Dark Harvest

I have always loved seeing cornfields in American movies. There is just something special about seeing that corn covering a big field and see the large corn plants rise towards the sky. I am a big corn lover myself and love having barbecued corn, making a salad with corn, i actually enjoy corn bread as well. Of course anyone who loves popcorn knows it is originally from corn, so that´s also another thing i love to have during movie nights. Speaking of cornfields and movies, whenever i think about this combination there is especially one horror film that comes to my mind. And that is the 1984 film Children Of The Corn from director Fritz Kiersch ( director of the classic 1992 action comedy film Into The Sun with Michael Paré and Anthony Michael Hall ). Children Of The Corn is actually based on a short story from legenedary director Stephen King and i have personally not read it. However i have seen the original film many times and the film begins in the fictional town of Gatlin, Nebraska, where a malevolent entity referred to as "He Who Walks Behind The Rows" wich entices the town´s children to ritually murder all the town´s adults. Three years later, Vicky Baxter ( Linda Hamilton ) and her boyfriend Burt Stanton ( Peter Horton ) travel through rural Nebraska on their way to Seattle. As they drive along the highway towards Gatlin a young boy named Joseph ( Jonas Marlowe ) tries to flee from the town but is attacked in the corn, he stumbles out into the road and Burt accidently runs over him. However, Burt discover that his throat was cut beforehand. Vicky and Burt go to get help in town and meet the only living adult there named Diehl ( R.G. Armstrong ) who is a mechanic. He can not help them and he lives to supply the children of the town with fuel. Vicky and Burt understand soon that there is something really disturbing going on in this small town, where all the children are involved. Children Of The Corn may not be one of the best 80´s horror films but is definetely a classic that you should see. The film have some great characters and use the cornfields in a effective way and the psychotic children attacking definetely helps the film look good. There are unfortunately too many sequels but i would say that the 2nd film is worth a watch. Speaking of cornfields, last year we had a horror film released that is connected to a corn field where some kind of monster lives. The film is called Dark Harvest and actually got some positive reviews, I finally sat down to watch Dark Harvest to see if we might get some Children Of The Corn vibes in this film. Is it better than i predicted or is this just as horrible as the God awful Swedish comedy Reine & Mimmi I Fjällen that shouldn´t be allowed to exist?

In a small Midwestern town, adeadly annual ritual unfolds when the mythical nightmare, Sawtooth Jack ( Dustin Ceithamer ), rises from the cornfields and challenges the town´s teenage boys in a bloody battle of survival.

In some ways you could say that Dark Harvest is almost like a scarecrow horror movie, but instead of a traditional scarecrow we have a monster living out in the cornfield. I am a fan of the 1988 American slasher film known as Scarecrows from director William Wesley, and it was one of the better scarecrow horror films for many years. I would have to admit and say that Dark Harvest is definetely one of the better horror films when it comes to taking on a scarecrow theme that does something different and interesting with the plot. The fact that this monster attacks every Halloween weekend from a cornfield is a fun idea, and i have to say i was impressed over some of the brutal attacks that this film offered when we watched teenagers getting slashed in half and a head cut in half. We have to talk about the beautiful cinematography in Dark Harvest from cinematographer Larry Smith. If you have seen the 1999 classic Eyes Wide Shut from legendary director Stanley Kubrick i can tell you that Larry Smith is the cinematographer of that film as well, and it becomes very clear in Dark Harvest how professional he really is. Dark Harvest is nowhere near as good as Eyes Wide Shut let me be clear on that, but thanks to cinematograher Larry Smith he helps this film look much better than most horror films i have seen in a long time. I would also like to say that director David Slade ( director of a personal favourite horror film of mine called 30 Days Of night ) manage to make a solid Halloween inspired film with Dark Harvest. The monster known as Sawtooth Jack looks really cool and i am impressed how well they designed this creature. The acting in general is actually pretty good for the most part and actor Casey Likes definetely show that he could be a future hope if he keeps acting as good as in Dark Harvest. Actor Luke Kirby as Officer Jerry is a highlight for sure with his crazy personality. I honestly can´t complain much at this film since i had a good time with Dark Harvest. Sure, the story of The Run may be a little bit cheesy but for a Halloween inspired film i have to say it is one of the better i have seen in this specific horror genre. Director David Slade continue to prove he knows how to deliver good horror films, Dark Harvest should definetely be experienced with a big bowl of popcorn and a pure dark night in sight.

