of Monster Hunter with Milla Jovovich and Tony Jaa? In some ways you could say that Borderlands feels like a different version of Monster Hunter with a different world and more technology instead. I actually enjoyed the film Monster Hunter for what it was, just a simple B action monster movie that didn´t need a big plot. Plus Milla Jovovich as an action chick have proved herself to work well ever since the Resident Evil franchise. Borderlands is of course based on the video game of the same name and i would imagine fans of the games knows if this film have done something positive to surprise them. From the reviews i heard during it´s premiere week fans were not happy at all. I have personally only played the very first game on Playstation 3 back in 2009 so i can only speak from my own experience from that game and what my impression is of this film adaptation. First of all let me get into the positive and that is do think the desert looking planet have some similar look to the first game that i remember, at least where it looks like an enourmous scrapyard where you can find all kinds of supplies. I don´t mind actress Cate Blanchett in the lead role as bounty hunter Lily, it´s kind of fun seeing her do a role very different from we are used to see her do in her past. The world surrounding this planet with the monsters have a few charming moments. Ok, so let´s get to the negative. Considering this film have a group of actors that are supposed to have screen chemistry i didn´t really feel much of that at all. Not even Kevin Hart manage to entertain us and is actually very laid back than usual. The action scenes for the most part are either exciting or well done, it feels more like the same story we have seen so many times before in similar films except they try to add details from the video games of course. In fact i was even reminded of the terrible sci fi action comedy The Adventures Of Pluto Nash with Eddie Murphy in certain scenes of this film. The plot isn´t difficult to follow but honestly you don´t really care much about it and just want to see more action scenes instead. Borderlands is pretty much a sci fi action comedy that tries to look cool but doesn´t have either power or great characters to keep the film going for over 100 minutes. There was a time in Eli Roth´s career he made some good films and i still to this day enjoy The Green Inferno even though i know that film have been critisized. Borderlands may be one of director Eli Roth´s worst films so far and the best reason to watch this film is for Cate Blanchett. Skip this one unless you love the video games of Borderlands and watch Monster Hunter instead, i guarantee you will have a more fun movie night if you do.

Rating: DD

Star Abyss ( 星门深渊 )

If you would ask me when was the golden years of science fiction and horror combined i would say that was in the 80´s for sure. This was a time when we got several great sci fi horror releases such us Leviathan, The Thing, Night Of The Creeps, The Fly, DeepStar Six, Predator, The Hidden, They Live and of course one of my personal favourite sci fi horror films of that time period which is Aliens from director James Cameron. It didn´t really matter what was attacking human beings in these films, we all loved to see aliens or some kind of monsters attack. What was so special about these films in the past was that they didn´t use any CGI effects but had to do everything with practical make up effects. Just the creativity level these professional make up artists had at that time creating some really iconic creatures turned out to be incredible. I mentioned one of the 80´s sci fi horror classics earlier known as Leviathan so let´s talk about that film for a while. Unfortunately at the time it came out in 1989 it was a box office bomb. Perhaps people had seen enough of monster movies at that time or just wasn´t interested in seeing the film because the concept of the film have been many times before. The film did find an audience on VHS thankfully and still to this day is appreciated on physical DVD or blu ray copies by fans of Peter Weller ( yes the original Robocop is in this film ). The first time i saw this film was on VHS back in 1991 on an uncut copy from England. I already knew the film was censored here in Sweden so i refused to watch this Swedish rental version. I had a good time with Leviathan and it is pretty much a classic monster film. The story begins at sea where deep-sea miners discover a Sovjet shiprewck known as Leviathan. What they don´t know is that they are being stalked by an unknown creature. If you want just a fun sci fi action horror film of the 80´s with practical make up effects and no complicated plot then this is a film for you from legendary director George P. Cosmatos ( director of both Stallone classics Rambo Part II and Cobra as well ). Speaking of creatures not that long ago i watched a trailer of a Chinese sci fi horror film known as Star Abyss. This looked like something in my taste so i decided to give it a chance. Is is possible this is one of the better sci fi horror films this year or is Star Abyss just as bad as Victoria Silverstedt´s only studio album Girl On The Run?

