Posthouse

Creating a full feature film is a lot of work, and it takes a whole team to be able to create a professional film. You have to have a cinematographer, a screen writer, producer or several producers, the whole cast, costume designer. set designers, i mean we could go on forever. The point is that making a film takes a lot of time to create, and there is a lot of hard work behind it, you have to make sure everything works. Obviously things can chane along the way, the budget may have to change or you have to change the script. You can´t always guarantee everything will go smoothly. There are actually movies telling the story of making a film and i have especially one title on my mind. That film is called Barton Fink, directed by Joel Cohen and Ethan Cohen. This is a very well written dark comedy about a screenwriter known as Barton Fink ( played by legendary actor John Turturro, who i especially remember from the classic gangster drama Miller´s Crossing ), The year is 1941, up-and-coming Broadway playwright Barton Fink ( John Turturro ), accepts a contract from Capital Pictures in Hollywood to write film scripts for a thousand dollars per week.  Upon moving to Los Angeles, Fink settles into the cheap Motel Earlie. Fink is assigned to a wrestling film by his new boss Jack Lipnick ( Michael Lerner ), but he finds it difficult writing this script since he knows nothing about wrestling. As he begin working in his motel room, he is often disturbed by loud noices by the room next door, where his neighbor Charlie Meadows ( John Goodman ) lives. As the noises gets bigger and disturb Barton trying to work, he is about to find out that his neigbor is no ordinary hotel guest. This is a very charming, and surprisingly funny black comedy about the film industry as well as the challenges of being a writer of scripts. Very well acted performances, wonderful set designs capturing the historical view of the 1940´s, with strong character development. Barton Fink is a cult classic worth picking up on physical media from The Cohen Brothers brilliant film catalogue. Speaking of film making and trying to create film, i came across a horror film on Netflix from The Philippines called Posthouse, with a interesting plot regarding a film editor. Netflix have actually released some good horror films over the years, so does this film Posthouse deliver as well or should you avoid this one for sure?

Film editor Cyril Anderson ( Sid Lucero ) is working hard on a new commercial film, trying to edit it as perfect as possible to make sure the commercial will be succesfull. Cyril have a past of a broken marriage and alcohol problems, while trying to have a good relationship with his only daughter Rea Anderson ( Bea Binene ). Cyril come across some very oldfilm footage that might be the oldest silent hororr film ever made in The Philippines, that was never completed. Cyril decides to go through all the material to see what was actually filmed. While he does, strange things begin to happen inside the editing room and the photography studio.

Imagine if you could see The Philippines silent movie version of Sinister, throw in a creepy woman similar to The Ring, doesn´t that sound like an interesting combination? I was actually surprised that i have never heard of this film last year, until i accidently discovered it myself on Netflix. But i am glad that i did since i have not seen many horor films at all from The Philippines. Not that i don´t want to see films from this specific country, but here in Sweden we only get a handful of horror films released for example from South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam or The Philippines. There may be many different reasons why they only choose certain titles, i still find a lot of foreign horror films more interesting than American horror releases. It could be because some of these foreign films have a religious undertone, or folklore connected stories in to their country´s history. The story about the very first silent horror film made in the Philippines, is a very fascinating idea for a horror film. If you had the actual footage in your hand, knowing it was never released, would  you want to finish the film or at least try and get it released? Would you go through all the footage to learn about the making of this film? I find the concept of Posthouse very interesting, since this is a pretty different approach than we are used to see. Knowing that the main character is a film editor, that also makes the discovery of this silent film even more interesting since he knows how to edit films. The mysterious lady that we see in the silent film, we do find out a bit of her background story and why she is connected to the mystery behind this silent film. I would say that her creepy looks works, especially with her long fingers. The acting from lead actor Sid Lucero as the film editor Cyril, is actually a solid acting performance. I think his chemistry with actress Bea Binene playing his daughter Rea matches well on the screen, portraying father and daughter relationship in a natural way. Posthouse definetely stands out a little bit for doing something different than the usual horror release. It may not be a film for all horror fans, but if you appreciate the horror film Sinister then this might be for you. Director Nikolas Red proves with Posthouse you don´t need to spend lots of money to tell interesting horror stories, and manage to make this film work with such a simple plot. Worth a watch on Netflix for sure this late spring.