Rating: DDD

It Lives Inside

Even if this happened 28 years ago i will never forget back in the summer of 1996 when i was looking at MTV and saw British rock band Kula Shaker´s music video called Tattva. I was completely hooked up by this song that had a combination of rock music and Indian folk music that worked really good together. Tattva was a perfect example how you make rock music for all ages and all nations, it´s one of those songs that you don´t have to understand the lyrics for, you just feel the groove grow inside of you. Front man Crispian Mills had such a wonderful singing vocie that matched perfectly to Kula Shaker´s sound. And i was about to find out that their debut album K would be filled with so many fantastic songs such as Hey Dude, Govinda ( probably my favourite song by this band ), Hush, Grateful When You´re Dead / Jerry Was There and many more songs. The autumn of 1996 became magical to me when the album finally came out on September 16. I can not tell you how many times i played this album on my CD stereo, let´s just say it was every week almost up until Christmas that year. Even though i do not play this album often these days it is still one of my personal favourite rock albums of all time. Their 2nd studio album Peasents, Pigs & Austronauts released in 1999 was not as powerful as their debut album but did have some great songs with the Indian folk music to guide them. Kula Shaker have released several albums since then and i enjoy most of them. But their first studio album will always mean a lot to me personally, it is without a doubt magical. Speaking of Indian influences we have a lot of films that have been inspired by Indian culture or Indian history. One of the films that comes to my mind is the 2016 horror film known as The Other Side Of The Door from director Johannes Roberts. This film takes place in India where mother Maria Harwood ( Sarah Wayne Callies ) lost her son Oliver Harwood ( Logan Crecan ) in a drowning accident inside a car. While the accident happened she could only save one child her daughter Lucy Darwood ( Sofia Rosisnky ), and this is something she will never forgive herself of. One night her husband Michael Harwood ( Jeremy Sisto ) find his wife unconscious after a suicide attempt. Maria is confronted by her housekeeper Piki ( Suchitra Pillai ). Piki ask Maria if she wants one final chance to say goodbye to her son Oliver. Piki explain that she have been in a similar positition, where she lost her daughter in a drowning incident not paying attention. According to Piki, there is an abandoned temple in her hometown where you are able to speak to the dead through a door. But if she hear her son she must follow one rule and that is never open the door, only speak next to it. Missing her son as much as she does, Maria travel to the abandoned temple to communicate with Oliver. The Other Side Of The Door is one of those horror films you never hear anyone talk about these days but i actually enjoy this film. It may have flaws but i do like the horror influences combined with Indian writings regarding Mrtyu, gatekeeper of the underworld. If you have not seen this film i would recomment it if you enjoy religious horror films. Speaking of Indian culture last year a horror film called It Lives Inside was released also inspiried by Indian scriptures. This sounded exactly like something i needed to experience so the question is, does the film It Lives Inside deliver as a horror film or is it not as good as i was hoping it would be?

Samidha ( Megan Suri ), is an Indian American high school student who has been assimilating into western society. While her mother, Poorna ( Neeru Bajwa ), is insistent that Samidha continue to follow traditions and pay respect to her heritage, while her father Inesh ( Vik Sahay ), is less strict to her. At school, Samidha tries to reject her culture to fit in with her friends and has a budding romance with her classmate, Russ ( Gage Marsh ). As a result, she have grown apart from her former best friend and fellow Indian student, Tamira ( Mohana Krishnan ), who is now a social outcast for acting withdrawn and carrying a strange glass jar. This concerns their teacher, Joyce ( Betty Gabriel ), but Samidha believe Tamira is fine. Until one day when Tamira approach her to talk about the jar she is carrying and warn her of what lives inside. Samidha is frustrated and smashes the jar so it falls to the ground and break. Samidha have no idea what damage this will not only cause herself but her loved ones as well.

It is not often we see horror films that´s connected to Indian writings in Sanskrit that you can read about in Hinduism. It Lives Inside show Indian culture as it could look like in an ordinary American home. This combination to show 2 different cultures meet inside an ordinary family is good to show, because not all cultures think the same and it´s ok to have different beliefs. The idea itself that this demon is trapped inside a jar reminded me of the 2012 horror film The Possession from director Ole Bornedal. In this film there is a mysterious old wooden box with Hebrew writing is found at a yard sale by a young girl named Emily ( Natasha Calis ) who is bought by her father Clyde ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan ). Once Emily open this wooden box wearing a ring she finds inside which later makes her possessed by a demon. In the film It Lives Inside there is a similar idea where the demon is let out, except in this film it really wasn´t even supposed to happen. Regarding the demon we do find out that this demonic spirit is known as Pishach and can be found in Hindu mythhologies. This is actually the first time i heard about this specific demon in a horror film so that definetely caught my attention. For a demon horror film i will have to say It Lives Inside does have some effective and interesting horror scenes, especially when you only see the eyes of the demon in the dark and people getting attacked in day light while you don´t see anything there. Even when you see the demon appear in flesh i do think the design looks pretty cool. The acting in general is actually good and i do like the chemistry between lead actor Megan Suri as Samidha and the odd character Tamira played by Mohana Krishnan. I can´t really see any big issues with It Lives Inside because at least it does do something different and interesting regarding Indian culture. If you are a fan of demon horror films i think you should definetely check this film out. Director Bishal Dutta does a great job capturing the Indian influences while making the demon entity blend in well with the story. It Lives Inside knows what audience it was made for and that is especially for us who appreciate seeing other people´s cultures.

Rating: DDD

Competition Summer 2024

Greetings everyone!

I hope you all are enjoying 2024 so far and I hope there are several new films coming out this year that you are excited about. I have a couple of titles that i am curious about hoping that they will be good. Especially one film that i have not heard that much talking about called Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera with action actor Gerard Butler returning as Big Nick. I really enjoyed the first film so this will hopefully be a fun sequel.

Anyway, i wanted to do something special for all of my readers this summer since i have readers from so many different countries. To show my appreciation in my own way, and let them know that i wouldn´t exist if it wasn´t for my readers. I am am making a competition this summer in June where one reader, no matter what country you live in will be able to win a physical film that i choose. All you have to do is answer two questions and mail in the answers to my mail adress. I want answers in during this spring until the final day until i reveal who the winner is, and the final day for the competition is June 7th this year. Once the date of June 7th have passed that is the end of the competition. So i would all my readers worldwide to answer two very simple questions and that is the following...