A group of humans travel through star gates. The spaceship these group of people travel on gets trapped in the Star Abyss. While their journey plans have changed completely they have a whole new problem on board the ship. An alien have been released on board the spaceship and everyone is forced to fight for survival.

If you are expecting something groundbreaking or something original with Star Abyss i can tell you right now you won´t find it here. This film have clearly been inspired specifically by classics such as Aliens and the Jan-Michael Vincent B movie cult film Xtro 2 - The Second Encounter and it is basically a similar concept with an alien on board a spaceship attacking people. There are some differences of course both with the plot and why this monster is on board the ship but it is very easily constructed to be appreciated by fans of similar films as i mentioned. There are a few smaller details i do feel could have been improved with this film but let´s get to the positive. I do like the idea about travelling through a stargate, similar to what they did in the 1994 classic film Stargate from director Roland Emmerich but there is no connection to Egypt in any way in Star Abyss. I especially love the twin assassin with her cloned twin with swords where they also do some martial arts fighting scenes, that´s my kind of space action chicks. I do think it´s a good idea to let the alien creature be like the chameleon just like in the 1987 action classic Predator, where he sometimes become invicible adjusting itself to the environment. When it comes to actors i do feel that Andrew Lien ( who have been in several films in the past such as New Police Story and The Man With The Iron Fists 1 & 2 as well ) as the Captain deliver some of the better dialogue scenes in Star Abyss. I do think the spaceship design from the inside looks pretty cool. Ok so let´s talk about the negative and i have to be honest, the face of the monster looks really silly. The body looks cool but the face doesn´t match that well at all. It is hard to describe but it almost looks deformed like The Toxic Avenger overdosed heavy after a cocaine party. You don´t really care much about certain characters even though there are scenes where they try to be more serious. Overall i would say Star Abyss is just fun B movie entertaining film if you love shooting scenes and a big alien running around a spaceship. Director Xiaobei Zhang deliver a film that´s made for sci fi geeks and B movie lovers and i am definetely in there somewhere. Star Abyss may not be a future classic but have enough of treats to be appreciated for the audience it was made for.

Rating: DDD

October Will Be Slightly Different!

Greetings everyone!

I hope you are all enjoying the cozy month of September before the real cold arrives. Enjoy your fresh brewed coffee or cup of tea in the sofa while watching films. No matter if you watch movies on streaming or physical copies this id a great month to check out titles you have not seen. 

For all my readers worldwide I have decided to do something different in October than I usually do. I have decided that I will only review horror films in the whole month of October to prepare everyone for Halloween weekend across the world. The only thing I will try to do is review not too many similar horror movies and mix it up a bit. From different directors and who knows, maybe a foreign horror film as well just to spice it up. If you perhaps were hoping i would review an autumn Hallmark Channel film i can tell you right now that is out of the question. October will be filled with blood, guts, crazy people, even perhaps creatures or vampires. 

Hopefully you all look forward to see what horror films I choose to review in October and i hope you will find a review that you are interested in. I still have some reviews left for the month of September to publish before the month ends but I thought this would be a nice surprise especially to fans of the horror community. Enjoy the rest of September and remember  there is never too much blood all over the wall, there is room for more. 

Cheers from Daniel

Duchess

When it comes to British films i feel that we should be talking more often how important a lot of British productions are in film history. Just imagine if we didn´t have British classics such as Trainspotting, The Full Monty, Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Deathwatch, 28 Days Later, we could go on for a long time. I have been a big fan of British films ever since the early VHS days in the 90´s and i still enjoy checking out British productions both from legendary directors but also from new people getting a chance to make films. There are of course legendary directors like Guy Ritchie and Danny Boyle who i could easily talk about for hours since they have made several fantastic films, but let´s take this moment and talk about another British director who made a big impact in the early 2000´s. We need to talk about director Neil Marshall who a lot of people in the horror community recognize from his two best films Dog Soldiers from 2002 and of course The Descent from 2005. If you ask me these are two films everyone should own in their physical horror collection because they are both good for different reasons. Usually when i talk about his biggest classics it´s very simple to forget his sci fi action film Doomsday from 2008. It was a box office bomb at the time it was released in cinemas but i actually enjoyed it. The best way to describe Doomsday is a mixture of Mad Max, Escape From New York and 28 Days Later with some surprising fun scenes such as the dance scene to 80´s pop classic song Good Thing by British pop rock band Fine Young Cannibals. I recommend you to pick this film up on physical media if you are a fan of sci fi action films. Neil Marshall have continued working hard releasing films in later years and i heard about his latest film Duchess coming out. So in August the film was officially released on digital. Since i have seen all of his films so far of course i had to give Duchess a watch as well. Is this the best Neil Marshall films in many years or is Duchess just as forgettable as the 1997 comedy Father´s Day with Robin Williams and Billy Crystal?