Rating: DDD

Lookout

There are so many different film distribution companies out there, where you sometimes can get lost of all the titles. One of the most famous ones ( at least within independent film releases ) is without a doubt Uncork´d Entertainment which have released a hell of a lot of films. I try to stay updated, both of what their new releases are and checking out their films in general. Then of course you have streaming service produced films like Tubi ( which i can´t watch in Sweden unfortunately ), who release new films every single month that they produced. One distribution company i have seen several releases from is Jackrabbit Media. For some of you this might not ring any bell, what independent films they have released. But if you are a fan of Robert Patrick ( from Terminator 2 and The X-Files ) you may have seen his 2019 horror comedy film Tone-Deaf, directed by Richard Bates Jr. I remember at the time this film came out, movie critics in general were very divided about this film. Some critics didn´t like it at all, while i actually wrote a positive review of Tone-Deaf. The film tell the story of young woman Olive ( played by actress Amanda Crew, who you should see in the horror film There´s Something Wrong With The Children ) who recently lost her job, her relationship with her boyfriend is over, so to focus on herself she decides to rent a house in the countryside. The owner of this house Harvey ( played by legendary Terminator 2 actor, Robert Patrick ) welcome her in, as she hope to finally find some peace out here in the middle of nowhere. That is about to change....Tone-Deaf manage tgo balance the genres horror and comedy together, it´s not anything unique or original, just entertaining. Worth checking out on streaming, VOD or physical media if you have not seen this film. Speaking of the distribution company Jackrabbit Media, i was curious to watch their release known as Lookout. This seemed to be a horror-thriller with some sci fi indluences. Even if the reviews were mixed i was still curious about this film, mostly because of the plot seemed interesting. Is this a horror film worth checking out, or should the film Lookout have been locked up from humanity?

Forest Ranger Melissa ( Meghan Carrasquillo ) takes a job as a fire lookout tower observer, making sure there are no forest fires reported across a certain forest area. She needs to report to headquarters by radio at certain hours everyday, to make sure she is on the lookout for anything that seems wrong. While she is doing this, she see strange things happening close to the fire lookout tower. Such as an elderly confused woman showing up out of nowhere with serious sun burned skin wounds. Things are about to become even more strange.

Lookout starts off pretty interesting, considering this is a location out in the middle of nowhere. Just imagine sitting everyday inside a fire tower and you are only allowed to leave for toilet visits, a shower and fix smaller things. I don´t think the job itself looks that bad, it´s even possible you might be bored since you only report forest fires through a radio. I will say though lead actress Meghan Carrasuillo ( who i recognized in the 2023 Tony Todd horror film Devilreaux, which i did write a review of on this blog ), does a pretty good job with her character Forest Ranger Melissa. Considering we spend so much time with her character mostly, it is important that we have an interesting main character that you actually feel interested in. And for the most part i think the character development of Melissa works pretty good. There are some mysterious things happening along the way, especially outside the fire tower that makes the story quite interesting I would say that in about an hour of this film i have nothing to complain about really. But then, in around the last 20 minutes of this film this is where everything falls apart with Lookout. Suddenly this film changes focus completely and become like a low budget version of a Marvel film, where one of the characters can just rip off a car door out of nowhere like it´s Avengers extremely low budget. This is where Lookout lost my interest, because if they would have stayed within the plot of the first hour and just developed the ending differently, i have a feeling this could have been a good film. What we are left with is a disappointing attempt where they threw different ideas together to end the film, and it fails spectacular. Actress Meghan Carrasuillo deserves respect for doing her best, if she only would have been delievered a much better ending i could have easily recommended Lookout. Because there is a interesting story to be told here, if....they would have changed the ending. Director Stefan Colson had a great story here, until for some strange reason he decided to throw it all away. Not a complete disaster of a film, it´s just sad to see a film that could have been great if certain details were fixed. A perfect example that sometimes you don´t have to make complicated plots, as long as you have a good story to be told. Lookout may be forgotten easily, unless there are people who appreciate unexpected twisted turns.