1. What is your favourite movie review that i have written over the years?

2. Do you disagree with any review i have written and if so, why do you disagree with what i wrote?

Write in your answers of these 2 questions to the following mail adress and name the email Competition Summer 2024 so i know what it is all about. You don´t have to leave out any personal information, just say your name and what country you live in and i will pick one winner on June 7th.

E-mail adress: lavenemang1977@gmail.com

Remember to write on the subject of the email Competition Summer 2024 so you are guaranteed to be a part of the competition. In case you are wondering if it will be a DVD or Blu ray i will personally choose what it will be and what category the film belongs to. Best of luck everyone and looking forward to have emails from everyone who wants to be in the competition. Oh by the way, im paying for the shipping as well to your country so that will be covered. Take care and see you soon out there with more of my movie reviews.

Cheers from Daniel

Five Nights At Freddy´s

If there is something we have learned from the past is that it is not always a good idea making movies based on a video game or a video game franchise. A handful of directors such as German film producer and director Uwe Boll have definetely proved that. We could go back almost 30 years to get a proof of that as well into the year of 1994 and watch the video game adaptation of Double Dragon. I remember when this film came out on VHS back in the day and since i was a fan of the Double Dragon video games, i was hoping that this film would be a fun watch. This is honestly one of the worst video games adaptations ever made into a full feature film and there are so many problems. First of all the action scenes looks incredibly bad, the acting is beyond terrible and let´s not forget that knowing that this is suppposed to be like the video games of Double Dragon they failed completely to capture anyting related to the games. I understand it may be difficult making a film based on a video game franchise, but you have to at least try to show respect to the fans of these games. Double Dragon doesn´t capture anything from the video games i used to play in the 80´s and 90´s, it feels more like a cheap martial art action rip off trying to look cool but ends looking like a disaster. Luckily that same year we actually got a fun action movie based on the very popular video game called Street Fighter with lead actor Jean-Claude Van Damme in the lead role as Colonel Guile. Even if this film is terrible in some ways it is still much more enjoyable than Double Dragon and have some fun martial art scenes. Of course we even hahve legendary actor Raul Julia playing the dictator General M. Bison what would be his last acting performance unfortunately before he passed away in stomach cancer. Director Steven E. de Souza proved that you can make a fun film based on a video game, as long as you don´t take yourself too seriously. Speaking of video games some of you gamers worldwide may have heard of a video game known as Five Nights At Freddy´s. First released in 2014 the game became a internet sensation. Since then this game have had plenty of sequels and i have actually never tried any of the games at all. So when we got the news that a film based on this video game franchise was coming out i was a little bit curious what they would do with this material and turn it into a film. I finally sat down and watch this film on blu ray so the question is, did they make a great film based on a video game or is it just as bad as the Double Dragon movie really is?

Mall security guard Mike Schmidt ( Josh Hutcherson ) is fired from his job after assaulting an innocent father after thinking he was trying to kidnap a child. Mike´s career counselor, Steve Raglan ( Matthew Lillard ), is prepared to give his a second chance and offer him a night job at a closed down Freddy Facebear´s Pizza as a security guard. At first Mike doesn´t really want the job because of it is night shift, but after social services threaten to take custody of his younger sister Abby ( Piper Rubio ) he have no other option but to accept the job offer. At first it seems like an ordinary security job, but everything is about to change.

Since i have never played any of the Five Night At Freddy´s video games i can not tell you if this film did a good job capturing the feeling of the video games. All i can give is my personal opinion about the film itself, so all of you true fans of the video game know how i approach this film. Considering how much i enjoyed the 2021 horror action film Willy´s Wonderland with Nicolas Cage i was hoping that Five Nights At Freddy´s would be just as enjoyable or perhaps surprise me even more. Unfortunately this film is way too nice to be called a horror film, and you don´t see any violence at all. That was especially what made Willy´s Wonderland so fun to watch, they came up with creative ways to kill each of the animatronic characters. In this film Five Nights At Freddy´s they barely show any violence at all, maybe becaue it is a PG-13 film and they are not allowed to show too much. In one way i can understand why they decided to make this film the way they did to make this film be approved for younger teenagers to watch in cinema. So let us talk about what i enjoy about Five Nights At Freddy´s and i have to begin with the animatronic characters, they actually look great. I think this really helped this film to make sure the audience feel connected to the background story of the game. It is actually nice to see actor Matthew Lillard ( who have been in several 90´s classics such as Serial Mom, Hackers and of course Scream ) as the caracter Steve Raglan. He may not have many scenes in this film but you can tell he still got a special screen presence. Actress Elizabeth Lail ( who you might recognize from TV series Once Upon A Time ) as local police officer Vanessa is actually my favourite character of this film. She just feels so natural in this role and it´s so easy to dive into her dialogue and feel a connection. Child actress Piper Rubio is also good in this film. Alright, that was the positive and now to the negative regarding this film. Lead actor Josh Hutcherson does not do a very good job at delivering a solid performance. He is pretty boring in this role and doesn´t really feel that engaged into his character. We have to talk about the horror scenes and honestly they are not scary at all. I know this is a PG-13 horror film but they could have at least tried to make an effort to make some kind of frightening scenarios. Even if the animatronic figures look cool they should have been used more effectively. Director Emma Tammi have made a good looking film with Five Nights At Freddy´s and i do like some details about this film. But with such a cool concept for a horror film and don´t really put any effort into making this film a fun horror film, leaves me with a sour taste. Not an awful film but nowhere near as fun as Willy´s Wonderland.

