The Man In My Basement

Being a owner of you house is a dream for many couples all over the world, or even if you are single at the moment but have a steady economy to get a bank loan for a house. Enjoying barbecues during summer with family members, playing sport activities outside with your children, celebrating Christmas weekend with a fire place and cooking in a quite a big kitchen. No matter what the reason is why you want to own a house it´s all good, everyone have different ideas of their perfect home. Me personally have never owned a house, i just lived in apartments so far and for a good reason. I don´t have to showel snow every winter, i don´t have to cut the grass every summer or trim bushes ( unless it´s a woman who needs service, i will happily help ). I can just chill on my balchony during summer having barbecues with a electric grill. In this neighborhood we have outside barbecue locations anyone living here can use, so if i want to have coal burned meat i have that option as well. Speaking of a house, what if you had a creepy man installing cameras in a vacation house, to be watching you for his own pleasure without you knowing this happened? That´s exactly what happens in the psychological thriller 14 Cameras from directors Seth Fuller and Scott Hussion. This is actually a sequel to the 2015 film 13 Cameras and i have never watched the first film. What makes 14 Cameras so good is the performance of actor Neville Archambault as the pervert Gerald, he is definetely very disturbing as a character and the film manage to portait the mentality of Gerald convincing. Worth a watch on streaming or VOD. Since last year i have been looking forward to see legendary actor Willem Dafoe ( who can forget his absolute brilliant performance in the 1986 war movie Platoon from director Oliver Stone ) in a thriller called The Man In My Basement from director Nadia Latif. Willem Dafoe have in the past made some really great thrillers such as the 2014 film A Most Wanted Man together with legendary actor Philip Seymor Hoffman. I sat down to watch The Man In My Basement on Disney + to find out, is this one of the better thrillers in recent years or is this unfortunately not that good at all?

Charles Blakey (Corey Hawkins ) is in very deep trouble. He recently lost his mother, can´t find work and his debt is piling up. He have to find a solution to get money or he will lose his family home. Suddenly one day a man named Anniston Bennet ( Willem Dafoe ) knocks on his door. He would like to rent Charles basement to live there, and he is willing to pay a good amount of money if he accept his offer. Charles don´t have many options at this point and accept Anniston´s offer, not knowing what he is about to experience.

The Man In My Basement reminded me of thrillers of the 1970´s to be exact, where the main characters are more important than the plot itself. That´s something you don´t see very often these days and we usually see thrillers that are too polished on the surface. This film really try to deliver characters that we are meant to feel connected with, no matter how you feel about them in a positive or negative way. I feel this is a very important detail since this is a very character driven film, and that´s actually one strength of The Man In My Basement. Because there are plenty of thrillers that don´t use powerful dialogue that matches the characters, they just follow in the same pattern as many similar films. The acting from legendary actor Willam Dafoe as the mysterious character Anniston, is as always top class acting and he knows how to put on a show through his performance. Actor Corey Hawkins ( who you should see in the 2023 horror film Dracula - The Last Voyage Of The Demeter ) as house owner Charles also deliver a solid acting performance. Their scenes together is without a doubt the best dialogue scenes in the entire film. Actress Anna Diop as the character Narciss is definetely fascinating for her knowledge in black history, and i feel her acting performance feel natural and capturing as well. The bizarre plot of a man wanting to be locked up inside the basement actually works, thanks to the right kind of characters for a plot such as this. We get to find out the bakground for both of the main characters and there is a interesting twist that connects them both to this house. We also see that both of these individuals are struggling in different ways. As a psychological thriller i do feel The Man In My Basement does a good job telling a fascinating story thanks to the strong characters. Perhaps a little bit too long over 2 hours, but other than that i do feel that this is a film worth checking out. The Man In My Basement is refreshing to see trying to bring back thrillers of the 1970´s and i appreciate the dark vision of director Nadia Latif.  If you don´t know what to watch tonight i would suggest giving this film a chance.

