45 Years Anniversary Review Of The Burning

I can still remember in late November back in 1992 when i was walking downtown of my home city Uddevalla. Back then we had 2 different cinemas in our city, we had the major cinema called Saga Biografen and we had a smaller one that was located quite far away of the street known as Drottninggatan. Why i remember late November of 1992 specifically was because of the latest cinema release of legendary actor Rutger Hauer´s latest film Split Second. The cinema poster was the most coolest poster i had seen in a long time, and since i had seen a lot of his classics such as Blade Runner, Flesh & Blood, The Hitcher, Wanter Dead Or Alive, Blind Fury and many other titles on VHS, of course i was excited about this film. Especially when i found out Split Second is a futuristic sci fi action horror film combined, set in London in the future. I did not see the film in cinema, even if i wanted to see it on the big screen it just never happened. But i did buy the VHS release and it did turn out to be a great film. Directed by Tony Maylam, Rutger Hauer plays Detective Harley Stone, a man filled with personal struggles and addicted to coffee. He is on the hunt all over London after a serial killer, who leaves pentagram markings on dead bodies. This is no odinary serial killer though, this seems to be a serial killer that is not human. Split Second is not only a cool action film, the horror elements with the monster works as well And i have tto say the costume design of the monster looks great ( considering the budget this film had ). Worth picking ip on physical media. Speaking of director Tony Maylam, many years after i watched the film Split Second i discovered that Tony also directed the 1981 slasher horror classic knoan as The Burning. A film i first saw back in 2002 on a UK full uncut version dvd release. I don´t have that dvd release in my movie collection ( a former working collegue kept it, without permission, he just borrowed it to watch it and never returned it ), but that´s ok because i have the film on a even better blu ray release. Since this film turned 45 years old this year i decided to check out my blu ray copy and do a annivversay review. Is this still a great slasher horror film, or have this film aged a lot over the years and lost some of it´s charm?

An evil summer camp caretaker known as Cropsy ( Lou David ), working at a summer camp known as Camp Blackfoot is accidently severly burned from a prank gone horribly wrong. 5 years have passed since this happended, it´s another summer camp filled with teenagers and children, where everyone tries to fit in and join the summer activities. And it seems that Cropsy is still alive, ready to kill anyone who gets in his way.... 

While the 1980´s was filled with horror slasher movies and a lot of films were similar to Friday The 13th, i would still say that The Burning stood out a little bit from some of the horror films in this category. The fact that this is supposedly a man who was burned inside alive, barely made it and now revenge those who hurt him. that´s still different from Jason Voorhees as an example. I think this was a good choice considering you want the character to be remembered, to be able to make the film feel more effective. Especially if we are talking about a slasher horror film, since in this category we have a lot of forgettable killers that don´t really stand out. The best part of The Burning ( outside of some fun characters ) is actually the brutal killing scenes by practical make up artist legend Tom Savini. Even if these kills are not his best work in his horror career, i think they still look good considering this is such an early film in the 1980´s. There are several really bloody scenes that look quite good, and this is exactly what you want in a film such as this. The mask of the killer may look cheesy today, but i still like the design by make up artist Tom Savini. it has a very 80´s feeling to the design which i find delightful. The acting is actually not bad for a B movie horror film such as this, i have seen some terrible acting in many slasher horror films of the 1980´s, and The Burning actually have some descent acting performances. I especially like the acting performances by Brian Matthews and actress Leah Ayres ( who would later in the 80´s be in the Jean-Claude Van Damme classic Bloodsport ). It´s fun to see Seinfield actor Jason Alexander in a very early acting role, he is quite charming in this film. Anything negative to say? I could probably dive into some smaller issues, but why bother when The Burning is a beloved classic slasher horror film by fans worldwide. I do think this film looks pretty good considering the budget, and director Tony Maylam use the locations quite effectively to the slasher horror story. I still think Split Second is the best film director Tony Maylam made, but in second place i feel that The Burning have a worthy position there. Definetely wirth a watch if you just want a cheesy fun slasher horror film from the 1980´s.