Rating: DD

Dear David

I have never really understood why some things have become so popular online that´s trending on social media that suddenly makes certain people or events really big. Maybe it´s a generation thing and i may not be a part of that since im turning 47 years old this year. I am completely fine with that since for me social media is more about connecting with people worldwide than me getting likes about something. Trending online seems to be changing every single day and especially on social media apps like TikTok. If you personally enjoy making TikTok videos i see no problem with that, i just personally don´t feel very interested in apps like that. I do watch videos on YouTube sometimes regarding politics but mostly movie reviews from other film critics. But what happens when a viral clip becoms so popular online that someone decides to make a full feature film to make a film based on that specific viral clip? That´s exactly what happened back in the year of 2012 when director Craig Moss directed the action film Bad Ass, loosely based on the 2010 AC Transit Bus fight viral video. So what happened on this bus? Two men under the name of Thomas Bruso and Michael Lovette argued over an unspecified matter, which led Lovette throwing a punch and Bruso responding beating him to the floor. A passenger filmed this fight and Bruso became a YouTube sensation called "Epic Beard Man". I have seen the video and it was insane to see. But the fact that a film was made inspired by this viral video shows you that any idea can be made into a film. The film itself is actually not too bad with legendary actor Danny Trejo playing the lead role in a simple action film. There are 2 sequels that i have not seen because it felt like they were just milking it out by making sequels just to cash in on DVD sales. Speaking of viral sensations how many of you heard of the Twitter viral hit of Dear David back in 2017? I knew nothing about it until i saw a trailer for a film called Dear David coming out last year based on tweets by a cartoonist who claimed his home was haunted by the spirit of a child. I have not read much about this and decided to watch the film based on these tweets just to see if this could be an interesting plot for a film. Is it possible Dear Davis is actually a well made horror film you should see or is this trash just like Anna Book´s awful samba studio album Samba Sambero ( yes that´s the actual title of the album, don´t ask me why ) released back in 2007?

The year is 1996 and David ( Cameron Nicoll ) is a young boy obsessed with the internet, sitting down in the dark of his parents basement. David gets bullied over a crude drawing on instant messaging, and retaliates against them. We move forward to the year of 2017 where we meet comic artist Adam Ellis ( Augustus Prew ) who works at BuzzFeed creating content for online readers. One night while dealing with trolls online he gets a message from someone who calls himself Dear David. Adam don´t really think much about it until he sees the figure of a young boy sitting in his rocking chair, Adam begins to wonder if his home is haunted. Not knowing what is going on, Adam is about to find out that this boy known as David have a horrible past that will affect Adam´s life as well.

Ok, this review is a bit different from the usual reviews that i do since this film is actually inspired by a Twitter thread. That means this is not a typical film with a plot that we usually see, so i suppose in one way you could say that at least this film is a bit more original in that sense. So how do you make a film based on that and make it work on the big screen? It would have to be from a director who understands how you transform something such as a Twitter thread into an actual plot. Does it work for this film Dear David? I would say yes and no and i will get into the details that works most of all. First off i think the background story of the child David is interesting, that when he was killed his soul stayed on the web back in 1996 and manage to come back with the help of online chat rooms, where he finds his victims. This is actually a pretty cool idea for a horror film if you are going to use the internet in a story with horror influences. The main character Adam Ellis ( played by actor Augustus Prew from TV series Pure Genius ) do have an interesting personality, even though we only get to know just a little bit about him. I especially enjoy actress Andrea Bang as Adam´s friend and working collegue Evelyn, her scenes are usually light hearted and you just like her charisma for being so wonderful. Actor Justin Long gives the best performance in this film as the boss of BuzzFeed known as Bryce. Ok, so now we get to some of the issues i have with this film and let us begin with the CGI effects. There are some horrible scenes in this film with CGI effects that doesn´t help the horror scenes at all. Especially one scene where CGI David attacks Adam in his apartment towards the end and it feels really cheap. One scene i don´t even understand why they decided to put in this film is a scene where Adam is controlled by a joystick. Not only is the scene ridicolus but it doesn´t even work connected to the story. Some of the jump scare scenes falls flat simply because they are constructed very poorly. If you are going to use jump scares you have to put some effort into these scenes or they become pointless. Dear David had some interesting ideas for a horror film and i did enjoy how the film started. But with too many bad choices along the way and the weak CGI effects this film ends up becoming easily forgettable. Director John McPhail should have done this film more focused on the sleep paralysis that´s actually the most interesting part of Dear David, but instead he wasted this idea with cheap CGI effects instead. Too bad, i actually felt this film could have become fascinating if they at least made an effort to make it interesting.