Rating: DDD

Night Of The Reaper

One of the greatest time periods for the genre known as slasher horror films, was definetely during the glorious time known as the 1980´s. This was the time when slasher films really found it´s audience both in cinemas and on VHS at your local rental store. It would be lazy of me just to talk about the Friday The 13th franchise so instead we have to mention some other horror classic released during the 1980´s. For example it was in the year of 1981 when we got the slasher horror classic known as Dark Knight Of The Scarecrow from director Frank De Felitta. This was actually a TV movie and not a theatrical release. However, this film especially found it´s audience in VHS rental stores where horror fans clearly loved this genre. Dark Knight Of The Scarecrow takes place in a small town in the Deep South. This is where a little girl named Marylee Williams ( Tonya Crowe ) is best friend with mentally challeneged man Charles Eliot "Bubba" Ritter ( Larry Drake ). The locals in this town doesn´t like seeing Bubba spending time with this little girl, and when a dog attacks Marylee they automatically blame Bubba for this. Bubba is chased out in the field where he tries to hide within a scarecrow outfit, but is brutally murdered. Marylee turns out to be alright after all and the ones who killed Bubba know they did wrong. The dead soul of Bubba is brought back to life through the scarecrow to revenge those who killed him. Dark Knight Of The Scarecrow is one of those true classics in slasher horror films you should see. The acting is actually not bad and includes great performances from legendary actors Charles Durning, Larry Drake,  Robert F. Lyons among others, and i do think the scarecrow killing people works pretty well from a practical effects point of view. I suggest you pick up a physical blu ray or DVD. Recently i was going through a list of Shudder films i have not watched yet and noticed the slasher horror film known as Night Of The Reaper. Apparently is supposed to be set in the 80´s so this sounded like something in my taste. Is this a slasher horror film worth your precious time or should you check out Dark Knight Of The Scarecrow instead?

College student Deena ( Jessica Clement ) is babysitting during Halloween while there is a killer out there known as the Reaper out on the streets. One babysitter was brutally killed by this masked individual and no one knows where the killer will strike next. Mysterious VHS tapes keeps showing up near Sheriff Rodney Arnold ( Ryan Robbins ) showing the Reaper killing some of the victims. Could Deena be the next possible vicim or does the Reaper already have someone else in mind to be the next victim?

Those of you who have read my reviews over the years probably know how important it is for me if you try to capture a certain time period on the big screen. You have to be able to have the right costume design, the right atmosphere of the time period, the correct music choices and of course the feeling of an old school slasher horror film. Night Of The Reaper actually manage to pull all of these things off in a positive way, and especially focusing on getting the 80´s vibe correctly. You have pop songs from MTV playing in the background, you have the girly 80´s hair that most of us remember growing up during this era. Apart from these details this slasher horror film also manage to look like a Halloween rip off, without feeling too similar and add some interesting details along the way. The characters do feel like they are living in the 80´s with the dialogue that matches the time period. I especially appreciate actress Jessica Clement ( who some of you might recognize from TV series Pure ) as the character Deena. What i like about this character is that she feels so natural on screen, she´s just a young intelligent woman living her life and Jessica give the personality of Deena a realistic portrait of a woman her age. And to throw this personality into a slasher horror film is of course a fun combination, so we really get to see what Deena is able to do in different situations. There are a couple of other good characters here such as Sheriff Rodney ( played by TV series Riverside actor Ryan Robbins ), but what really works in this film is the Reaper, the masked killer. The mask is simple but looks cool, the killings ( at least the ones we do get to see ) works for the most part. If i have to bring something up that this film could have done better is done something unexpected, like a susprise moment in the film instead of following classic slasher horror films from the past. You can be inspired by slasher horror classics, but i like it when they are creative and surprise us. With that said i still think this is a solid horror film for fans of this specific genre. If you just want a pretty traditional slasher horror film then Night Of The Reaper should do the trick. Director Brandon Christensen ( who also directed the Shudder psychological thriller Superhost, worth a watch ) clearly loves old school slasher films and deliver a solid film for this genre. If you don´t want a complicated plot and just enjoy a popcorn movie night, Night Of The Reaper should do the trick.