Rating: DDD

If you want a really nice blu ray version of The Burning and live in Scandinavia, you should pick up your physical copy of The Burning here from the official store of Filmvalvet in the following link:

The Burning – Filmvalvet - Studio S & Friends

If you live in Europe and want a Region 2 blu ray of The Burning with great special features, get your physical copy right here on the follow link from Arrow Video:

The Burning Dual Format Blu-ray - Arrow Films UK

45 Years Anniversary Review Of Raiders Of The Lost Ark

For some young people in modern day society, they may not realise how important cinemas was for my generation back in the 80´s. To watch the latest Hollywood movies on the big screen was such a delightful moment, because there were some incredible movies made during the 1980´s. Just think about this for a moment, we had Escape From New York, The Howling, An American Werewold In London, The Thing, Blade Runner, Gremlins, The Goonies, Witness, The Hitcher, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and so many more titles during this time period. Not only did the 80´s have so many wonderful cinema releases, but the cinema posters back then looked much cooler than what modern cinema posters looks like in 2026. Just look at legendary director John Carpenter´s 1982 sci fi horror film The Thing, that movie poster designed by artist Drew Strutzan. It´s really well designed, very futuristic and still feels very 80´s in some ways with the blend of colors. This is actually one of my personal favourite John Carpenter films, and i can not tell you how many times i have watched it. Considering this film came out in 1982, this film have some brilliant practical make up effects by  artist Rob Bottin, alongside Stan Winston. Of course the acting performances in this film is brilliant as well, and for a sci fi horror story i think it´s very effective. I highly reccomend getting The Thing on a blu ray released from the distribution company known as Arrow Video. Since we are talking about Hollywood movies of the 1980´s, we have to mention legendary director Steven Spielberg. Back in 1975 he shocked the world with Jaws, and now into the 80´s he kept making cinema magic such as E.T. the ExtraTerrestrial and The Color Purple. But it was especially one character that would really bring cinema magic into the 1980´s, and that was Indiana Jones played by Harrison Ford. Steven Spielberg released 3 Indiana Jones movies in the 80´s and they were really loved by critics and fans. Indiana Jones is still to this day one of the most beloved cinema characters of all time, by many generations of cinema visitors. Since the first film Raiders Of The Lost Ark turned 45 years old in 2026, i thought it would be nice to revisit the first film with a anniversary review. Is this adventure film a worthy classic 45 years later, or have this film aged a lot over so many years?

In 1936, American archeologist Indiana Jones ( Harrison Ford ) recovers a Golden Idol from a booby-trapped Peruvian temple. Rival archeologist René Belloq ( Paul Freeman ) corners him and steal the Golden Idol. Jones escapes in a waiting float plane. After returning to the United States, Jones is briefed by two Army Intelligence agents that Nazi German forces are excavating at Tanis, Egypt, and one of their telegrams mention Jone´s former mentor Abner Ravenwood. It seems that the Nazis are seeking the Ark of the Convenant, which Adolf Hitler believe will render their army invicible. The agents recruit Dr. Jones to recover the Ark.