Rating: DD

Haunting Of The Queen Mary

I remember back in the 80´s i used to go on a lot of cruise ships to Denmark with my family. We would make sure we had coins so we could play different slot machines. At some occations i would also play some really cool arcade games such as Double Dragon, Ninja Gaiden or Rambo as well. I also used to watch my little sister in the playing room since she was only about 4 years old where she would drive me crazy. I especially remember one of the cruise ship trips back in 1989 when we went of the bus that the travel agency had to take us to Denmark. One of the passengers walked at the end of the bus and peed on one of the tires and said:- Alright ready for another round of beers. But he would not make it very far since the cruise ship staff said he was actually too drunk to go on board, so they took him away to a drunk cell. He spent all the hours there until the ship arrived to Denmark. Imagine not even being able to get on board the ship properly and spend your day locked up. In the early 90´s we did return to the cruise ships to Denmark as well, but this time it wasn´t to play slot machines but actually do other things such as watch live performances in their night club and visit the cruise ship cinema. Speaking of cruise ships or should we say boats as well, there are several horror films that tell different stories where ships have been brought up. Some of you might think of the 2002 horror film Ghost Ship, but i actually want to talk about a completely different film called Triangle. Released in 2009 from director Christopher Smith, Triangle tells the story of a group of people who are going on a vacation in a yacht and enter a storm. They can´t go on their journey with the yacht completely destroyed, but out of nowhere comes a ship to rescue them. No one seems on boar this huge ship while they look around. What happened on this ship and why is no one there? Triangle turned out to be a great surprise to me personally. I think the mystery works pretty well and i do like the idea surrounding the mysterious ship. The acting is alright and the twists in this film is actually the most surprising part of this film, you really don´t know what is going on. Well worth checking out on streaming or rent on VOD. Speaking of ghost ships i have been curious to see a horror film released last year called Haunting Of The Queen Mary and i decided to buy myself a DVD copy from the UK ( released January 8th this year on British physical media ). Knowing that this is a film inspired by ghost stories regarding a famous ship in the late 1930´s, is this a horror film that will be enjoyed by fans of this genre or shold you throw this film into the bottom of the sea ?

One Halloween night in the year of 1938 on board the Queen Mary, passangers were brutally murdered by a passenger named David Ratch ( Wil Cobain ). Moving into present day and author Anne Calder ( Alice Eve ) visit the Queen Mary with her son Lucas Calder ( Lenny Rush ) since she is inspired to write a children´s book about the hauntings of this legendary ship while meeting her ex Patrick Calder ( Joel Fry ) who is working on this ship. Her writing process may not be as easy as she had predicted.

Haunted ships is something we don´t see a lot of in horror films every year so i am actually grateful that a film like Haunting Of The Queen Mary feels a bit different from the ordinary releases we get every year. This film does not only capture the feeling of the year of 1938, the film is also connected to present day since it goes back and forward to try and tell a story of what gruesome murders took place on board Queen Mary. Since this film is actually filmed on board the RMS Queen Mary you can actually feel the atmosphere surrounding this British ocean liner, and it is a great idea to make a horror film on board such a ship as this. I especially appreciate the scenes with the long walking halls as if it never seems to end, as if it we are all inside a big maze. This film is really brutal in some scenes and i was definetely taken by surprise by that. Usually in haunted ships they are very limited on brutal kills, but there are a few scenes in Haunting Of The Queen Mary where we get some tasteful scenes. There are a lot of characters in this film since it takes place both in the past and present day, so it would take a long time to talk about all the actors. There is no doubt that one of my favourite performances in this film comes from actor Lenny Rush as the character Lukas. Right from an early start in this film it becomes very easy to enjoy Lenny´s charming performance. I actually feel sorry for his character in one specific scene, you would have to see it to understand. Actor Will Coban as the brutal killer David is one of the highlights. Then we get an unexpected surprise such as some charming tap dance scenes between child actor Florrie Wilkinson and adult actor Wesley Alfvin that may not be horror related but i still appreciate the effort to entertain us as well. As a horror film i would say Haunting Of Queen Mary works as long as the brutality kicks in while there are a lot of dialogue scenes. We have to talk about one of the big issues that i have with this film and that is the length is over 2 hours long. That is quite a long time for a horror film and some scenes feels like they were added just to make this film longer. I believe they could have easily cut down this film 10 minutes at least and it still would have been a solid film. If you are a fan of haunting ships then you might actually appreciate this film, not only because it looks good but there are some good horror scenes as well. Director Gary Shore deliver a film that most likely fans of the ghost stories of Queen Mary will want to see, and i enjoyed this film for what it was trying to do. Looking for something to add your DVD collection on the genre of haunting films? Haunting Of Queen Mary will certainly fit well in there.

Rating: DDD

P.S. If you prefer to watch a physical copy of Haunting Of The Queen Mary, you can preorder a DVD copy at the following link on the UK release on January 22nd:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Haunting-Queen-Downie-Hudson-Alice/dp/B0CNS5FMLY