Londoner Scarlett Monaghan ( Charlotte Kirk ) is a small criminal living by pickpocketing drunks to other forms of criminal acts. One night at a night club she bump into mid-level gangster Robert ( Philip Winchester ) who reveal her true intentions at the bar. They match really good and become a couple where Robert reveal how he is going after the big money. But with everything in life if you take high risks you have to be prepared for what is about to come. And Scarlett is forced to head inside a much darker world than she is used to see.

It becomes very clear that Duchess tries to be some kind of Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels ripoff with the fast editing Guy Ritchie style and throw in your face name titles, but to be honest this is nowhere near as good as the 1998 neo-noir black comedy crime film. What made Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels so effective was the film making of director Guy Ritchie, the well crafted characters with some really fun dialogue included. Duchess tries really hard to do something similar in certain scenes and it just falls flat. To be honest i watched this film trying to figure out what positve to say knowing this is a film directed by Neil Marshall who i respect for making some really good films in the past. Ok so let´s try to get to some positive at least and i don´t mind lead actress Charlotte Kirk ( who have worked with Neil Marshall in the past in his previous films The Reckoning and The Lair ) as the character Scarlett. There are some scenes where she at least deliver a few entertaining moments during the action scenes. And even if i support lead female actors in action films i do feel that this could have been much more fun if the action scenes were much more effective. In some scenes it just feels pretty lazy, as if they just decided to make fighting scenes but didn´t put much effort into it. As most of you know martial arts action actor Scott Adkins always makes sure his action films have some really fun fighting scenes included and this is exactly what a film such as Duchess would have needed to work better. What about the other actors? There are some terrible perfomances in this film except for a few exceptions like actor Philip Winchester ( known from TV series Strike Back and the 2009 film Solomon Kane ). If you want to see terrible acting just check out actror Yan Tual as the Russian character Victor, that Russian accent feels just as fake as Marjorie Taylor Greene´s eye lashes. What about the plot of this film? It is so generic you won´t remember the plot to be honest. This film is almost 2 hours long at it feels too long while you are watching it. In the end the only thing Duchess have to offer is some action scenes that looks ok but that´s about it. I am sorry to say this but i have to be honest, this could be one of the worst Neil Marshall films i have seen so far and i believe Duchess will be dusting on a DVD shelves in the future.

Rating: DD

Twisters

I have so many wonderful memories of my cinema visits in the 90´s. Back in those days i would go and watch almost all the summer blockbusters on the big screen. To afford that many cinema visits at a young age i used to work as a construction worker even if i was too young to do certain things at the construction site. With several bought tickets, snacks for each film of course i could easily spend my money quickly . So after a hard works week i would go with my friends on the weekend to the cinema and we would make sure to watch the films we wanted to see. There are some summers that i especially remember in the 90´s and i have to mention certain years such as 1994, that was the summer i watched films such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Speed, The Client, Naked Gun 33 1/ - The Final Insult, Lightning Jack, The Flintstones and many more. Same things goes to the summer of 1995 when i watched cinema films such as The Quick And The Dead ( i especially enjoyed this one on the big screen ), Die Hard With A Vengeance, Bad Boys, Batman Forever, First Knight ( yes the one with Richard Gere and Sean Connery ), Johnny Mnemonic, French Kiss ( unfortunately i did see this one in cinema ) and many more. When you look at a list of films such as these that i mentioned you realise how special the cinema releases of the 90´s were at that time. Let us move forward to the year of 1996 and talk about one specific cinema release in the summer of 1996 and that is the disaster action movie known as Twister from director Jan de Bont ( director of both Speed films, i still don´t understand why he made Speed 2 ). Twister turned out to be a spectacular cinema experience being a disaster action movie about two storm chasers Bill Harding ( Bill Paxton ) and Dr. Jo Harding ( Helen Hunt ) who are on the brink of divorce but are forced to create an advanced weather alert system while getting closer to upcoming tonadoes. Twister is one of the 90´s classic disaster films and for that time period had some amazing special effects. I never thought we would get an official sequel but here we are in 2024 with a film called Twisters. Since i saw the original film in cinema i might as well check this sequel out as well not keeping too high expectations. Is it possible that this sequel is better than the 1996 classic or is this a film no one asked for and never should have been made at all?