One of the things i always felt that legendary director Steven Spielberg managed to do in the Indiana Jones films, was to make real old school adventure films that felt like a throwback to cinema classics such as the 1954 film Secret Of The Incas, from director Jerry Hopper. I can´t say for sure but it is possible that director Steven Spielberg were inspired by films such as Secret Of The Incas, where legendary actor Charlot Heston played the hero character Harry Steele. If you have seen that film you can clearly see some details that might clearly be an inspiration for the character Indiana Jones. If you can get the Imprint blu ray release of Secret Of The Incas, it´s worth picking up if you want to see a classic. Lead actor Harrison Ford as the most iconic archeologist Indiana Jones in cinema history, have such a great combination of charm, his strength and flaws combined with slick dialogue. No one could play this character better than Harrison Ford, and in Raiders Of The Lost Ark he really proved how he managed to make this character such an icon for adventure movies. We will get into the other characters in a while, but i have to say i love how beautiful this film is with the set designs, the bright colors that captures the historical look of the 1930´s in Egypt. The action scenes in this film looks absolutely brilliant, and the adventure scenes are so well crafted it is very difficult not to be impressed how well designed they are with everything from stunts, to more physical violence. Speaking of the stunts, there are some really impressive action stunts made in certain scenes of this film. Legendary composer John William´s brilliant score for Indiana Jones is one of the greatest movie scores ever made. It really capture the essence of the character and the epic adventure combined. Regarding characters, we have actress Karen Allen portraying Marion, who does a wonderful performance. Paul Freeman as the Nazi character René Belloq is a perfect match for this character, one of the most unforgettable cinema villains of all time. Director Steven Spielberg manage to bring this adventure movie to life with a lot of nostalgic tools, where he knows exactly what the main character needs to capture the hearts of the audience. Raiders Of The Lost Ark is without a doubt one of the greatest adventure movies ever made, and will forever be one of the greatest cinema classics of legendary actor Harrison Ford. This is a must own in your physical ( or digital ) movie collection, a film you can rewatch and never get tired of. Raiders Of The Lost Ark is one of those 1980´s theatre releases that will never age, it will always be a true cinema classic.

Rating: DDDD

A Summer Vacation Break In August

Greetings everuone!

Thank you so far this year for making this my most popular year so far, the numbers of readers have increased a lot since early 2026 so i am forever grateful. As much as i appreciate my readers worldwide, i am going on vacation in August and i will not be writing anything during that time. I may not write as many reviews in August as i usually do, but there will be a couple at least when im back home. Until then you have plenty of reviews to read, in case you have not had an oppurtunity to read reviews published this year so far. If i have to give you a recommendation to watch this summer, i would tell you to watch They Will Kill You on streaming service MAX, finally a really violent, fun action horror film in my taste.

I personally think that i have managed to mix up quite a lot of different reviews this year so far, in different categories and interesting stories. Of course we did have terrible films such as Deadly Little Mermaid, and the Amazon Prime documentary film Melania ( which i did write a review each on this blog ), that´s just life sometimes, you can´t always experience quality films. Anyway, i hope you all will enjoy the rest of the summer, have lots of lovely lunches in the wonderful weather. I really hope you will watch a couple of movies during summer that actually entertained you. Take care everyone and hopefully you all enjoy my final reviews in July.

Cheers from Daniel

The Mortuary Assistant

Some people are afraid to see a dead person, i am personally not afraid of that. Since i have worked now for 27 years in health care, i have seen people die, i have seen dead people in different situations. When ever i meet someone dead i show the same amount of respect as anyone, i feel that we should respect each person who passed away and let them rest in peace. Death is a natural way of life we all will face at some point, no matter how it happens or where we may die, we will all face death when our time has come to leave this Earth. I find it very interesting how many different cultures respect the dead, for example in Maya death traditions encompas a rich, complex set of beliefs and practices centered around the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. The ancient Maya people believed that death was not an end but a sacred transition to another realm. I would love to visit some Maya temples in the future and learn about their traditions, and their fascinating history as well. Speaking of death and being close to someone dead, we have a lot of horror films that touch on the subject of taking care of dead bodies. One of my personal favourite horror films regarding death and respecting the dead is the 2016 horror film The Autopsy Of Jane Doe, directed by André Overdal ( director of the 2010 Norwegian cult film Trollhunter ). Even 10 years later this is still a horror film i watch almost every year, that is how much i love The Autopsy Of Jane Doe. This film takes place at the local morgue in Graham County, Virginia. Here we find father Tommy Tilden ( Brian Cox ), and his son Austin Tilden ( Emile Hirsch ). They help the law enforcement by doing autopsys and finding out the cause of death, no matter what shape the body is in. When they are supposed to close for the night, they get an unexpected corpse brought to them that wasn´t even planned on scheduele for the day. This seems to be a adult woman who died under msterious circumstances. As the abuduction of the body begins, both Tommy and Austin begin to raise questions about this body. Something doesn´t seem right when they find certain details inside her body. The Autopsy Of Jane Doe is really well made, includes strong acting performances and the horror elements are really strong in this film. The best film so far from director André Overdal. Speaking of the morgue and dead people, i sat down to watch a horror film called The Mortuary Assistant that looked interesting. One difference between The Autopsy Of Jane Doe and The Mortuary Assistant is that both films takes place in two completely different working locations, there are some big differences between a morgue and a mortuary. But in both films you work with dead people, which is an interesting subject for a horror film. Is this a solid summer film to enjoy this summer, or should you skip this one and just watch The Autopsy Of Jane Doe?