Monsters Of California

Why don´t you just sit down, relax and let me take you back to the year of 1999. For those of you who were young at that time might remember how popular punk pop was at that time after The Offspring had a huge worldwide hit with Pretty Fly ( For A White Guy ) just one year before. It was in the year of 1999 when pop punk got another hit sensation when American rock band Blink 182 released their single All The Small Things in the autumn of 1999. This music video was playing everywhere, on every channel and climbing up the single charts worldwide and especially getting the number 1 spot in both the US, UK and 2nd place in Scotland. This was from their studio album Enema Of The State which became a big seller worldwide and definetely helped Blink 182 get worldwide recognition by their fan base. At that time i was listening more to Nu Metal with the Korn album Issues, Limp Bizkit album Significant Other and the Tommy Lee project Methods Of Mayhem but i did pick up the Bling 182 album at the record store anyway. I remember enjoying it at that time and especially loved the music video of All The Small Things, especially making fun of boy bands such as Backstreet Boys. Blink 182 continued their success with the follow up album Take Off Your Pants And Jacket which i also have in my CD collection. Also a fun record if you are into punk pop / rock music. I even have the next self titled Blink 182 album released in 2003 as well. It was after touring and not getting along that the band decided to take a break in 2005. They have returned since then both with the original line up but especially one band member Tom DeLonge left and returned at different occations. Let´s stick with the band member Tom DeLonge for a while because he definetely made a lot of headlines worldwide after he publically decided to take time to investigate UFO´s instead of focusing on music all the time. I did see him in the History Channel Tv show Unidentified: Inside America´s UFO Investgation and it was an interesting show, even though i don´t know if i can believe all the theories. Either way in the autumn of 2023 i found out Tom DeLonge have released a film he directed called Monsters Of California. All i could see from the trailer was that he definetely was inspired by UFO theories and paranormal stuff as well making this film. I finally got a chance to sit down and watch this film and you might wonder, is this film better than anyone of us would have ever expected or should Tom DeLonge stick to making music instead of making films?

Dallas ( Jack Samson ) is a young man enjoying life with his best friends Riley ( Jared Scott ) and Toe ( Jack Lancaster ). Dallas mother Leah ( Arianne Zucker ) is concerned over her son trying to investigate supernatural things, when she is a devoted Christian who only wants the best for her son while having her own personal problems. One day Toe discover a mysterical device in one of Dallas father´s adult magazines in his garage. It seems that before Dallas father passed away he was investigating UFO sightings and other details in classified information. Dallas wants to find out what it was his father discovered at a certain location and bring his friends plus a new girl named Kelly( Gabrielle Haugh ) to go with him. What is the real truth and why is it classified from the public?

Remember the 2011 sci fi adventure film Super 8 from director J.J. Abrams that was a throwback to films of the past, where the main characters were young teenagers who experienced contact with aliens? Monsters Of California feels like a throwback to the 80´s and especially teenager films of that time period. In many ways i think a lot of us can relate to the characters of this film because we all remember how it was being young, where you lived life day by day and didn´t worry too much. There is even some paranormal influences in here but it is the UFO investigation that definetely is the most interesting part of Monsters Of California. Is this film original in any way? Not at all but i am ok with that, since i feel that director Tom DeLonge wanted to make a throwback to films of the 80´s and i actually feel he did a good job on this. The film looks good and i appreciate the friendship especially between the three main characters. Let´s talk about the acting and here is where we might say we have a mixed result. Some of the characters does a descent performance while others don´t really add much to the film and feels a bit stiff. But the three main actors Jack Samson, Jared Scott and Jack Lancaster have a great friendship chemistry on screen as their characters Dallas, Riley and Toe. I especially enjoy actress Gabrielle Haugh as Kelly, a cool young woman who´s just being herself. Really nice to see actor Casper Van Dien in here as the character Myers, i would have liked to see more screen time with him. We even have legendary actor Richard Kind in this film from Spin City as the character Doctor Walker. Since this film is clearly inspired by science fiction films and government secrets regarding UFO´s i feel director Tom DeLonge make this work well enough with the resources that he have. Any problems with Monsters Of California? I am sure i could probably mention a few details but why bother when i actually enjoyed this film. If you love teenage adventures from the 80´s and science fiction combined, Monsters Of California might actually please you. Director Tom DeLonge is not only a talented musician, he knows how to direct an 80´s inspired sci fi film as well. I will definetely have a look at Monsters Of California again at some point, this is my kind of popcorn film that doesn´t take itself too seriously.

Rating: DDD

Milli Vanilli

In the beginning of August in 1988 i was at a disco party with a school friend of mine called Anna Kajsa. She had the longest blond hair i have ever seen before and you would notice her easily on the dance floor. She had fixed this disco party in her parents garage since it was so big, it was pretty much like a combination of a garage and a basement combined. So she invited the whole class to this disco party to celebrate her birthday and the idea was she wanted everyone to dance that night. She was playing mixed cassette tapes that she have recorded. I remember hearing songs from Michael Jackson, Rick Astley, Tears For Fears, George Michael´s song Faith, Taylor Dayne song Tell It To My Heart and so many more pop song. It was easy to understand that Anna Kajsa was a big 80´s pop fan through her mixed cassette tapes. I remember that evening especially one song because Anna Kajsa and two other girls named Annika and Helena went insane when the Milli Vanilli song Girl You Know It´s True came on her cassette stereo. They danced like crazy and dragged me and two other guys to dance, so i did. I was terrible trying to do some kind of Milli Vanilli dance but i tried at least, you know to try and impess one of the girls. The song Girl You Know It´s True i had only seen on MTV like a couple of weeks before this birthday party was, but i was never really a Milli Vanilli fan. During this time in the 80´s i listened a lot to British rock band Queen, Irish rock band U2, Faith No More and many other bands so i had a completely different music taste. It was difficult not to notice how big Milli Vanilli came especially with the upcoming singles and the release of their debut album All Or Nothing. They were huge all over the world until one day in July of 1989 when everything crashed down during a live performance, and it turned out that Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus didn´t actually sing they were just doing lip syncing. It didn´t end there but by the end of 1990 the truth had come out and Milli Vanilli´s fame was gone as well as their music career. So here we are with a documentary film released last year hearing different people telling us how it all started who worked with this band, including Milli Vanilli member Fab Morvan being interviewed as well telling his side of the story. So the question is, does this documentary tell a story about Milli Vanilli in an interesting way or is it too basic and will most likely be forgotten about?

