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

In A Violent Nature

There are those who are very sensitive to video violence and i am definetely not one of them. When you grew up like me looking for uncut VHS horror films like i did in the early 90´s you discovered a lot of really violent horror films, especially when i ordered them uncut from England at that time ( Sweden was still censoring VHS films ). It didn´t really matter how brutal some film was, the more brutality the more happy i was almost like it was Christmas Eve. My school friend Anders had a catalogue from a VHS seller in England and i used to sit in his home reading through all the horror releases. I remember how happy i was getting my very first VHS tape of Day Of The Dead uncut and The Return Of The Living Dead. I was really crazy about zombie films back in those days and even if i really do appreciate this genre still today, it´s getting hard to find certain gems since i have seen all the big classics and a lot of B movies as well. Whenever i hear about violent horror films i am always interested checking out if the titles are interesting. For example let´s go back to the year of 2008 when French horror Martyrs surprised me from director Pascal Laugier which is sort of a revenge horror film where a woman known as Lucie ( played by actress Myléne Jampanoi ) vows to destroy those who kept her captive and chained up in a cold, dark warehouse when she was younger. If you don´t like lots of gore or so called extreme cinema this is definetely not for you. But i am personally a big fan of this French film and i would highly recommend it, especially get the blu ray release from distribution company Umbrella Entertainment. I know there is a 2015 remake of Martyrs and i have chosen not to see it, simply because a lot of people have said it´s nowhere near as good as the original French film from 2008. Speaking of violent during spring time this year i heard of an independent horror film called In A Violent Nature that was getting positive reviews from film critics worldwide. Since i love a really brutal horror movie of course this sounded like something in my taste. Is this a horror film we all should watch this autumn or is it just as terrible as the 2015 film Beverly Hills Christmas with Dean Cain ?

The corpse of a dead man called Johnny ( Ry Barrett ) rise from the ground. Enraged, he begin searching for a locket that means a lot to him personally. On his way while he searches for the locket he will kill anyone who crosses his path.

I might as well be honest and say this is the kind of horror film that you will either enjoy or hate, because it is definetely not a horror film everyone will appreciate. Especially if you don´t like movies where there is a lot of walking scenes and there is plenty of that in this film. Of course there is a good reason to why we have these walking scenes but i would imagine that if you hate watching a film where one person walks a lot this is definetely not for you. However, if you do love really brutal kills, a killer that almost looks like a different version of Jason Voorhees and not too much dialogue i have a feeling this is something you might actually appreciate. The best part about this film for me personally is the most brutal kills and they have actually done a really good job with the practical make up effects for the killing scenes. The brutality in certain scenes surprised me in a positive way. Without giving too much away i will say that the Yoga girl killing is definetely one of the highlight scenes, that´s how you finish of a true Smokie fan ( i am sorry to say they still tour here in Sweden, don´t ask me why ). Without talking too much about the acting let´s focus on the main character Johnny for a moment. Even if actor Ry Barrett doesn´t do any dialogue he manage to express a lot of anger through body language and some facial expressions as well. The practical make up effects on Johnny actually looks like a different version of Jason Voorhees, or someone similar to him i would say. I don´t know if this film is inspired by the Friday The 13th franchise but you can clearly see some scenes may be inspired in some ways by the iconic horror character from the 80´s. I do like the mask design it really matches well with the character. The negative is probably that some of the walking scenes feel a bit too long. Not that all of these scenes are bad but at certain moments i do feel a little bit bored. If you love slasher films and very brutal horror films then this would most likely be something you would appreciate. Director Chris Nash deliver a slasher horror film that may not be original but he does do a good job bringing back a more brutal approach than we are used to see. In A Violent Nature shows us how you celebrate a weekend in the forest, and to be honest i wouldn´t mind some axe throwing. Who knows i might find some fresh flesh for dinner?

Rating: DDD