Rebecca Owens ( Willa Holland ) is learning her job as a mortuary assistant, being educated by her boss, Raymond Delver ). So far she have done a great job and Raymond seems to feel hope in her working at this mortuary. Rebecca have been sober a year from alcohol addiction, she is trying to focus on doing her best and focus on her future. Raymond call her to come in one night to the mortuary, to work late instead of just daytime to prepare new corpses before they will be burned. During her night shift a lot of strange things seems to be happening at this mortuary, where Rebecca seems to be confused about what is real, and what is just an illusion.

I feel divided about The Mortuary Assistant, simply because i feel there are certain scenes that should probably have been changed and focused more on the work of a mortuary assistant. I guess you could say that there are some similar ideas to The Autopsy Of Jane Doe in this film, except for the witch influences and a religious undertone. As long as we see the bodies being worked on by mortuary assistant character Rebecca, this is where the film works best at the autopsy table. This is where you can actaully feel some solid horror influences in the air, no matter if it´s a body moving or Rebecca begin to hear certain vioces. Simple details such as this can actually make horror scenes work surprisingly well, as long as you use these tools effectively. Where i feel this film get a little bit lost is the scenes where we see Rebecca feeling confused about her memory, if this have something to do with her addiction past. The idea itself is not bad at all, i just don´t feel that this part of the film works as well as i was hoping it would do. And this is not to put any blame on lead actress Willa Holland, her performance is good and i do think she does a great job with her performance in general. I think this is more an issue from the writers of this script, or if this was something they decided to add into the script to make the character feel more personal. On a positive not i do think The Mortuary Assistant have enough good ideas and manage to create a horror film that´s quite good, i especially appreciate the mortuary location and the atmopshere of dead people. I like the screen chemistry between actors Willa Holland and Paul Sparks, where they bring some interesting dialogue regarding the work at a mortuary. In general i would say that The Mortuary Assistant is a good horror film, i just wished they could have made some smaller changes and this might have been even better. This is still a horror film that director Jeremiah Kipp ( who directed the 2021 horror film Slapface, definetely worth a watch ) manage to construct effectively enough, and i would recommend this film if you enjoyed The Autopsy Of Jane Doe. Who ever said dead people have to be boring? The Mortuary Assistant proves that dead people need to have a good time as well, i can´t blame them at all.

Rating: DDD

Do Not Enter

Im a part of the generation that was young when internet was just about to break through worldwide. I must have been around 16 years old in 1993 when i first saw you could web search. That was a big thing, being able to search for different things on the web. I remember just one year later in 1994 the premiere for Aftonbladet, the biggest Swedish newspaper that went online as well. This was a huge success for Aftonbladet, because you could read newspaper articles online instead of buying a physical newspaper. They also started Aftonbladet Chat, i would sit there talking to people all over Sweden and that was so much fun. You could actually connect with other people in the entire country. Since the internet have grown all across the world through social media, we are able to talk to anyone across the planet. It is amazing how you can connect with someone no matter where you are located, on a boat, inside a car, even up on a mountain while you are climbing there. Social media users have also found a way to make a profit through platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, so called Influencers. I wouldn´t personally fit to be perfectly honest, you have to have a certain kind of charatcer to be a social media personality i believe. I could probably sell my farts to fetish people online inside a jar ( easy money i would say ), but that´s about it. Speaking of influencers, i did enjoy the found footage horror film Deadstream from director  Joseph Winters and Vanessa Winter. This is an interesting found footage horror film, because it is filmed like a vlogger video, of a vlogger influencer called Shawn Ruddy ( played by director Joseph Winters ) who is spending a night in a haunted house. Nothing original about this, but the film is well made and actually works surprisngly good as a horror comedy. I appreciated the practical make up effects, and the acting in general is alright. Deadstream is worth a watch on streaming or physical media. Speaking of social media and influencers, there have been a lot of horror films over the years that are inspired by influencers. One of the horror films that seemed to be inspired by influencers and actually looked interesting, is a horror film known as Do Not Enter. Ever since i watched the trailer i felt curious about this film, if it actually would be better than most people expected. I finally got a chance to sit down to watch Do Not Enter on VOD. Is this one of the horror films you have to watch this summer, or should you skip this one and watch Deadstream instead?