2 young men called Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus met a dance seminar at a club in Munich, Germany. They were talented dancers and clearly had a great chemistry and became close friends. Life was rough and they tried to make money to survive, until one day when German music producer Frank Farian noticed them and invited them both to his studio in Frankfurt. Being in need of money and knowing that this might be their big chance, since Frank was working as the producer of disco pop sensation Boney M in the 70´s. Fab and Rob are offered a contract to be in a new music project called Milli Vanilli. There is just one problem, none of them are allowed to sing so Frank will fix others singers instead. All Fab and Rob has to do is mime and dance on stage. For a while it works really good, Milli Vanilli becomes a pop sensation worldwide until one day the truth comes out.....

I personally did not know much about the whole story of Milli Vanilli and how it all started, so for me going into a documentary film such as this means there are some details i knew nothing about. For example i did not know that both Fab and Rob came from very difficult childhoods where especially Fab was a victim of child abuse. Being abused as a child will affect your life in many ways, so the fact that he managed to turn his life around together with Rob who also felt lost is a very inspiring story how they managed to find each other through dancing. I also had no idea that Fab was homeless when he was 18 years old in Paris, and to be able to go through that and become a pop star worldwide is an amazing story. It becomes very clear that the man who created Milli Vanilli known as music producer Frank Farian, only wanted to make money of their looks and dancing talent. He didn´t really care about Fab or Rob even though he knew he created a pop duo who could not sing in English and choosed to fake it instead. Money talks as they say and if you can create something successfull that people love, doesn´t matter if it´s real or not as long as you get paid a lot of money. There is a very fascinating story surrounding this pop duo and how they managed to become so successfull, and this documentary film does a good job explaining how they made this possible before they were revealed. The most interesting part is actually after they are revealed how both of these men struggled to find their way in life. The drug addiction that especially Rob Pilatus struggled with ended with him dead in a hotel room in 1998, and how do you go on after that being such close friends as Fab was to Rob after so many years? Fab Morvan tells us very openly how difficult this was. Milli Vanilli is a well made documentary film that shows that anyone can make a dream come true if you really are talented, but success comes with a price as well. Director Luke Korem manage to tell this story both from the people who knew Fab and Rob personally but also who worked with them to create Milli Vanilli. Even if you may not be a fan of Milli Vanilli, i think this documentary film shows that Milli Vanilli´s music will live on as long as people remember the good times this pop duo delivered to their audiences worldwide. The fact that Fab still tours to honor his dear friend and fans worldwide is of course wonderful. Who knows, even you might be doing a dance once you hear Girl You Know It´s True after watching this great documentary film.

Rating: DDD

The Reckoning

We all have some kind of celebrity that we look up to, no matter if we are talking about an artist, sport celebrity, actor, radio host, dancer, or any other famous personality you can think of. For me personally i have always looked up to Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren. Not only because he brought us several great action films over many years, but he seems to be a nice man who actually care about people. Did you know that he is the ambassador for Mentor Foundation who works to help children and young people from all kinds of abuse. The fact that this is something very important for Dolph himself i think it is wonderful he is trying to help young people who are going through abuse or have in the past. Any kind of abuse towards a child should never be allowed to happen, and i would want to live in a world where no child should ever go through something like this. I understand that we might not be able to stop every abuser but we have to try at least. Unless we stand up for the children or young people, they may never be able to live a normal life and become even more damaged in their lives than what they already are. In England a very popular DJ became one of the biggest TV star celebrities on BBC and did a lot of charity work over the years. Until the truth came out a year after his death in 2012 that Jimmy Savile had sexually abused and molested a lot of children in his career. I remember when i read this on the newspapers here in Sweden. I have seen Jimmy Savile on TV sometime in the early 90´s but never really watched any of his shows and just remembered his face. Over the years i heard rumours that legendary actor and comedian Steve Coogan was going to play Jimmy Savile in a TV mini series telling the story of how Jimmy´s career started and how things falled apart. So i finally sat down to watch the TV mini series The Reckoning and the question is, does Steve Coogan capture the looks and personality of Jimmy Savile or is this TV mini series not as good as i was hoping it would be?

On October 29, 2011, TV presenter Jimmy Savile passed away who was a beloved TV host and TV personality for many years across Great Britain. In 2012 it became clear that Jimmy Savile wasnt the friendly, loving man he might have tricked people to believe. In fact it turned out that he was a predator with far more victims than anyone could have ever imagined.

