Home Sweet Home: Rebirth

Back in the late 90´s i used to play a lot of PlayStation games. On certain weekends i would visit my gaming school friend Anders who owned a lot of video games with his brother Dennis on Super Nintendo, Sega Megadrive and especially PlayStation 1. This is the same Anders i mentioned in reviews in the past who ordered uncut VHS films from the UK. Anyway, since Anders bought a lot of video games on PlayStation i could just borrow some titles from him instead of buying new releases. I did buy about 20 PlayStation games, but compared to Anders i didn´t have a library of titles. I would guess he probably owned about 300 PlayStation games so i did enjoy trying a lot of titles. Of the games that i personally owned i especially had 4 favourite games and those titles are Tenchu - Stealth Assassins, Medal Of Honor, MediEvil and Syphon Filter. Let´s talk about Syphon Filter for a moment and why this was a cool game in the year of 1999. This is a third-person shooter video game where you play as special agent Gabriel. He is on a mission to apprehend a German international terrorist. What made this video game enjoyable was how effective the gameplay was while you were taking down criminals at different locations, and i have to mention how smooth it was to reload your weapons in gun battles. The game graphics of Syphon Filter may look old today compared to modern games but i still think this is a cool nostalgic video game. Speaking of video games there are a lot of video games turned into live action adaptations in Hollywood. We have several Mortal Kombat films ( the latest Mortal Kombat film is coming out this year on October 24 ) and you have classics such as the 1994 martial art action film Street Fighter, wich was legendary actor Raul Julia´s final acting performance. One film adaptation based on a video game i recently discovered is a horror film called Home Sweet Home: Rebirth. Based on the 2017 Thai video game ( a game i have not tried so far ) i was curious to see if this might be something i may appreciate. Is this a good choice to watch this autumn during a rainy day or is Home Sweet Home: Rebirth not worth your precious time at all?

Jake ( William Moseley ), a dedicated police officer, travel to Bangkok, Thailand, to enjoy a vacation with his wife, Prang ( Urassaya Sperbund ), and their young daughter, Loo ( Akeira Hadden ). Jake have a hard time letting go off work which his wife doesn´t appreciate. While visiting a shopping mall this trip takes a horrifying turn when a mass shooting erupts at this shopping mall. Jake confronts the shooter, Mek ( Michele Morrone ), who cryptically refers Jake as "The Keeper" before triggering an explosion that kills them both. Jake awakens in "The Hinderance", a purgatorial realm between life and death. Here, he encounters Chan ( Alexander Lee, a novice monk who reveals that Jake´s death was a part of a ritual to open the Gates of Hell. Chan explains that Jake is the prophesied "Keeper" destined to prevent the Apocalypse.

Since i never played the video game this film is based on i will give you my personal opinion about this film from my own perspective. The first thing that came to my mind while watching Home Sweet Home: Rebirth is that i could feel influences from the classic video game franchise known as Resident Evil. Obviously this is not a similar story or have any characters that are the same as in Resident Evil, but there are some horrror scenes where you get a sense that they may have been inspired by the classic horror video game franchise. For example in some scenes with actor William Moseley´s character Jake he tries to kill a possessed looking woman who still attacks no matter how many times his bullets enter her body, and we have seen something similar in Resident Evil games. Im ok with this since i feel a lot of horror films are inspired by many classic horror films or comic books as well. As a horror film in general i did find myself enjoying this film, especially for the apocalyptic approach with plenty of action scenes in general. If you remember the 2015 action thriller No Escape with Owen Wilson protecting his family in Thailand, Home Sweet Home: Rebirth have a similar plot with supernatural horror influences instead. One detail i really appreciate with this film is how they tell a part of the story in  "The Hindrance", the spiritual world of the dead. This is where we see demons, monsters and understand how this other side of the world works. I do like the chemistry between actors William Moseley and Alexander Lee in the spiritual world. Anything negative to say? There are some terrible acting performances from certain characters and some CGI effects are a bit cheesy, but if you can accept these things and just enjoy this film as simple apocalyptic horror film, you might actually enjoy this one. Directors Steffen Hacker and Alexander Kiesl have made a film that clearly feels like a throwback to demonic horror action films of the 90´s and i appreciate their effort. I welcome this genre with open arms, sometimes it´s nice seeing a film that don´t care about what´s trending on social media.

Rating: DDD