The Toxic Avenger

There are several summers i can remember from my youth for a number of reasons. I had my first crush in a girl in the late 80´s in a summer camp, i went to see my very first double concert in an arena seeing Rod Stewart and Brtitish rock band Status Quo the same night ( the tickets was a gift so why not ? ), all the Swedish Midsummer celebrations with my grandfather Ingvar getting drunk. So let´s move forward to the summer of 1993 when i was going to a summer film school project for young people. This was a summer school project for teenagers who had no summer jobs and just wanted to do something during summer. The idea was to learn how to use a camera to film from different angles, learn camera technique, practise shooting different scenes to prepare doing a fake news show where my friend André was supposed to be the news anchor. We did 4 episodes all together and made up news stories, the best news report was about disabled people doing a swimming contest. We had 2 teenagers act disabled in the swimming pool and they were hillarious. I know you are not supposed to laugh at certain things when it comes to being disabled, but this was done in a classy was and not offensive. Almost like old school British comedy i would say. Anyway, at the last week of summer film school we were allowed to watch movies at film school. We had completed the news show and were just chilling watching B movies on VHS. This was the first time i came across the Troma film cult classic known as The Toxic Avenger. I have never heard of this film before so this became a personal favourite for many years. The story of mopping boy Melvin Ferd ( Mitch Cohen ) who cleans the local gym in Tromaville, New Jersey. Everyone hates the ugly looking nerd Melvin and especially by health guru Bozo ( Gary Schneider ) and his girlfriend Julie ( Cindy Manion ). One day they do a prank on him and chase him through the gym, it ends with Melvin jumping out the window and lands in a drum of toxic waste. This is where he turns into The Toxic Avenger, the new hero of Tromaville. This is truly one of the greatest 80´s cult movies of all time, hillarious, crazy, and violent all at the same time from directors Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman. The sequels was not as good as the first film so when i heard a remake was going to be made i was skeptical. Can you really succeed doing a remake on such a classic film? I bought a digital copy of this remake to simply find out if this was going to be better than i expected. Is this new adaptation of The Toxic Avenger worthy a movie night or is this a disaster from start to finish?

Janitor Winston ( Peter Dinklage ) is a hard working single father trying to do the best for his son Wade ( Jacob Tremblay ). When he finds out he have a very serious disease and may not survive more than 6 months, he tries to get help from his CEO known as Bob Gardinger ( Kevin Bacon ), but he basically mock his employee. In Tromaville there is a criminal gang known as The Killer Nutz, who one night attack Winston out in the streets and dump him inside a vat of chemicals. Winston turn into a creature known as The Toxic Avenger ( Lisa Guerreiro ) who will soon become the hero of Tromaville, fighting criminals with his toxic mop. He will clean up the streets of Tromaville and make sure Bob Gardinger no longer will be in control of this city.

If you are familiar with Troma films in general and know their kind of sense of humour you know they make pure B movies with bad dialogue and use lots of practical effects. In some cases they use a lot of gory violence that´s made to be a tribute to the worst B movies you can remember. In the case of this latest remake of The Toxic Avenger this is pretty much what you might expect. At least if you know the style of Troma films then this should be a film that might please you. There are some changes in this film compared to the 1984 original film of The Toxic Avenger and i actually think they did the right thing. Why try to copy the first film? Just do a completely different updated version, throw in completely different characters and try telling a story that´s not similar to the past. This updated version give us a complete different view of The Toxic Avenger than we are familiar with in the past. The original film is very goofy, almost like a terrible yet brilliant Jackie Chan rip off with high entertainment value for all the crazy characters and all the violence. This latest version do have crazy characters included as well and i have to say legendary actor Kevin Bacon as the evil Bob Gardinger is one of the best performances in this whole film. Kevin have always been able to take on all kinds of characters and i love seeing him play this insane individual. Actor Elijah Wood also give a solid performance as the odd character Fritz Garbinger who looks like some relative from The Addams Family. Even though Game Of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage is good as the main character Winston i got to say actress Luisa Guerreiro ( who you should watch in the Netflix TV series The Witcher ) as full costume Toxie is the highlight of this film. I personally enjoy the costume design of Toxie while still keeping a touch of the legendary look from 1984. Even if you hear Dinklage´s voice it is Luisa doing the physical performance as Toxie and the voice over matches well. Very violent scenes in several moments in this film and i love seeing Toxie ripping bodies apart. There are some funny moments as well where you feel that the Troma influences becomes very clear. Director Macon Blair ( who i really love in the 2013 independent drama thriller Blue Ruin, a must watch ) have not only managed to do a great remake of a B movie classic, but he also have given this legendary character a different approach that actually works. If you just want lots of blood, bad dialogue and just have a good time then what are you waiting for? Watch this Toxic Avenger remake and your pizza night at home will without a doubt be successfull.