The Reckoning really show what a monster Jimmy Savile was, how he tricked children and teenagers thinking he was going to take care of them and molested many of them. A sickening behavior that pedophiles all around the world use daily to gain trust of their victims. This is a TV mini series that is very difficult to watch when you know how many children that Jimmy Savile molested and abused over the years, but the truth needs to be told. A story like this needs to be shown in public to make sure that people understand that these predators can be anywhere in public, at work, in school, a politician, a celebrity, basically anyone that we did not expect. Let´s get into why this TV mini series is so good and let us begin with the acting performance from British actor Steve Coogan. He does a brilliant acting performance and manage to capture the predator behavior in his performance of Jimmy Savile. He must have really studied the body language of Savile and how he put on a fake face mask to trick his victims. There is especially one scene ( i won´t go into details ) where he locks himself in with a young woman and you can see the fear in her eyes. This TV mini series does a really good job telling us how Jimmy Saville started his career as a DJ before he was the the very first presenter for the popular TV show Top Of The Pops and how his popularity contiued in the 70´s and the 80´s. One detail that i especially found interesting is when Savile had a rough time in the 90´s to stay popular. This is especially where we see that it´s getting harder for him to hide his true evil personality. The production of this TV mini series is really well made, the acting from the whole cast is really good and the dialogue is definetely powerful in the most disgusting scenes. The Reckoning may be really difficult for some people to watch, especially if you are a victim of child abuse or child molestation. I do feel that we need to make more people more aware of how predators function in society and The Reckoning definetely give us plenty of images of that. Directors Sandra Goldbacher and David Blair deliver one of the most emotional TV mini series i have seen in many years and we all need to see The Reckoning.

Rating: DDDD

Shrapnel

I always wanted to go to Texas to try their amazing barbecues, dress in tight jeans while wearing a cowboy hat and blend in with the Texas folks. It is possible i would visit a rodeo show or perhaps watch a country gig, after all if you are in Texas you want to experience as much as possible. A former working collegue of mine back in 2003 who´s name is Mathias he did travel to Texas. He showed me some pictures when this trip was done in the spring of 2003 and he had a really good time there. I remember he told me about one night while he and two of his American friends were drinking in a bar in El Paso, an older man in a pick up truck offered them to go to his home to drink more. That might have sounded like an ordinary invatation but it turns out he was trying to pick up younger men for his wife. He explained that he likes to watch men take his wife in bed, but Matthias laughed at this and was clearly not interested. They didn´t go with the older man in the pick up truck, but the fact that they were approached like this was insane by a complete stranger. Mathias told me though that the rest of trip was great and he really enjoyed his visit to Texas. The one thing he did admit was that he had too much beer on this trip and had a hangover almost every day. If i ever get to visit Texas i am more interested in knowing some of the history regarding Texas and their culture. Whenever i hear news regarding Texas it is usually regarding stories of immigrants who is trying to get into America. I have only seen border issues myself when i was at the border between Spain and Marocco, so i would imagine Texas does have a lot of challenges regarding the border. A lot of drugs are coming into America everyday even if border patrol is trying to stop illegal substances. Speaking of criminal acts, there is a film we barely hear much about these days that´s a really good crime drama called Narc starring legendary actor Ray Liotta and The Lost Boys actor Jason Patric. A cop film that´s both really well made and have powerful acting performances. If you like these kinds of films you should definetely check Narc out on streaming or physical media. Speaking of Jason Patric i did sit down to watch a film he made last year called Shrapnel, that takes place on the border between Texas and Mexico. Since i enjoy action films in a desert atmosphere i was curious to see if Shrapnel would be something in my taste. Is this an action film worth checking out or should you rather watch the 2017 action desert drama Revenge instead?

Former Marine Sean Beckwith ( Jason Patric ) finds out his daughter have been kidnapped by the Mexican cartel, Not knowing if she´s still alive or where she is being kept he decides to find out anything he can. The cartel finds out that Sean is looking for answers and they plan to make his life a living hell.

The best way to describe what kind of film Shrapnel really is would be to call it a throwback to action films of the 80´s and 90´s. There is no big plot here and this is a film more focused on the revenge of a father, a lot like we used to see from action films in the VHS rental stores. In many ways you could say that Shrapnel is a film that will most likely be appreciated by fans to classics such as the 1990 film Revenge with Kevin Costner. Not that they have similar plots or anything but the revenge theme shines very bright in both of these films. Let´s get into the details i enjoy most about Shrapnel and we have to start with lead actor Jason Patric as the lead action star of this film. He reminds me of a younger version of Liam Neeson where he makes sure that the mexican cartel knows he´s serious and is not afraid to risk his own life. There are some action scenes with Jason Patric that works surprisingly well that i did not expect, especially when it get really violent. Even if i have seen Jason do stronger acting performances such as in Narc i would still say he does a great job being an action star in Shrapnel. Actor Cam Gigandet ( yes the guy from the cool horror action film Priest ) works well in his character Max. This film looks good and i feel that they capture the Texas desert atmosphere really well with wide shots, especially during a ranch attack with the mexican cartel. Some of the actors doing the Mexican cartel characters manage to look evil and shows no remorse of causing chaos. Of course we have to bring up some negative things as well and let us begin with actress Keisa Elwin as the character Susan. Her performance is unfortunately weak and im sure she is a wonderful woman in real life, but she didn´t really do much with her character in this film. I feel that the dramatic scenes doesn´t add anything to this film, they could have skipped these scenes completely. Being the action fan that i am i had fun with Shrapnel, it may be silly and doesn´t bring anything we have not seen before but i just want lots of violence and bullets in a film like this and that´s what we get. Director William Kaufman ( director of the great action thriller Sinners And Saints ) knows what the action audience wants and deliver a film that VHS fans will appreciate. Tired of watching Love Island on TV? I suggest you let Shrapnel guide you to the true island where bullets do the talking.

Rating: DDD