A group of influences known as The Creepers are trying to break out big on social media, making daring videos that are borth risky and dangerous. The numbers are not looking that good at all so they need to change their plans, find something that will definetely make their channel grow. One of the team members suggest they should visit a haunted hotel known as The Paragan, where it is said in the late 1970´s a lot of money was hidden, somewhere around 300 million U.S. dollars. The idea is to make videos about their journey inside the hotel. They are about to find out, some things are meant to be left alone for a good reason.

While Deadstream actually worked thanks to a good influencer idea, and managed to function as a found footage horror as well, Do Not Enter tries to be both a traditional jump scare horror film, while trying to touch the influencer surface as well. They so called YouTube channel that this film is supposed to be showing, i have to say that it looks really terrible. The so called videos that they make for the most part doesn´t really feel effective, or fun either. I mean if you are supposed to capture a young audience for social media, shouldn´t you make the videos look as cool as possible? Or make sure you have something entertaining to offer your viewers? I could be wrong i suppose, im just trying to view this film from a younger mind´s perspective looking at these influencers. There is an interesting story regarding this old abandoned hotel, and i really wished they could have given us more throwback memories of what relly happened here. We get a little bit of information, but very little interesting details that might have helped the plot become more fascinating. I don´t really have a problem that this is supposed to be a more modern take on horror films, i just feel that the influencer characters are not fully developed and feel very blend. I swear you will not remember any of these characters once you have seen Do Not Enter. I would probably say that between the characters i can probably accept the one known as Todd, played by actor Nicholas Hamilton ( perhaps known mostly from the 2017 horror film IT ). His character Todd reminded me a little bit of the character Evil Ed from the 1985 horror film Fright Night, a similar wacky character with a crazy laugh. At least Todd gives this film some charming scenes, which we definetely needed. What about the horror scenes? The best part is the strange thin mysterical creature, that´s lurking around the old hotel. I have seen better monster designs than this, but at least the creature does have an interesting look. Other than this i would say that the horror elements feel pretty weak in several scenes. Not much creativity in any scary scenes, or using the creature in a effective way. It´s almost as if they thought just showing the creature would be enough and don´t put much more effort into it. I am honestly disappointed in Do Not Enter, because i was actually looking forward to this film. With a stronger story developed surrounding this old hotel, and more effective horror scenes this could have been a recommendation. This film is just too dull to care about honestly, and director Marc Klasfeld should stay away from making boring influencer films such as this.

Rating: DD

Mortal Kombat II

Some of you may not know about this, but around the beginning of 1989 i started training Judo in my hometown Uddevalla. It was around late 1990 when i was 13 years old i did my final year training Judo and i had a yellow Judo belt at that time. I was supposed to go for the orange belt, that was the plan at least. But that´s when i decided go fully invested into my local tennis club instead, who i stayed with quite many years. So i never took the orange belt and dropped out of Judo completely. I did meet my Judo trainer sometimes dowtown, who tried to convince me to come back. But at that time i felt more interested training tennis, and nothing would change my mind honestly. During the 90´s i toured across Sweden with our local tennis team, and even if we won a few matches we did loose some big matches as well. I am forever grateful though for the short period of time i did train Judo, and i still have some good memories from that time period. During the 90´s i did watch my good school friend Björn in karate matches, since they would allow a smaller amount of people as an audience. This was actually quite fun because karate is different from Judo, physically and mentally different. In 1995 both me and Björn were really excited because a film adaptation of the extremely popular video game Mortal Kombat was released in cinemas. Of course we were at the premiere weekend, where Björn actually dressed up in his karate clothes to the cinema. I still love this film still today, Mortal Kombat from 1995 is a really fun martial arts film with great performances, some really cool fighting sequences and a good sense of humour. Let´s not even talk about Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. After a lot of successfull Mortal Kombat games over the years we did get a new updated film adaptation of Mortal Kombat in 2021. A film i did enjoy and i can still recommend. So here we are with the official sequel to the 2021 film, where we see both actors from the previous film plus Karl Urban joining the cast as Johnny Cage. Is this latest Mortal Kombat film the best martial art film of this year or should they stop making sequels completely?

