New Life

Physical media may not be as big as it used to be but there are people like myself who still buy them. I love to have a big movie collection of many different categories, i can watch any classic i want without looking on Netflix if they have any of the titles that´s on my mind. Usually i buy some more titles during holiday weekend like Christmas when they sell out certain titles and if im lucky i can get some really good deals. However, at certain times i have preordered films that i really want to see during it´s release week and especially ordering the films from other countries than Sweden. You see some independent films doesn´t get released here compared to in the UK, Germany and France, so i have bought a bunch of titles over the years all across Europe. For example from Germany i did buy a physical blu ray copy the 2019 sci fi horror film The Dustwalker, a film that never was released in physical media here in Sweden. I especially loved the front cover of The Dustwalker, it reminded me of B movies of the 70´s and 80´s with a creature that looked like a deformed sand worm. Luckily the German release wasn´t completely dubbed ( some physical releases are in Germany ). The film itself turned out to be average only and i did review this film in this blog, so if you want to know my personal opinion regarding this film go read my review published back in 2020. If i mention the name of Sonya Walger some of you might recognize this name. If you have seen the survival psychological TV series Lost that went on TV between the years of 2004 - 2010, you might remember her character Penelope. That was actually the first time i have seen actress Sonya Walger on TV so when i saw she released a horror thriller called New Life this year i decided to order a physical blu ray from France since it was released there in September. I thought it would be interesting to see her doing a independent horror film that´s completely different from the TV series Lost. Is this a film you should check out this Halloween weekend or is it not as good as i was hoping it would be?

A young woman named Jessica Murdock ( Hayley Erin ) is travelling across America on her own, trying to find somwhere to sleep and eat. She finds an old barn out in the middle of nowhere and the next day enter the old house. The owner Frank ( Blaine Palmer ) and his wife can see she have had a rough time and they offer her to stay for a meal. She is more than welcome to stay at the farm and help if she wants but Jessica wants to move on with her journey. What Jessica doesn´t know is that she is carrying the deadly disease Ebola and everyone she meets along this journey could be infected. She has to be stopped or many people could end up in a body bag.

Since i didn´t really know anything about this film other than seeing the movie poster i basically knew nothing about the plot of New Life. And to be honest that´s actually the best way to approach certain films, especially if you want to know as little as possible in case the film have some unexpected twist. New Life may seem like a horror film only through the poster but this is more of a mixture of a thriller and a horror film. The most interesting part about this film is that the private contractor known as Elsa ( played by actress Sonya Walger ) is suffering in the early stages of the disease ALS, where she can feel it is becoming more difficult to work even though she have promised to finish this job. The second part of this film that´s also interesting is that the main character Jessica ( played by actress Hayley Erin ) is carrying the disease of Ebola and doesn´t know it, yet everyone she is near becomes infected and will eventually die. So you have two different characters both dealing with very serious health issues where private contractor Elsa have to capture Jessica before she get more people infected. I suppose in some ways this film reminded me of the virus thriller Contagion from 2011 even though these films do have very different plots. In general the acting is good especially from actors Sonya Walger and Hayley Erin and i do feel that you get to know interesting details regarding some of the characters. I like the approach this film does regarding an investigation that´s quite different from we are used to see. For example when Elsa is trying to hunt down Jessica she can´t run, she has to use a walking stick since the ALS disease is making her weaker. The few horror scenes we are offered here do work and i do enjoy the plot in general. Anything that could have been done better? I am not sure, i think this film in general managed to made me pleased with the final result. New Life may not be original but i do feel this film have found a way to combine two fascinating characters into the plot. Director John Rosman deliver a beautiful looking film that may not be for everyone, but if you are interested in diseases and a deadly virus i feel that you should give this film a chance. New Life is definetely worth a watch if you want to see something different from most VOD releases.

Rating: DDD