Rating: DD

If you want to watch the film for free on YouTube you can check it out on the YouTube channel Sci_Fi Central on the following link:

She Thought She Was Safe At The Fire Tower | Lookout | 2025 Psychological Thriller Movie

40 Years Anniversary Movie Review Of Stand By Me

I still remember the summer of 1988. I had just turned 11 years after a birthday party where my parents rented several VHS films for my party. I remember i thought some girls from my school class would show up, because i invited a couple of them. Only 2 of them showed up while the rest was just guys only. It was alright anyway, we had a good day and lots of laughter. The day after the birthday party, me, Robert and Henrik we took our bicycles to the lake Bjursjön in my home city Uddevalla. Bjursjön was the lake that people wanted to hang out at, swimming, jumping from the bridge, they had a barbecue spot you could use as well. We would lie in the grass reading comic books, talk about VHS movies and i would listen to my Sony Walkman cassette player. This was a good time in my childhood and im grateful growing up in the 80´s. When we returned to school after summer break was over, our teacher Arne had already planned a movie day during the autumn of 1988. He had personally picked the film Stand By Me, that he brought from his personal video collection to show his students. It was this day i saw this film for the very first time. Now, i had seen Corey Feldman in several films by this time, especially Gremlins, Friday The 13th Part 4 - The Final Chapter, The Goonies and of course The Lost Boys, all films on VHS. I actually owned a physical copy of Friday The 13th Part 4, even if i wasn´t old enough to watch this film ( thanks to a VHS sales shop who didn´t check ID cards ). At the time i did not know this film was based on a novel by Stephen King called The Body. I did recognize the name Rob Reiner on the VHS cover, prehaps because i had seen The Princess Bride at that time on VHS with a legendary performance by actor Cary Elwes as Westley. Anyway, the class did enjoy the film Stand By Me and our teacher wanted us to talk about the film after, with every school student in class. We discussed the message of the film, and what made an impact especially on each one of us. The biggest reason i looked back at this memory is because this year Stand By Me turned 40 years old. I have not seen this film since 2018, when it was playing on TV one night at a hotel room, in London with my sister Isabelle. I decided to watch it again by picking up a physical copy. Does this film still entertain the audience in all ages, or have Stand By Me lost some of it´s charm over the years?

It´s the summer of 1959 in Castlerock, Oregon and four 12-year-old - Gordie ( Wil Wheaton ), Chris ( River Phoenix ), Teddy ( Corey Feldman ) and Vern ( Jerry O´Connell ) are always hanging out together. Vern have heard about the location of the body of a missing boy who have been missing for several days,  the whole boy gang set off on a journey to see the body. On this journey they are about to learn about themselves, deal with difficult situations and especially how important it is to respect each other as friends.

There are some movies that can make you remember your childhood, no matter what year you grew up. Stand By Me really capture the spirit of how it is growing up as a child, all the challenges we face, and how we create memories for life. Even if this film takes place during the late 1950´s, i could almost feel myself back into the 80´s again watching these boys exploring life experiences together. The friendship how important it was, the lessons we learn from making mistakes. I did some stupid things myself in the 80´s at the local junkyard, would i change it for anything? No, it was a part of my childhood memories and i experienced some good moments from that time period. As we follow these young boys we get to find out about each individual, that they all have gone through some rough moments in their lives. The acting performances from all the young actors Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, River Phoenix and Jerry O´Connell, each of them deliver a realistic and a powerful portrait of how it is becoming a young man. All the struggles each of us carry within ourselves, accepting that life isn´t always easy. Why this film is so effective is thanks to director Rob Reiner´s very clear story telling, how each of us have to face our deepest fear. No matter if you have been bullied, struggled with abuse in your childhood, having real friends will help you get through a lot of difficult times in your life. We may follow these young boys on their journey to watch a dead body, but there is so much more to the story of Stand By Me. The small town atmospehre, the set design capturing the late 50´s and the matching costume design as well. I have to mention Jaws actor Richard Dreyfuss as the story teller, really give this film a deeper meaning. You also have actor Kiefer Sutherland here as the bully gang leader Ace Merrill, who is great in his role. Of course you have the famous vomit pie scene, which is an iconic 80´s scene in this film. Stand By Me does not only feel like a classic, it really captures the essance of our childhood where i think a lot of us can relate to. A film that will live on through many generations ahead of us, thanks to brilliant director Rob Reiner´s vision of telling intriguing stories. A must have in your physical, or digital film collection.