Rating: DDD

Onlyfangs

Those of us who grew up during the VHS era remember how many low budget films used to combine horror and comedy together. You had horror comedies in many different categories such as the 1986 cult classic Night Of The Creeps, or that very same year we also had Critters released in theatres across the world. The 80´s was truly a golden era of horror comedies and i used to watch so many titles. For example how many of you remember the 1988 cult classic Killer Klowns From Outer Space? It was during the 80´s when they really tried to find all kinds of combinations and it was in 1987 a horror comedy called My Best Friend Is A Vampire was released. At the time this film came out in America and in the UK i did not watch this film, noy until1 1990 if i remember correctly finding it at a VHS rental sale. It´s a quite charming horror comedy where a young man turns into a vampire, after a sexual encounter with a beautiful woman. It´s not a classic anywhere near Fright Night, Vamp or The Lost Boys by any chance, but if you enjoy 80´s comedies and don´t mind horror influences included this film could work for you. Let´s move forward though into modern days and talk about a streaming horror comedy that turned out to work well combining vampires into Brooklyn. This is not the horror comedy Vampire In Brooklyn from 1995 with Eddie Murphy we are talking about, instead this is the 2020 horror comedy Netflix film Vampires Vs. The Bronx from director Oz Rodriquez. A charming throwback to horror comedies of the 80´s and 90´s except this is a film especially made for teenagers. This film have a great mix of nostalgic vampire ingredients and great acting performances, especially from Method Man as local pastor Father Jackson. If you enjoy especially vampire films then you should check out Vampires Vs. The Bronx on Netflix. I was given an oppurtunity to watch a horror comedy called Onlyfangs that seemed to be speciifically a vampire inspired film. Since i enjoy all kinds of vampire horror films, of course this did look interesting to me. Is this one of the better horror comedies in recent years or is Onlyfangs not as funny as i was hoping it would be?

Social media monster hunter Wes ( Drew Marvick ) find out that there are a group of female vampires that actually exist. he comes up with a brilliant idea how to get these ladies fresh blood, while getting men to be seduced by them. By opening up a service called Onlyfangs, where men pay the vampire girls for certain services. These services bascially means new victims for the girls to feed on.

Some of you might remember the 1986 dark horror comedy known as Vamp with actress Grace Jones as the vampire stripper Katrina. When i watched the film Onlyfangs i was reminded of Vamp in certain scenes. Not the plot itself or any of the characters, more about the sexy approach of female vampires. In the horror comedy Onlyfangs it becomes very clear that they use hot women to give this film a certain sexy look as Vamp did back in the 80´s. I really appreciate that since i feel female vampires have always been something sensual and fun to watch, especially if the vampires are wild and crazy as these vampire characters turn out to be in Onlyfangs. This is the type of horror comedy you are not meant to take serious at all, a film that knows what audience it was made for. Combining horror and comedy together can be very tricky unless you have a good idea and have a fun plot. Onlyfangs tries to make fun of the vampire genre and at the same time make fun of services like Onlyfans. This is actually a fun idea using vampires into this platform, since we know that men will always pay for all kinds of services to see hot women. The best characters of this film is for the most part the vampire female cast, where especially female actors Kansas Bowling ( who you should see in the independent horror film The Third Saturday In October ) and Nina Lanee Kent make some of the best acting performances. Actor Drew Marvick ( who you need to watch as the Murder Clown in the anthology horror film 10/31: Part 2 ) is also quite funny as the character Wes. This film manage to capture the feeling of the 80´s with hair metal music, 80´s pop and strip club feeling of this time period, which is a great combination considering we are making fun of selling sexual content online. The only problem i have really is the length of this film. 2 hours for a horror comedy is a long time and a few scenes feel a bit stretched out. Onlyfangs will most likely be a nightmare for Swedish feminists ( considering the nudity of certain women which im grateful for ) but will definetely be appreciated by horror fans of the 1986 horror comedy classic Vamp. Directors Angelica De Alba and Paul Ragsdale clearly had inspiration from similar films such as Vamp, and that turns out to be a successfull idea considering that this film works. Onlyfangs proves that anything can sell online, even getting your blood sucked out by vampires. Maybe i should subscribe myself?