Rating: DDD

The Mannequin

Fashion trends, i can honestly say im not the guy to ask what to wear at specific occations. I could give you some advice, but don´t expect it to be a great success. I do like clothes though and i have always been a big lover of designed tshirts in different colors. I try to mix it up and even wear a long sleeved shirt now and then. I even wear suits sometimes when there is a big celebration like a wedding, or a very unique birthday party. Even though i enjoy going into clothing shops around Europe i prefer simple clothes. Speaking of fashion and clothes there are several movies that brings up the subject of fashion. For example you have the critically acclaimed drama comedy The Devil Wears Prada from 2006 where legendary actress Meryl Streep really steal the show as the wild fashion character Miranda Priestly, and this is definetely worth a watch if you enjoy charming movies. One advice, listen to the commentary track of this film and find out some fun details. You also have more horror inspired films with a fashion theme such as the 2021 psychological horror film Last Night In Soho from director Edgar Wright ( director of the now well known cult classic horror comedy Shaun Of The Dead ). Last Night In Soho takes place in London where fashion student Eloise ( Thomasin McKenzie  ) is trying to become a fasion designer at London College of Fashion. While she is trying to fit into the class, she is seen as quite an odd personality and have a hard time making friends. Eloise love the music and fasion style of the Swinging Sixties and have vivid dreams about a confident young woman, Sandie ( Anya Taylor-Joy ), an aspiring singer in 1960´s London ). This is where she begin to have other horrific visions as well. Last Night In Soho is a very well made horror film with beautiful camera work, really good acting and quite effective horror scenes. Definetely worth a watch on 4KUltraHD especially or blu ray. Speaking of fashion and horror films i came across a interesting film this autumn among horror releases called The Mannequin. A horror film that seemed to have fashion influences sewn into the plot of this film. Is this a film you should check out this Christmas or is The Mannequin not worth your precious time at all?

Best friends and sisters Sophia Rojas ( Gabriella Riviera ) and Liana Rojas ( Isabella Gomez ) are very excited when Sophia have bought a very famous historic LA building, that used to be used many years ago as a photo studio as well as by fashion designers as well. Sophia and Liana plan to make this a brand new start in their lives and make their fashion dreams come to life, designing clothes and live life in the best possible way. But that dream slowly fade away when Sophia find her sister dead inside the building the next day, that looked like suicide. But did Sophia really kill herself or is there another explanation?

The Mannequin have a really solid start taking place during the 1950´s. I like the set up and how the story evolve with the mystery that reveal itself. When we get to modern day i would say this is still a solid story, but what especially makes this part of the film work is the mysterious mannequin doll. Not that it ever become alive or do anything physically towards these young women, but it is the spirits within this mannequin from dead women from the past that actually makes this fashion object interesting. Instead of just making a horror film about a mannequin doll coming to life, this film is more focused on being a psychological horror film. Are they really seeing dead people within these walls in this building? When you figure out what really happened towards the end, you get a clearer picture of how it was possible for so many women falling victims within this area. Where this film works best is when we see the evil spirit take control over the young women and control their bodies. There are a couple of creepy moments that i appreciate. Main actress Isabella Gomez ( who i recognized from the Netflix TV comedy series One Day At A Time ) as the character Liana is quite interesting, especially after she lost her very own belover sister Sophia ( Gabriella Rivera ). The way she chooses to grief her dead sister, it really shows that we all grief differently and there is no right or wrong. I also appreciate seeing Liana struggling with alcohol addiction, not because it´s positive at all but gives the character a realistic portrait of how we deal with life sometimes. I would say she does a good performance. Ok, so one of the issues i have with this film is the character Peter ( played by actor Maxwell Hamilton ) is a YouTuber. I would rather see a priest dealing with this evil than a YouTuber to be honest, and to see him fight against evil instead of a holy man? Other than this specific detail i did enjoy The Mannequin for being a simple but still effective horror film. Director John Berardo ( who directed the slasher horror film Initation, worth a watch ) have made a horror film that really feels like a throwback to possessed evil spirt horror films of the 80´s, and it works as well. The Mannequin could be a good choice on VOD or streaming after Christmas dinner this year.

