Marty Supreme ( Blu ray review )

No matter what you are doing at this very moment, grab yoursself a cup of fresh brewed coffe, or a fresh cup of tea and let us go back to the year of 2019. That´s not that long ago right? Very true, but there is a very good reason to why this year is very important, especially in the subject known as movies. This was the year when director´s  Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie brought us one of the best films of that year, that was actually released on the streaming service Netflix. If you don´t know what film i am talking about, i can tell you that it is the powerful Netflix drama known as Uncut Gems. Now, if you have read my reviews over the years you may have seen i have been critical to some Adam Sandler films, for a very good reason. Some of his streaming comedies on Netflix have been pretty terrible, except that i enjoyed his 2024 space drama Netflix film Spaceman. But it´s still nowhere near as good as Uncut Gems is, the best film Adam Sandler have ever done in my opinion. Uncut Gems tell the story of Howard Ratner ( played by Adam Sandler ), a Jewish-American jeweler and gambling addict who must retrieve an expensive 2008 NBA Championship ring he purchased, in order to pay off his debt. Uncut Gems is a perfect example of how dangerous it is being a gambling addict, or addicted to making money in general where you don´t have any limits. Howard Ratner may be a character in a script, but there are so many people out there struggling with gambling addiction as this character does. Adam Sandler is absolutely brilliant in the lead role and the film looks so gorgeous. This is my personal favourite streaming film on Netflix so far and i have probablu watched it 10 times since it came out. There is actually a really good 4KUltraHD release of Uncut Gems from the distrubution company Criterion Collection. One of the director´s of Uncut Gems, the man known as Josh Safdie, released his own film Marty Supreme last year with critical praise and being nominated at the 83rd Golden Globe Awards and the 98th Acadamey Awards. I was supposed to see this film in cinema late last year, but somewhere a long the way those plans were changed. So, to prepare for this review of Marty Supreme i decided to get a physical blu ray copy from the UK ( since this film is not coming out on physical media until June 9th here in Sweden ). Being such a critically acclaimed film worldwide, is Marty Supreme as good as many films critics have been saying or is this just a waste of your precious time?

In New York City in 1952, Marty Mauser ( Timothée Chalamet ) works as a shoe salesman in his uncle Murray Norkin´s ( Larry "Ratso" Sloman ) shop while also competing profesionally as a table tennis player. Marty dreams of winning the British Open to bring American attention to the sport. He also pitches selling orange "Marty Supreme" novelty table tennis ballsto his friend Dion Galanis ( Luke Manley ) and his father. But the journey to reach his goal to have a successfull career within table tennis comes with many challenges, queston is if Marty is prepared to sacrifice everything to reach to the top?

I know that last year there were many film critics calling this film as ome of the best of the year of 2025. My personal opinion is, i don´t think it´s that brilliant. I do think this film holds some really solid levels of quality, especially when it comes to the acting, the costume deisgn and some really effective dialogue scenes. But best film of 2025? I personally feel that i would have probably chosen the Netflix horror film Frankenstein over this one if im being completely honest. Of all films to compare between, why compare Frankenstein to Marty Supreme? One of the biggest issues with Marty Supreme is that the story is all over the place. And even if Frankenstein is a very classic tale that have been told in many different film adaptations, i feel that this version proved to be the most powerful adaptation so far. Director Guillermo del Toro proved with Frankenstein you can make a classic story, tell it slightly different than before and still make if feel so fascinating. I can sort of understand why Marty Supreme needs to be told the way the story is developed, because there are some parts that´s actually really good. But the table tennis scenes is where this film lost me a little bit. Never been interested in table tennis ( even though i have played some back in the early 90´s with school friends ), and even if the table tennis scenes looks good from a technical camera perspective, this is still a sport that i never really cared about. Where this film really works is outside the table tennis scenes where we follow Marty´s chaotic life. This is where things get much more interesting regarding our main character. Lead actor Timothée Chalamet ( really good in the latest Dune films )  as Timmy Mauser is the strongest acting performance in this film. The way he manage to portrait Timmy with facial expressions, his attitude combined with personality is a true winning combination. I personally never cared about if he will be succesfull or not in table tennis, i just want to know how he will be able to control himself before things fall apart. Actress Odessa A´zion gives a really powerful performance as the pregnant character Rachel. The soundtrack filled with 80´s classics actually works well with this film, even though this film is set in the 1950´s. You might think that shouldn´t be possible but this is not an issue for me, somehow the story manage to match to the music. Marty Supreme is a story of finding your place in life, taking chances and work really hard to reach your future goals. A film filled with real top quality acting, smooth dialogue and strong characters. Director Josh Safdie may not have made a future classic, but this is definetely one of the better films i have seen this spring. Marty Supreme hits all the right notes and proves that there is still hope for high quality films.