Rating: DDDD

Jurassic Reborn ( Blu ray review )

If there is something i can confirm that is absolutely correct, it is that B movies does make life more enjoyable. Especially if they are produced by the low budget distribution company The Asylum, who have over many years produced a lot of fun releses. For example, how many of you have seen films such as Planet Of The Skarks, or perhaps the high quality film Empire Of The Sharks? Both of these films are definetely worth a watch on physical media. They remind me of similar films such as Waterworld and influenced by the classic Mad Max franchise. Of course made on much smaller budget, and not the biggest Hollywood stars in the cast are included. But that´s fine with me, i don´t need good acting in films such as this. Just give me monsters, dinosaurs, aliens, or any kinds of creatures running around in bad CGI effects. I just want to be entertained and reminded of B movie nostalgic movies from the past. The Asylum have never been a distribution company who cared about critics, they just wanted to make cheesy B movies for fans. So every year i try to at least watch 3 of their films, the ones that seems more interesting to me. One of the films i did watch ( that was released around the time of the new Jurassic Park movie known as Jurassic Rebirth ), is the low budget mockbuster of Jurassic Rebirth basically. It is called The Land That Time Forgot from director Anthony Frith. How was it? I would say it´s in the category ;- So bad it´s almost good. On a positive note there is a lot of action scenes in this film, so you will not be bored. Actor Nate Charles Karagiannis -Troisi as the German character Von Shoen is actually quite funny in certain scenes, acting terrible but entertained me. On the negative side there isn´t really an interesting story here, not that you will care much about it. Sure, there are lots of characters stuck on an island having a lot of dialogue and they do kill dinosaurs with....axes? It´s not one of the worst films from The Asylum, but i would still rewatch Planet Of The Sharks instead. Another mockbuster of Jurassic Reborth was released by The Asylum, simply called Jurassic Reborn. I got myself a physical blu ray of this film to prepare myself for this review. Is this a film that will brighten up your day this upocoming summer, or should you stick to Planet Of The Sharks instead?

When cutting-edge research leads to the creation of living dinosaurs, scientists on a secluded island must risk their lives and confront the now-growing creatures, before they escape outside in the mainland and cause complete chaos.

When you enter a film such as Jurassic Reborm, you already know that this film is not made for the Julia Roberts rom com audience. This is exactly made for people like myself, who appreciate low budget dinosaur CGI films where the plot doesn´t really matter. We just want to see people die, CGi dinosaus attacking human kind, and in some cases people using different weapons to stay safe. In a way you could say that the plot of Jurassic Reborn is similar to the 1995 horror action B movie Carnosaur 2. In that film you also had dinosaurs running loose at a facility, where civilian technicians was sent in to investigate what happened at this desert facility. In the film Jurassic Reborn you can sense that they tried to capture the same setting as Carnosaur 2, but obviously with a higher budget thanks to all the CGI effects. You might ask yourself, wasn´t this supposed to be a rip of from Jurassic Rebirth? That was probably the idea, except they proabably don´t want to copy that film too much. I actually think this was a good choice, trying to move in a different direction while still keeping a familiar B movie style. The dinosaurs themselves don´t look too bad ( i have seen a lot worse in other The Asylum dinosaurs films ), and i appreciate that in this film the cast use a number of different weapons to survive. When we get to the characters there is especially one who stands out, the highlight of this film. And that is actress Esmeree Sterling as the bad ass character Regina Webb. Think of her as the low budget version of Ripley ( Sigourney Weaver ) in the sci fi action horror classic Aliens. I actually think Esmeree deliver the best acting performance in this film, while some of the other actors don´t do that much honestly. Some of the action scenes are ok, while you can tell some of the CGI effects feel a bit too dull. I could easily say several negative things if i wanted to about Jurassic Reborn, but since this is a low budget film im not going to be too critical. I feel that the violemce could have been done more over the top. Since these dinosaurs don´t die from ordinary bullets, there should have been more options how to kill them properly. Does this film deliver enough entertainment if you love B movies? Yes, especially if you love dinosaurs then this could be something for you. Director Marcel Walz ( who directed the 2016 independent horror film Blood Feast, a film i actually enjoyed ) may not give us anything unique with Jurassic Reborn, but he does bring enough B movie vibes to make this film enjoyable. It feels like coming back the VHS rental stores in the 90´s, which is a good sign. No special features on the German blu ray, still worth picking up if you just want a fun popcorn watch.