Rating: DDD

The Astronaut

There was a time in my childhood when i was interested reading about space. I was probably 9 years old in 1986 when i went to the local library reading about diferent planets and learning where they were located. I can´t remember the title of one specific book but it was really well written and had lots of pictures to show all the planets, explaining what each planet looked like on the surface and why humans can´t live there. I also started getting into science fiction films during this time period and i used to watch several titles that i borrowed by our neighbors The Ostwalds family. I remember that it was at their home i borrowed the 1985 science fiction film Back To The Future. At this time i didn´t know how big this film was, since i didn´t really go to cinemas often until the year of 1988. Back To The Future is one of the true 80´s classics from director Robert Zemeckis and this is a very charming film. Back To The Future tells the story of teenager Marty McFly ( Michael J. Fox ) who one night meets his eccentric  scientist friend, Emmet "Doc" Brown ( Christopher Lloyd ), in the Twin Pines parking lot. Doc unveils  a time machine, that he built  from a modified DeLorean., powered by plutonium he swindled from Libyan terrorists. Doc gets shot by Libyan terrorists at this parking lot and Marty escape in the time machine, sending him back to the year of 1955. The first film is truly a nagical 80´s film that i can rewatch over and over. The second film have it´s charm, but i think the third film released in 1990 was a charming final film taking place in the late 1800´s. None of these films may have much to do with space or planets, but time travelling definetely belong within the science fiction genre. Speaking of outer space how many of you have seen the 2017 sci fi horror film Life from director Daniel Espinosa? This is a well made horror film in space where astronauts are taking soil samples on Mars, where they accidently bring another life form inside their spaceship. If you enjoy sci fi horror films similar to the Alien franchise, you might enjoy this one. Last year i was curious about a sci fi horror film called The Astronaut from director Jess Varley. Being a fan of this genre and i did enjoy actress Kate Mara in the 2016 sci fi hororr film Morgan, i was curious to see Mara return with another sci fi horror film. Is this a solid choice to your watchlist or should you skip The Astronaut and watch the 2017 film Life instead?

Astronaut Capt. Sam Walker ( Kate Mara ) crash-lands back on Earth where her father Gen. William Harris ( Laurence Fishburne ) makes sure she is taken to quarantine at a rehabilitation house, where she is supposed to rest and get back to ordinary life. While staying at this beautiful location it seems she may not have been alone during her return trip to Earth.

However you feel about this specific genre, i can honestly say i have a soft spot for the combination of science fiction and horror combined. If the film have good characters, a interesting plot plus descent special effects im mostly positive for new releases. And i will say that from the beginning of this film there is a interesting story, how a astronaut is trying to heal herself after a difficult mission in space out in the middle of nowhere. What this film does right is using the location of the facility, where something seems to be following the main character Sam Walker. In certain scenes we see her searching for an answer to what is out there, and i have to say the set up is simple but effective. Since i can tell this film had a limited budget you can still make a science fiction film work well, and The Austrobaut manage to build up some mysterious tensions. Lead actress Kate Mara delivers a solid performance in this film and i do appreciate seeing her in this specific genre, since i felt she did a good performance in the 2016 film Morgan as well. I like the fact that they tried to give us an image how difficult it is being a mother away from your child, since you are in space for long periods of times, how this affect parenthood and actress Kate Mara manage to show these emotions. Actor Laurence Fishburne as Mara´s father General William is alright, not one of his best performances but still solid enough. Everything feels alright for the most part until we get closer to the end of this fillm, and im sorry to say this is where my biggest issue is with The Austronaut. The CGI effects of these so called "aliens" looks terrible for a film released in 2025. If this film was made in the year of 1998 i might have accepted that they had limited resources, but if this was their best design then im beginning to wonder how they thought these aliens would work when there is nothing wrong with the plot itself. If they could have improved the CGI effects and made the aliens look more interesting, it could have been a more effective ending of this film. Overall i do think this is a solid science fiction film even if The Austronaut have some flaws. Director Jess Varley proves with The Austronaut that even on a limited budget you can make interesting science fiction stories.