Kate Carter ( Daisy Edgar-Jones ) works in Oklahoma with her storm chaser friends Javi Anthony Ramos ), Addy ( Kiernan Shipka ), Praveen ( Nik Dodani ), and her boyfriend, Jeb ( Daryl McCormack ). Alongside a Dorthy D Voppler, the team launches barrels of sodium polyacrylate beads into a tornado in hope of reducing its intensity and securing funding for further research. However, the attempt is unsuccessful due to the tornado suddenly intensifying into an EF5, killing Jeb, Addy, and Praveen while Javi and Kate manage to survive as Kate blames herself for not understanding the tornado better. Five years go by and Kate is now working in New York at an NOAA office. One day her friend Javi suddenly visit her unexpected where he wants her to go back chasing tornados again and help him test a new tornadoscanning system using phased-array radar. At first Kate doesn´t want to go back to Oklahoma but after seeing new information regarding storm activities that Javi sends her she have a change of mind. She decides to give it a chance even though she doesn´t feel completely ready going out there again.

One of the problems sometimes when you make a sequel to a 90´s classic is that you may not respect the original film. I have to say that i am surprised over this latest sequel because it actually feels like they wanted to capture some of the same tornadoes atmosphere as the original film does with a team of experts trying to do some similar work as the main characters of the original film did. The fact that they actually wanted to be respectful knowing that Bill Paxton is a beloved actor in Hollywood and his legacy can live on, this gives me a bit of respect for this sequel. Ok so let´s get into what i enjoyed about Twisters. I do feel that the CGI effects for the weather scenes looks pretty good and you get to see tornadoes from some different angles compared to the original film. I would even say some scenes surprised me how well they captured the look of the bigger tornadoes. Since CGI effects have improved a lot since 1996 this actually helps the disaster scenes become quite effective in certain scenes. I do feel that the chemistry among the young cast is good and even if i have no knowledge on how to work with weather programs i do like the approach this team have, keeping a good spirit and actually seem to enjoy spending time together. There is even a social media influencer thrown into this film but i actually think that part of the film works for the most part with the character Tyler Owens. Regarding the characters i especially think it works well between actors Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos. Their chemistry on screen matches something similar to Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as they did back in 1996. Anything i feel could have been improved? Considering that this film turned out to be better than i expected i have nothing really to complain about. There are some smaller issues i could mention but i don´t see the point in doing that since i had a good time with Twisters. If you love natural disaster films then i think this could be a film you want to see. Director Lee Isaac Chung deliver a good looking natural disaster film that´s definetely respectful to the original film while adding some more modern details and still make it work. Twisters does what it´s meant to do, entertain the audience who likes this genre while this film also captures the emotional importance how you have to stay together as friends no matter how hard it gets. Worth spending 2 hours on to some cold beers and some good snacks.