Rating: DDD

P.S. If you want a physical blu ray copy of Jurassic Reborn you can get your copy on the following link:

Jurassic Reborn [Blu-ray]: Amazon.de: Daniel Baldwin, Danielle Titus, Esmeree Sterling, Marcel Walz, Daniel Baldwin, Danielle Titus: DVD & Blu-ray

Good Boy ( Blu ray review )

There are two distribution companies in Scandinavia that really have delivered a lot of solid film releases over many years. We are of course talking about Studio S Entertainment and Njutafilms, who i personally believe have saved physical media in so many ways. Their beautiful physical media releases have had amazing covers, where some releases have really good special features included. I have bought a lot of releases from both of these distribution companies, and i will continue to do so as long as they are able to exist. And i know several movie lovers in Sweden who keep buying their releases, just like myself. As long as we have movies being released on physical media, we need to support the distribution companies releasing them. If we don´t we will not get new releases, which would be a complete disaster. So every month i go through a list, of upcoming releases of both DVD and blu ray films. Not every film is interesting, at least not to me personally. But there are some really nice releases that are worth picking up. For example i have a physical copy of the 2020 war horror film Ghost Of War, directed by Eric Bress, released by Studio S Entertainment in Scandinavia. This film tell the story of a group of soldiers during World War II, who are holding a German outpost while waiting for backup. It is within this old mansion where they begin to have visions, of evil spirits attacking the men. Not only are they attacked by evil spirits, German nazis are actually on the way to the mansion as well. Ghosts Of War turned out to be surprisingly good for being a war horror movie. Director Eric Bress may not have made an original horror film, but in this specific category it is worth a watch. If you can get the DVD, or the blu ray release of Ghosts Of War from Studio S Entertainment, definetely worth a pucrhase. One of the films i picked up on a blu ray copy from Njutafilms is the 2025 horror film known as Good Boy. A horror film that´s specifically focused from the eyes of a dog. Interesting concept for a horror film, and we definetely need something original in this category. Is this one of the better horror films to watch before summer is here, or should you just watch Cujo instead, the 1983 film adaptation from legendary author Stephen King?

Indy, a Novia Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, moves with his owner Todd ( Shane Jensen ), who suffer from a chronic lung disease, from New York City to Todd´s grandafather´s house in the countryside. Todd´s sister Vera ( Arielle Friedman ) worry about her brother, especially because of his health problems. While staying at this house. especially Indy experience some very strange moments of something mysterios, something evil coming out of the shadows.

We have plenty off films where dogs are included, especially in family comedies such as Beethoven ( can you believe they made 8 films in this franchise? ), plenty of Lassie films ( which i have only seen the 1994 film version and i can barely remember it, and we did have the 2020 film Call Of The Wild with legendary actor Harrison Ford, i can actually recommend this one. I should probably mention the 1983 classic horror film Cujo as well, perhaps one of the best dog movies ever made, based on the novel by Stephen King. Good Boy is quite a different kind of film experience, since this film is supposed to be seen from the eyes of a dog and how the dog react in different situtations In this case it is to see the dog Indy, who see something strange happening at his owner Todd´s grandfather´s house. The scenes where we see from Indy´s perspective really capture the life of a dog. Let me say that if you don´t like animal films at all, no matter if it´s a family movie, drama movie or a horror film, then you will definetely not enjoy this film. If you do want to watch something different in the genre of horror, Good Boy will most likely please you. I feel that they managed to make this film pretty effective, considering the main actor is an actual dog. Just to get all the scenes work must have been a challenge. Indy the dog feel so natural on the big screen, i know he may not understand what acting means ( he is just following orders basically ), but i got to say the portait of this dog looks good with the plot. There is a creepy atmosphere through Good Boy, especially at the house of grandfather. The cinematography by Ben Leonberg ( who both wrote this film and directed it as well ) looks really good, When it comes to the acting from the human actors, i would say the performances are good. But it´s honestly the dog Indy who really makes this film shine. As a horror film i would say Good Boy feels quite effective, and different than we are used to see. It may not be a future classic like the 1983 horror film Cujo, but still good enough to know it´s worth your precious time. I am all for fresh thinking when it comes to creating something uniqe in a horror film, and Good Boy definetely stands out. Director Ben Leonberg have created a pleasent surprise on a very limited budget, which should be appreciated if you love animal horror films especially. Even though the blu ray release of Good Boy from Njutafilms have no special features, still a nice release worth picking up.