Rating: DDD

The Hem

Anyone who believe you can´t make a solid horror film on a extremely low budget just look at the 1999 found footage horror classic The Blair Witch Project. Made on a budget of less than 700.000 U.S. dollars it made over 240 million U.S. dollars at the box office worldwide. I remember clearly how hyped up this film was all over the news and on MTV. I even remember that they had a special program on Swedish channel Kanal 5 about the making of this film and that did not happen often on this specific TV channel. The Blair Witch Project proved that you can make a scary movie while only being able to use a limited budget. It all depends on how creative you are telling a effective story as well as capturing the atmosphere of a found footage horror film.  What made this film especially so scary was how they managed to build up tensions, and finding the right locations to match with the story. I will say that the acting is good as well from the cast, even though this film doesn´t have a lot of characters. If you have not seen The Blair Witch Project so far i recommend to check it out on digital or streaming. There are plenty of great found footage horror films to choose between and over the years i have seen plenty. One of the films i think you should check it because it was both well made and had a good story, is the 2011 found footage horror film known as Grave Encounters from directors The Vicious Brothers. This film was made on a extreme low budget of 120.000 U.S. dollars and made over 5 million U.S. dollars at the box office. If you do the numbers then you can clearly see this was a big box office hit. The story of Grave Encounters is basically surrounding a paranormal TV reality show called Grave Encounters, that only aired 5 episodes because of the whole crew mysteriously disappeared. The footage that we get to see actually have some really creepy moments inside the abandoned Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, where strange things begin to happen and we witness something extremely evil. Grave Encounters may not be one of the big classics in the genre of found footage horror films but i enjoyed this one because how well it is made considering the budget. The acting is pretty good as well and the haunting scenes works better than you might expect. Check this film out on streaming, VOD or physical media. I try to check out found footage horror releases every year, just to see if i may come across some title that might look interesting. That´s exactly what happened when i saw the poster of the horror film The Hem that i rented on VOD. Not knowing much more about this film i decided to give this film a chance. Is this one of the better found footage horror films this year or is The Hem unfortunately not a good option in this specific genre?

Dosumentary film maker Ann ( Savannah Rae Collins ) is working on a new documentary film with her crew to interview people about the abandoned old church known as Southside Church. It is said that it was in this church where a mysterious woman named Isabella Rose, who worked inside the church in the 1930's is still seen wearing one of her wedding dresses.

There is an interesting story to be told in The Hem regarding a very old church and in the last 16 minutes of the film there are some good horror scenes. But, even if this is just a 1 hour and 18 minutes long film there are a lot of scenes of the main characters that feel very drawn out. While they are investigating this old chuch there is not much happening. You hear noises, you see a wedding dressed woman sometimes, and this is all supposed to be scary. And that is one of my biggest issues with The Hem how much it misses the point with why found footage horror films can be good. They have not made a real effort to make this story scary or used this wedding dressed mysterious woman more effectively. Im not going to say that the cast is all terrible because i do think the female character Ann ( played by actress Savannah Rae Collins ) have a charming personality. The best acting performance though in this film comes from actor Judd Lormand ( who fans of TV series SEAL Team will recognize ) playing the police character Cameron. His scenes together with his partner Momty ( Georg Hardy from the legendary cult film Troll 2, a film you have to see ) towards the last 16 minutes of this film, their scenes going into the church armed is the most exciting part of the whole film. I understand that when you have a limited budget you can only do certain things, but that should also help you become more creative using whatever you have to build the film up more effectively. I do like the background story of the ghostly bride of Isabella, but you don´t see much of her at all until towards the end. If you are going to tell a story regarding a haunted location and base it around a specific individual, make it creepy, make it feel like an actual ghost story. The Hem could have been a great horror film if they would have made some changes and focused on the police insvestigation instead. Director Tyler Russel ( who both directed the independent full feature film Texas Cotton, and the short film by the same name ) clearly had some interesting ideas regarding The Hem. Too bad he could not find the right balance to make this film more effective. If you are a fan of this genre you might enjoy it, my recommendation would be check out Grave Encounters instead of this one.