Rating: DDD

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1

My passion for old school western films started way back in the 80´s at the home of my school friend Nicklas house. His parents subscribed to a VHS video cassette club and they would get monthly VHS releases where they also could order certain films if they wanted to see something else other than the monthly new release. Nicklas family turned out to be big fans of legendary western director Sergio Leone and they used to buy all of his western classics on VHS, even the titles that i have never heard of before. I remember going through the titles on Nicklas VHS shelf where of course several titles were the real classics with Clint Eastwood. It was actually thanks to Nicklas family i discovered all the Sergio Leone films so i am forever grateful that they introduced me to his filmography. I also remember seeing the western film Silverado on VHS starring legendary actors Danny Glover, Kevin Costner, Brian Dennehy, Jeff Goldblum, John Cleese, Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Jeff Fahey and many more. I did borrow Silverado and watched it at home and had a really good time with this amazing cast. Speaking of Kevin Costner i had already watched him in several other great films at that time with titles such as the gangster movie The Untouchables ( which also have an amazing cast ), the thriller No Way Out and of course the 1988 classic Bull Durham. I think it is safe to say that one of the true classics of Kevin Costner really came in the year of 1990 when he released his epic western film Dances With Wolves who also produced and directed this film. A very well made western film with really strong characters, a powerful story and the film still to this day looks really good. Even if this may be the biggest western film from Kevin Costner i also enjoyed his 1994 western film adaptation of Wyatt Earp and the 2003 western film known as Open Range. If you have not seen any of these films i highly recommend watching them on streaming or a physical copy. Earlier this year i heard that Kevin Costner is releasing his next western movie project called Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 since this is supposed to be 4 films if i understand correctly and the second chapter is coming out later this year. Since i have always loved the western films of Kevin Costner of course i had to see this film on the big screen. Is this another epic western release from this legendary actor and director, or is Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 not as good as i was hoping it would be?

In 1859, at the San Pedro Valley of Southeastern Territorial Arizona, two seperate parties of surveyors mark stakes on oppisite sides of the San Pedro River to outline the homestead lots of a forthcoming frontier town, Horizon. While riding through this location, a missionary named Desmarais ( Angus Macfadyen ) finds the three dead bodies killed by Apache people. He buries their bodies and establish the town of Horizon. In 1863, a now American homesteader-settled Horizon is set upon an Apache raid led by Pionsenay ( Owen Crow Shoe ), killing several residents, including the husband and son of Frances Kittredge ( Sienna Miller ). A settlement boy Russel Ganz ( Etienne Kellici ) escapes on horseback during the carnage to alert the Army at the nearby Camp Gallant. A detachment of United States Union Cavalry an Infantry arrives led by 1st Lt. Trent Gephardt ( Sam Worthington ), Sgt. Major Thomas Riordan ( Michael Rooker ), and Neron Chavez ( Alejandro Edda ). They assist with the burial of the dead, search for the track of the raiding party, and help with the survivors. Russel joins a posse team, led by fellow survivor Elias Janney ( Scott Haze ) to go after the responsible Apaches.

Knowing that this genre means a lot for director Kevin Costner you can tell that from a production standpoint. The time period feels realistic, the costume design feels realistic as well and of course the shooting locations are beautiful with lovely cinematography from legendary cinematographer J. Michael Muro (  who did brilliant work on The Abyss and Terminator 2 and other classics as well ). In some ways you could probably say that Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 is a love letter to western fans all over the world, because there are a lot of details here that western fans want to see in a film such as this. If you appreciate a classic story telling like we used to get in older western films of the past i can tell you right now you will find it in this film. Maybe not as powerful as Dancing With Wolves of course because that is such a unique film, there are still details to appreciate with this film. So let´s talk about what i feel works best with this Horizon - Chapter 1. Since this is a 3 hours film you might think it´s difficult to understand the plot with several characters. Thankfully it´s easy to understand the timeline and some of the choices that certain characters do throughout the film. I think this was a good choice making a film that´s not too complicated since it can cause problems to a film over 3 hours long if you don´t make the film interesting. The acting in general is pretty good from most of the actors ( especially the native indigenous actors ), i would say there are a few actors who could have done better but otherwise i have nothing to complain about. Of course the strongest acting performance comes from Kevin Costner as the character Hayes, and even if he shows up quite late in the film his scenes are definetely the best when it comes to delivering dialogue. One of the issues i have is that certain scenes have a bit too much drawn out dialogue that takes a bit too long. I do feel though that the film in general does a great job capturing the true spirit of western films we remember from the past and director Kevin Costner proves once more he knows how to make this genre come back to life. If you are a true western fan i think you should pick up this film on physical media no matter if you prefer DVD or blu ray. Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 gives a promising start of a series of several films and i am already looking forward to the next chapter later this year.

Rating: DDD