Rating: DDD

Seclusion

When i mention the distribution company known as The Asylum i know a lot of people have different opinions about their releases. We are of course talking about all of their low budget films that´s coming out every single year, and if you look at the list of how many The Asylum releases there are out there, i swear you have to be impressed. In fact, i can barely remember more than 15 titles and i have probably seen 40 at least over the years. The Asylum are experts at delivering cheesy B movie moments that we all love, everything from terrible CGI effects to over the top acting. For the most part i can accept most releases since i know they are meant to be terrible, but then we have really horrible ones such as the 2010 low budget action adventure film Almighty Thor ( yes a low budget version of Thor - God of thunder ). What really made this film awful are the special effects of the location known as Valhalla, for example awful looking castles and even terrible looking lava from a volcano. I don´t mind bad CGI effects as long as they are fun and actually work with the plot itself. But this film barely have any qualities at all. The monsters look.....ok i guess? But the sword fights and the bad CGI effects in general makes this film fall flat to the ground. However, just 2 years after this terrible film we did get a fun release from The Asylum known as the sci fi action film Nazis At The Center Of The Earth. The film begin in May 10, 1945, in a secret airport near Wurtzberg, Germany, Nazi scientist Dr. Josef Mengele ( Christopher Karl Johnson ), along with fellow doctors and soldiers, prepare to depart to an unknown location with a mysterious package in their possession. They are soon ambushed by Allied forces, but succesfull escape. We move into present day, where a group of reseachers are located in Antarctica, find a secret Nazi base in the center of the Earth where they are creating nazi soldiers for a new Fourth Reich. Does this film have bad special effects? Yes, but far better than the whole film Almighty Thor and i do think it´s a fun plot having nazis fighting in Antarctica. It was this film where i discovered actress Dominique Swain, who i later found out have been in the 1997 action classic Face/Off. Nazis At The Center Of The Earth is a fun watch if you appreciate B movies in general. Speaking of actress Dominique Swain i decided to check out a TV thriller she released last year called Seclusion. I had only seen the poster and didn´t know much about the plot at all. Is this a solid TV thriller or is this a film that will most likely be forgotten once you have seen it?

Dr. Madeleine Faye ( Nicky Whelan ), a successfull psychiatrist and best-selling author, seeks refuge in her waelthy father´s beach house while she works on her next book. She begin to suspect that a former patient is stalking her.

TV movies can be good if they at least have a descent plot, interesting characters or have something else to offer the viewer. I have seen a few American TV thrillers over the years that´s been alright ( especially thinking about the 2022 Lifetime thriller known as Safe Room ), and i actually think TV thrillers can be good entertainment if you can accept the limited budget. In the case of Seclusion the plot did seem interesting when i finally read about it. Perhaps because i have met a lot of mentally ill patients in my almost 27 years working in health care, and i wanted to see if this film would capture a realistic portait of a person struggling with mental health. But this is not a film that´s specifically focused on mental health only, you also have the main story of Dr. Madeleine. We find out how she is dealing with her personal life being single, trying to deal with personal issues with her sister while trying to be a professional psychiatrist. The parts where the film works best is the scenes between Dr. Madeleine trying to help her mentally struggling patient Heather ( played by actress Amy Wade ). Especially when her patients doesn´t seem to respect Dr. Madeleine´s privacy and this is where it gets a little bit more fun. The acting in general is quite typical when it comes to TV thrillers, it´s pretty basic and no bigger surprises. But i do think there is a good chemistry bewteen the sister characters of Madeleine ( played by actress Nicky Whelan who can be seen in From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series ) and Kelly. Actor Fred Sullivan is quite charming as the father Mr. Faye. Ok, so let´s dig into one of the biggest issues with Seclusion. This is supposed to be a thriller and i can´t say it does a really good job capturing a psychological atmosphere surrounding a mentally ill patient and the rivalry bewteen two sisters. It´s not the actors fault, the writing by Amy Wade is simply too predictable and too much polished. There is a twist later in this film that´s supposed to be suspensful but becomes pretty dull to be honest. Is this a terrible TV thriller? No, there are parts of the film i enjoy but since this is supposed to be a thriller i think they could have done this story much more effective. Director Tom DeNucci have made a very basic TV film that have some good ideas but feels boring at times. Seclusion might be appreciated by fans of TV movies in general, just don´t have too high expectations if you decide to watch this film.