Rating: DD

Weapons

Every parent want their child to live a good childhood, where they enjoy their lives, meet other children, get to learn new things in life. Parents also want to be able to give children a safe home, where no child could ever be harmed or could be put into any kind of danger. But what if your child completely disappear and you have no idea what happened? This has to be every parents worst nightmare and we all hope no family should go through this. Unfortunately, this is what happened in the 2013 American thriller Prisoners from director Denis Villeneuve ( director of the recent Dune movie adaptations ). A very well made thriller that tell the story of 2 families known as The Dover Family and The Birch Family celebrating Thanksgiving weekend. Both families have a daughter who suddenly disappear. Family father Kelly Dover ( Hugh Jackman ) decides to find out the truth not trusting the police and do his own investigation. This causes a lot of problems for Detective Loki ( Jake Gyllenhall ) who works on this case. What Prisoners manage to do is show you how frustrating this story is from parents who have to go through such a nightmare, but you also get a very well told part of this film from the work perspective of law enforcement. The acting from the whole cast is really good and especially Hugh Jackman, this may be one of his strongest acting performances in his career so far. Prisoners is a very powerful film on a psychological level. What if you go too far and take justice in your own hands? Can you live with that the rest of your life? If you have not seen Prisoners check it out on streaming or rent it on VOD. Movies about missing children is always a difficult subject and we have seen several really good stories be told regarding this subject. This year a horror film known as Weapons from director Zach Cregger ( the director of the 2022 horror film Barbarian with Bill Skarsgård ) became a big box office success and crtitically acclaimed. I especially remember British film critic Mark Kermode giving the film a high rating. Since i did enjoy Barbarian i was curious to see if Weapons would be another quality film from director Zach Cregger. Is this one of the best horror films of this year or do i have a completely different opinion about Weapons?

In the town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania, a group of childen unexpectedly ran out of their homes at 2:17 and disappeared. It turns out that almost an entire elementary class disappeared, except for one student named Alex Lilly ( Cary Christopher ). This class that Alex goes to have a teacher named Justine Gandy ( Julia Garner ), and the parents of the children of this class see her as the main suspect. Even thoough Justine knows she had nothing to do with the disappearance of her students. One of the children´s father´s named Archer Graff ( Josh Brolin ) seems to spend all his days to find answers. Where did all the children go and why does no one seem to have any answers?

Weapons is without a doubt one of the more fascinating horror movies of this year. It doesn´t follow a traditional plot but actually tell the story from different individuals, how they experience different time periods since the children went missing from one specific class room. I think it´s important to know that this film does not only focus on the main story, there is a deep meaning to all the different chapters that we are presented with and why they are divided. We also ask ourselves questions such as :- Why did only most of the children in one class suddenly disappear? The mystery surrounding the children that are missing is told in a very mysterious but effective way. I especially enjoy the chapter with the character Justine ( played by actress Julia Garner, who you should watch in the horror film Wolf Man ), the teacher of the class of missing children. How do you handle your private life when children´s parents constantly hate you? How do you function as a human being when no one seems to believe that you have done nothing wrong? I can´t even imagine how extremely difficult this situation must be and i think actress Julia Garner capture these emotions through her performance. I also enjoy legendary actor James Brolin´s character Archer, being one of the parents of the lost children who is desperately searching for answers. The most unique acting performance in this film comes from actress Amy Madigan ( who you should see in the satirical horror action film The Hunt ) as the bizarre character Gladys. Let´s just say she is the last guest you would want during the holidays. I have to mention the beautiful cinematography by Larkin Seiple ( who also did the cinematography on the 2018 sci fi film Kin )  Weapons try to bring a lot of different subjects to the surface, especially how we as humans beings deal with trauma and difficult situations in life, how human behavior can change in a crisis. Director Zach Gregger manage to tell this story very effective with some simple threads that are all connected. I wouldn´t be susprised if Weapons wins some awards next year, this is truly one of the better horror films of 2025.

Rating: DDDD

Eddington

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

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

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

Rating: DDD                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Black Creek

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

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

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

Rating: DDD