Rating: DDD

If you want a physical copy of Good Boy and live in Scandinavia, check out the official store Filmvalvet where you can get your own copy in the following link:

Good Boy – Filmvalvet - Studio S & Friends

The Long Walk ( Blu ray review )

Since the beginning of the 90´s i have watched basically all movie adaptations, and TV series adaptation based on novels, and stories by world famous horror autthor Stephen King. I remember that my very first film adaptation based on a Stephen King novel, and that is the 1989 horror film Pet Sematary. I watched this film on VHS back in 1990 when the film came out on Swedish rental VHS. I was too young to rent this film ( i was 12 years old at that time ), but my Grandmother Maj wanted to see this film and rented it. We watched it together in her apartment in the small town of Bengtsfors, and we both loved the film. The brilliant VHS cover of this film is iconic, and the original movie poster of Pet Sematary always looked creepy to me. What made this horror film work so well was the extremely heavy tragedy, how you deal with the loss of a child and how to process that grief. It doesn´t help that the main character Louis Creed ( played by actor Dale Midkiff who you can see in The Crow: Salvation as well ), try to resurrect his son Gage Creed ( Miko Hughes ) to bury him in the Pet Sematary, where their cat Church was brought back to life. Of course his son return to life, but is clearly not himself anymore. Pet Sematary is a true classic horror film based on the novel by the same name, and worth owning in your physical Stephen King movie collection. It was just about a year later i watched the Stephen King film adaptation Misery, which is one of my personal favourite films based on his book. Directed by legendary director Rob Reiner, the horror film Misery tell the story of author Paul Sheldon ( James Caan ) who ends up in a terrible car accident after driving from Silver Creek, Colorado. A woman named Annie Wilkes ( Kathy Bates ) luckily find him at the crash site, where she takes him home to her cabin. As Paul wakes up he is grateful that Annie helped him, feeding him, taking care of his wounds. But it turns out she is his biggest fan, and may have some serious mental illness issues. Misery is a very well made psychological horror film with fantastic acting, also worth owning on physical media. Speaking of physical media, last year the film The Long Walk based on a novel by Stephen King was released in cinemas. I did not see this film in cinema ( that was actually my plan to experience this film on the big screen ), instead i decided to review the physical blu ray copy of The Long Walk that i bought online. Is this a film for true Stephen King fans, or is this one of the worst Stephen King film adaptations in many years?

In a dystopian future we find 50 men who have approved to compete in a competition known as The Long Walk. The main mission is to able to walk to the finish line and you can not stop, if you do you will be executed. Also, there is only one survivor in this competition. For each day that goes by, there is no other way out than surviving at any cost, no matter what you have to do.

The best way to describe The Long Walk would be to say this is the walking edition of The Hunger Games, with some influences of the classic dystopian action film Battle Royale, directed by Kinji Fukasaku. If you combine this together with strong acting performances, good character development and a solid mix of horror influences, you have a film that´s definetely quite different from most movie releases. What i especially think makes this film stand out is the concept of this film, walk without stopping or you will be killed. It´s a very simple detail and it may sound boring on paper, an yet it is very effective with the atmosphere surrounding this dystopian society. One thing i think this film really manage to do, is to show how important it is to focus on your goal, when all hope may seem completely lost. Knowing that only one can survive this walk definetely makes this film feel depressing, but in a fascinating way. How do you deal with the knowledge that you may not survive? Do you finally give up or do you go all in, no matter if you end up dead? Do you support others or just focus on yourself, just to increase chances of surviving until the end? There are especially two characters that really shine in this film, and they are the characters known as Raymond ( played by actor Cooper Hoffman from the funny 2024 biographical comedy-drama film Saturday Night, worth a watch ), and Pete McVries ( played by actor David Jonsson, who i recognized from Alien: Romulus ). Their scenes together really make a powerful impact in this film, where they find a friendship and deal with all the death that surrounds them. We also have legendary actor Mark Hamill here as the macho pig character The Major, a wonderful performance indeed. The horror elements in The Long Walk may take some time to really shine through, but once they do they make an impact. A really good Stephen King film adaptation by director Francis Lawrence ( director of the Keanu Reeves classic Constantine, a personal favourite film that i highly recommend ). I wish the special features on the blu ray would have been more ( i bought the UK blu ray release ). We could have had 2 hours of special features at least, still worth picking up if you are a fan of Stephen King. The Long Walk proves you can still make really effective horror films, with the right cast and solid story telling.