Emperor Shao Kahn ( Martyn Ford ) kills King Jerrod ( Desmond Chiam ) in Mortal Kombat, taking over Edenia in the name of Outworld as well as Queen Sindel ( Ana Thu Nguyen ) and young Princess Kitana ( Sophia Xu ) as his consort and daughter, respectively. Twenty years later, a nre Mortal Kombat tournament is on the horizon. Back in Earthrealm, Lord Raiden ( Tadanobu Asano ) and Sonya Blade ( Jessica McNamee ) visit Hollywood action star Johnny Cage ( Karl Urban ), who seems to be struggling with his past. He tries to stay relevant in a modern world without any bigger success. This visit however from Lord Raiden and Sonya give him an oppurtunity to take his dignity back, by fighting in the Mortal Kombat tournament. At first he is having doubts taking them seriously, until he accept the offer and get a chance to proof his skills.

I have a feeling this latest Mortal Kombat sequel will divide fans of the classic video games, including fans of the more modern Mortal Kombat games as well. One of the issues that some fans had since the 2021 film adaptation was that there was no tournament there. In this film we get an actual torunament, just like we did in the 1995 live adapation film of Mortal Kombat. And i have to say, i actually think this sequel manage to capture the look, and a pretty good character development of several of the iconic fighters of the video game. Let´s talk about the look of this torunament for a while, we see different fights at different locations and in some fights it really looks similar to the fighting locations. I think details such as this is very important to take notice of, when you know that fans of the video games remember a lot of important details. For example when Shao Khan ( Martyn Ford ) fight down in the most demonic sewer i have seen, it looks pretty similar to how it looked like in the video games. Speaking of characters, actor Karl Urban as Johnny Cage was a great casting choice. He is a bitter, former action star of the 90´s and Karl Urban manage to capture that personality in Johnny Cage. Best performance comes from he real funny character known as Kano, played by actor Josh Lawson ( who fans of TV series House Of Lies will recognize ) deliver some really funny dialogue in this film. His scenes together with Karl Urban was actually more entertaining than i expected. I like the character of Baraka ( CJ Blomfield ) and especially his fight scene against Johnny Cage. The fighting scenes in general looks alright, some scenes are more effective than others and i appreciate the gory violence. I do think this film capture the fighting skills of several well known fighters as well as their physical look. The fact that they play the theme song from the original film towards the end, this was something i really appreciated. You get a nostalgic feeling while it also feels like they pay tribute to the 90´s. Any flaws with this film? It is very difficult defeating the original film from 1995 and Mortal Kombat II is not as good as that specific film. I will say though i found myself having a good time with this sequel, director Simon McQuid return with another Mortal Kombat film that is pure popcorn entertainment, that will surely please martial arts film fans, and fans of the video games as well. I feel like having a fight right now down in the demonic sewer, anyone up for the challenge?