Rating: DD

Haunted House Of Pancakes

Waffles, the perfect way to start breakfast with your children. It´s also a very easy option if you want to make a easy lunch to enjoy. I used to eat waffles quite often as a child, especially at hotel restaurant breakfast buffé with my grandparents on vacation to Spain or Greece. They would serve home made waffles constantly for families, so you can imagine how many they made every single day. Nowdays i can make waffles at certain occasions, for example if i don´t feel like cooking something big and just want to be lazy. When it comes to food that´s included in B horror movies we have some true classics. Most of you might have heard of the 1978 B movie horror comedy Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes from director John DeBello. This is a parody film on B horror movies from the 1950´s basically but instead of attacking bugs we have tomatoes attacking instead. It is just as terrible as it sounds, and there are some charming scenes in this film that i can laugh about. Is it worth a watch? Only if you enjoy terrible films just like myself, however i actually prefer the 1988 sequel Return Of The Killer Tomatoes! with legendary actor John Astin ( who played Gomez Addams in the 1960´s TV series version of The Addams Family ) and a young George Clooney. This film is also directed by John DeBello and you can tell that he´s behind this film. This sequel pretty much follow the same pattern as the original film, with the same sense of terrible humour that´s still enjoyable if you are in the right mood. I have not seen the other sequels in this franchise so i can´t say if they are any good. I have heard they are doing a remake of the original film, so that could be something worth checking out when it´s released. YouTube movie reviewer Geek Legion Of Doom that i have followed for many years reviewed a B horror comedy called Haunted House Of Pancakes last year, a that title caught my attention. Anything that sounds terrible is definetely something i should be watching. So i finally got an oppurtunity to see this film and the question is, does this film entertain B movie lovers or is it even worse than i ever could have imagined?

Local resturant owner Frank DeFrank ( Chris De Christopher ) buy an old school waffle maker online which he hopes will get lots of customers to enjoy his food. Good hearted and hard working restaurant worker Jay ( Fabian Guerrero ) tries to help the customers as much as possible while he have a soft spot for female friend Sarah ( Jada Krueger ), who is working hard on her studies. When the old school waffle maker is finally ready to be used, the restaurant staff is about to find out this is no ordinary waffle maker.

Have you been looking for a B movie that doesn´t take itself seriously at all? Do you just want to have a good time with cheesy dialogue, bad acting, practical make up effects and demonic waffles looking like cheese balls on steroids? Then this is definetely the film you have been looking for. Haunted House Of Pancakes feels like a throwback to similar films such as Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes except now it´s waffles that is attacking humans instead. Well, not just waffles to be exact, you even have a toilet who comes to life and eat a woman. This is exactly the kind of film we all need to experience. A film that reminds us of the good days of B movies and why these kinds of films are important in today´s modern society. You see i actually respect a film such as this more than many of the big budget Hollywood releases, because the film team have made an effort without using CGI effects and does not include a big budget. I really appreciate when film makers working on low budget films care about their project and i can actually feel that there is passion in the making of this film. When it comes to the acting it is a very mixed bag, there are some terrible acting for sure ( as it´s supposed to be in a film such as this ), but i actually enjoy the screen chemistry between actor Fabian Guerrero ( who i recognized from the independent slasher horror film Final Summer ) and actress Jada Krueger. Their scenes that they have together actually are charming as you can feel they are attracted to each other. So what about the killer waffles? They actually look really silly but manage to work with the simple plot. Even the demonic iron waffle maker have some charming moments as well while other food like frensh fries comes to life. Haunted House Of Pancakes is a horror comedy made for B movie lovers like myself who grew up in VHS rental stores. It´s fun, it´s silly and it finds a good balance of horror and comedy to combine it well together. Director Nathan Dalton ( who was one of the writers of the B horror comedy Attack Of The Killer Donuts, worth a watch ) deliver a film that easily will make your day much better. Haunted House Of Pancakes should be on your watch list this year and proves why B movies are needed for a more positive future.