Ratiing: DDDD

Hunting Season

I don´t know why but i always wanted to go on vacation in Texas, USA. I always wanted to try their famous barbecues, watch rodeo shows, listen to bar country artists while having real Texas whiskey. This kind of lifestyle is more for me. I never liked the glamorous lifestyle, where everything looks so perfect and shiny. Just take me to an old school wooden cabin, sitting on the front porch in the Texas heat. Maybe it´s because i was raised being a hard worker, just like my grandfather Ingvar was. He always told me:- Work hard, do what´s right and you will be rewarded someday. He was actually right, over the years my former boss would raise my salary, sometimes my boss even got me oppurtunities to educate myself ( i work in health care since 1999 ). Speaking of the Texas heat or at least similar places. In the year of 2016 i did get to experience a true old school action gem, that both felt like an homage to the genre plus added some modern smaller touches as well. And that film is known as Blood Father, from director Jean-Francios Richet, ( who directed one of my personal favourite Gerard Butler films in recent years, Plane released in 2023 ). Blood Father turned out to be one of the better Mel Gibson films i had seen in years, it is very traditional when it comes to being an old school action film. A very masculine action film, while this film also have a nice chemistry between actors Mel Gibson and actress Erin Moriarty ( who fans of TV series The Boys will recognize ), as father and daughter War veteran and tatoo artist John Link ( Mel Gibson ), have not seen his daughter Lydia ( Erin Moriarty ) in may years. When she gets herself into trouble through a gang of criminals, it is up to her father to clean up her mess. Blood Father is exactly what you need to watch on streaming or VOID, if you just want a fun action popcorn movie night, reminding you of VHS tape rental stores. Speaking of legendary actor Mel Gibson, i recently sat down to watch one of his films released last year known as Hunting Season. Since i have watched Mel Gibson films since the 80´s, of course i have to see if he still got the same cinema magic in his eyes. Is this an action film you need to experience, or should you just go back to Mel Gibson classic Mad Max franchise instead?

In the remote woods of Oklahoma, Bowdrie ( Mel Gibson ), lives with his daughter, Tag ( Sofia Hublitz ). They hunt together fix supplies for the cabin, while Tag is the main cook. One day while Tag is going out fishing on her birthday, she stumble upon a badly injured woman named January ( Shelley Henning ). She have lost a lot of blood, and need medical assictance. Bowdrie try to fix her gun wound as good as he can, while the rest of her body have also been bruised. Tag cook meals to January, helping her get stronger. Bowdrive wants to know who tried to kill her, getting answers from January herself of her memories. He finds out these are no ordinary men, far more dangerous than that.

When Hollywood have been so focused on doing extremely high budget CGI films, it is nice for a change to see a film that takes us back to the good old days. What do i mean by that? Hunting Season really feels like a tribute to 80´s action films, where they use no CGI or fake looking special effects. Everything looks exactly like action films used to look like, real nature scenery, old school gun shootings and characters more developed than any Marvel film you can watch on Disney +. I can see why legendary actor Mel Gibson would do a film such as this, why make a film complicated when we remember old school classics such as Shoot To Kill with legendary actors Sidney Poitier and Tom Berenger. Hunting Season really tries to avoid anything modern and focus on a familiar pattern from the 1980´s instead. The difference though especially between Shoot To Kill and Hunting Season, is that this Mel Gibson film have a much more dramatic undertone than Shoot To Kill. You have the very close relationship between daughter Tag ( played by actress Sofia Hublitz, who you might recognize from Netflix TV series Ozark, worth a watch ) and her father Bowdrie. They have been living in this cabin a long time, and you can tell Tag is not used to having a woman in her life. I think the father and daughter scenes are important in this film, it really show the importance of a good relationship. Even if you don´t have a big family, the family you have does matter. Actress Shelley Hennig ( who i recognized from MTV TV series Teen Wolf ) as the character January, really give this family the feminine touch that they needed. The main villain Alejandro ( played by actor Jordi Mollá, who was a bad ass villain in the 2013 sci fi action film Riddick ), feels like a real sleaze bag that matches this character well. The action scenes are effective, the violence ( when we finally get there ) does deliver some fun moments. The only thing i wish this film could have had was a better final shootdown bewteen the main villain and the family. It feels over way to soon, in my opinion. Otherwise im entertained by Hunting Season, nice to see that people like director RJ Collins still wants to make old school action films. Worth a watch on VOD, streaming or physical media, no matter what you prefer.

Rating: DDD