Rating: DDD

Immortal Combat

Martial art action films used to be a must watch for me in the 90´s. I saw so many VHS films of different martial arts inspired films, some were pretty much action movies while other ones were more focused on fighting. There are so many classic films i could easily mention that would never be done today ( the world have changed, we can´t have macho male action scenes too often because someone might be offended ). You see back in the 90´s you could see big muscular men fighting saying terrible dialogue that would be seen vulgar in today´s society, especially talking about issues that matters to men. Im glad though i can still watch these wonderful martial arts films and just have a good time. Plot? Acting? Who needs that if you have big muscles and round kicks. There are several 90´s classics i can mention so lets just bring up one of the films you should check out. You should watch the 1992 martial arts action film American Samurai from 1992, directed by legendary director Sam Firstenberg that stars action legends David Bradley and Mark Dacascos. What made this film especially fun to watch was the so called illegal gladiator fighting matches underground, taking place in Istanbul, Turkey. The best part of this film is the underground fights themselves between different fighters. My favourite match is between the characters Haing Yi ( Dion Lam ), and Phan-Xu ( Antony Szeto ). I also love the fight between Phan-Xu and Mark Dacascos character Kenjiro Sanga. David Bradley proved himself once more why he was such a great maretial arts action actor as his character Andrew "Drew" Collins. The director Sam Firstenberg wasn´t happy with the theatrical version, so he finally released his Director´s Cut on his official Youtube channel, you can watch the film on the following link:

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I personally prefer the director´s cut since a couple of scenes were emoved that did not need to be there, and he added some other scenes instead where the plot is more focused on the arena fights. Definetely worth a watch if you enjoy martial art films from the 90´s. Fun fact, this was one of the final films produced by the legendary distribution company Cannon Pictures before they stopped releasing films. Speaking about martial arts. legendary low budget distribution company The Asylum had to get along the train of the Mortal Kombat II release, so they made a low budget film called Immortal Combat. Of course i had to watch this film, not just becuase i enjoy some of the films that The Asylum release, simply because i want to see them make a martial arts inspired film. Is this a must watch this summer or will Immortal Combat be one of the films that will quickly be forgotten, once you have watched it?

In a distant future, a group of historical warriors from history books such as Joan of Arc ( Eva Fournier ), Boudica ( Mila Orion ), Ghengis Khan ( Charlit Dae ), Cleopatra ( Roxanne G.C. Brooks ), Atilla The Hun ( Sasha Di Capri and many other warriors, havet travelled through a portal of time. They have been chosen to fight in a tournament gladiator game known as Crinsom Havoc, where only one can survive the whole tournament.

Let me begin by saying i like the concept of this film. Historical legendary personalities being sent into the future to fight each other, i do think this is a fun idea itself if you can make it work. So there are details i appreciate about the concept of Immortal Combat, but we have some real big issues here as well. First of all, why do they use several big scenes with so much AI? The Asylum used to make fun terrible CGI effects that may have looked terrible, but at least i had a good time with several films. I rather have terrible CGI effects instead of flat, dull AI scenes that doesn´t add any qualities to the film. If you are making a tournament battle/ fighting film, why not focus on the fight battle scenes using real people, even if you have to add certain CGI moments. For me personally the charm is lost when AI effects are brought in, it doesn´t leave the same impact if im being completely honest. Truthfully i will say that low budget CGI effects looks better than any AI effects, and that is my personal opinion. Some of the so called fight scenes are not well choeographed. They look pretty lame to me, as if they did not put much effort into the fighting scenes. This is supposed to be a fighting tournament, shouldn´t you try at least making the fighting scenes look cool at least, to please the martial arts action audience? So to the positive for a short while, i do think the costume design is pretty cool on certain characters. I know this film have a very limited budget so they have to use whatever they can, and i can accept that you have to be creative with what you have. The acting is not always as terrible as you might think, for being a film produced by The Asylum. Actress Dominique Swain ( who i reviewed in her TV film Seclusion, you can find the review in this blog ) as the character Aria is actually a charming character in this film. With attitude and a bitchy approach, and it matches the character personality quite well. Actor Samuel Selman does a wonderful over the top acting performance as warrior Shaka Zulu, which doesn´t mean he acts good, yet he is the most entertaining character of Immortal Combat . I have a feeling Immortal Combat will not be on the list of memorable The Asylum films, there are some fun parts but too many flaws can be found. Director Monroe Robertson ( director of Planetquake, a terrible yet fun watch if you like bad movies ) have a good idea behind Immortal Combat, but should have made this film more focused on the combat scenes instead of using AI effects. Not a film most people will remember, i suggest watch the director´s cut of American Samurai instead.

Rating: DD