Rating: DDD

If you want to watch this film you can watch it for free on YouTube channel FilmIsNox Horror Movies, just click on the link to watch the film:

HAUNTED HOUSE OF PANCAKES | The Diner's Special Is Terror | Full Movie

Takeout

When im out travelling across different cities around Sweden on highways, i usually go for takeout food. Not every single time but if i have at least 10 hours of driving then this is a really good option. No matter what takeout food you enjoy, i find these restaurants very effective and they usually have a lot of great options. If they have coffee as well i usually throw that in my order as well. My absolute favourite takeout food while driving is without a doubt chinese food or thai food, you get plenty of food for your money plus i like spicy meals as well. At some occasions i can go for a burger meal just to make it simple, unless they have a Subway restaurant with takeout. Now, that is the perfect lunch right there, a big sandwich with lots of fresh vegetables and some jalapeno. Speaking of takeout food we do have certain films that bring up the subject of takeout food. For example some of you might have seen the 2014 drama comedy Chef from director Jon Favreau ( who plays the character Happy Hogan in the Iron Man franchise ). This is a charming film about a head chef Carl Casper ( Jon Favreau ) of a restaurant, who quits his job to pursue a completely different job by running his own food truck. Robert Downey Jr. is actually in this film as well who he worked with Jon Favreau on the Iron Man films. We have other great casting here as well such as legendary actor Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson, John Leguizamo, Bobby Cannavale and many others. The film looks great and manage to capture the passion for food trucks, good food and how food can unite people no matter where they come from. If you have not seen Chef you should check it out on streaming, VOD or even physical media if you prefer that. Speaking of takeout food i had seen a trailer last year of a Tubi thriller called Takeout that looked interesting. Especially when i noticed actor Darron Meyer is in this film from TV mini series Generation Kill. Since i love diners and i love takeout food, i thought this could be interesting to watch. Is this a solid thriller or is Takeout not as good as it may seem?

It´s night time out in a local diner The Big Dripper outside of the city, where customers just comes to relax and enjoy a good meal. Waitress Nova ( N´Kone Mametja ) is late to her shift and her collegue Harper ( Deoudoné Pretorious ) begin to argue with her. Thankfully Nova always get along well with chef Benny ( Darron Meyer ) so she can always rely talking to him. One very odd diner guest named Grady ( Damien Wantenaar ) behave very strange, especially towards waitress Nova. The coworkers begin to suspect there is something seriously wrong with this young man. They heard on the news about a serial killer known as The Doll Keeper, could this be the guy police are looking for or could they be wrong?

Takeout is not your typical serial killer film that you have seen a 100 times before. This film actually feels quite entertaining in certain scenes, almost as if this could be seen as a thriller comedy. You think for a moment that you know how everything is going to end, but then comes a surprise twist out of nowhere. I think this was a very good choice not to go for a basic plot and do something different, throw in some unexpected turns that makes you enjoy this film more than an ordinary standard thriller. Now, i have to say for a Tubi streaming film this is one of the better ones when it comes to acting. And i especially enjoy the chemistry between the diner coworkers Nova, Harper and Benny. You have the female arguments between Nova ( played well by actress N´Kone Mametja ) and Harper ( played by actress Deoudoné Pretorious ) inside the diner, and i have to say i can imagine some women out there will recognize themselves having similar arguents at work as these characters have. Then we have the cool chef Benny ( played by actor Darron Meyer ) who is probably the safe spot in this diner, who keeps it all together when the ladies are fighting. And i have to say Darron Meyer matches really well with his character. I do like the performance from actress Robyn Scott as sleazy middle aged diner owner Susan, who is horny about chef Benny. I have to mention actor Damien Wantenaar as Grady, talk about going into his character in a effective way. The serial killer story may not be original or very different from anything we have seen before, but when we finally find out who the real serial killer is inside this diner it´s a nice surprise. They even try to twist some details around the serial killer, so it doesn´t get too predictable or boring for the audience. What Takeout manage to do is deliver a thriller that´s not the typical serial killer film, and that´s why it works in my opinion not following a certain pattern in this genre. Director Jem Garrard ( who directed 3 episodes of Day Of The Dead TV series ) proves that you can still make a serial killer thriller without copying so many films in this genre and i would definetely recommend this one. Too bad we don´t have a physical release of Takeout, i would have picked up a copy for sure.

Rating: DDD