Rating: DDDD

If you want a physical copy from the Uk with some nice special features, you can pick up your own copy on the following link:

MARTY SUPREME BLU-RAY: Amazon.co.uk: Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Kevin O'Leary, Tyler the Creator, Abel Ferrara, Fran Drescher: DVD & Blu-ray

Exit Protocol ( Blu ray review )

Everyone have something that will always cheer you up, no matter if it´s a specific song, perhaps a favourite book, or could even be a favourite film. No matter what makes you happy on a bad day, i say go for it. After all we go through so many rough times in life, we have to be able to enjoy certain moments as well. Me personally i have several things that can make me really happy. For example i love listening to Kula Shaker´s debut album K released in 1996, one of my personal favourite rock albums of all time. Whenever i hear songs like Grateful When You´re Dead, Hey Dude, Govinda, Tattva, Knight On The Town and many other songs, i just get into the groove and just rock out. Now, when i have to choose a film i could easily choose a classic like Taxi Driver, Fargo, Leon The Professional, Godfellas and many more. Sometimes though i just want to watch something that really entertain me, for a completely different reason. And this is where i would choose without a doubt to wach the 1992 action sci fi film Universal Soldier. Seriously, what else do you need? Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as super soldiers, fighting against each other in a whole film? There are some funny scenes as well that comes out of nowhere. You can´t ask for much more than this, and this is why i love Universal Soldier being just a fun action movie for movie nerds like myself. Since i mentioned Dolph Lundgren, i have always said over the years he is one of the best actors ever from Sweden. He may not be the best always at delivering dramatic acting, but he really knows how to deliver funny dialogue and of course make great action films. I love so many of his films, how can you not watch Red Scorpion, The Punisher, Dark Angel, Showdown In Little Tokyo, Men Of War? I have seen a lot of his more modern action films as well over many years, most of them i do enjoy. One of the films that came out on blu ray in Germany this spring is called Exit Protocol. Not only does this film include Dolph but also action actor / martial art actor Michael Jai White. Of course i had to pick up a physical copy for this review. Is this another solid action release with Dolph, or have he lost some of his charm along the way with Exit Protocol?

Professional assassin Sam Hayden ( Scott Martin ) have been killing clients for many years, he is fed up with this job. He decides it is finally time to end his assassin career, and find a different purpose in his life. But what do you do when your past never leaves you behind, and you are forced to find a different way out, knowing it could end your life completely?

Let me be very clear by saying this. If you don´t enjoy old school American action films from the VHS era, i can tell you right now that Exit Protocol is definetely nothing that will make you happy. This is as basic as you could get from an action formula that we have seen so many times befiore, and yet we keep coming back to watch these kinds of movies. I could sit here and find flaws and talk about what this film doesn´t have that could have been interesting, but this is the kind of film that was made for the true fans of Dolph Lundgren. Where the script doesn´t matter, we don´t care about the main plot, just give us action scenes with guns and cheesy dialogue just like we did in the 80´s and 90´s. And this is exactly why you should watch a film such as Exit Protocol if you just want to be entertained, a film so easy to digest you don´t have to think anything at all. And it´s actually nice to have films like these made still to this day, everything doesn´t have to be serious all the time. So what does work with this film? Let me point out that if you enjoy simple plots that don´t feel complicated at all, then this should be something for you. The plot is so simple it could have been written at a McDonald´s restaurant napkin ( on both sides of course or there would be no plot ). This is basically an assassin action film that reminded me of films like Assassin with Sylverster Stallone, and even the 2011 action film Assassination Game with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Scott Adkins. None of these films have the same plots as Exit Protocol, but you can sense that it is similar films that inspired director Shane Dax Taylor to make this film. Dolph is actually not the lead actor in this film so that´s kind of surprising, but i can totally accept that. Lead actor Scott Martin does alright in his lead role as assassin Sam, fun to see him work together with Dolph since they worked together on the action film Best Man. Michael Jai White does alright as well, i can´t really complain. Something i appreciate about this film is to show that working as an assassin, that means you can´t have a normal family life. Sam is bascially going from work to work, no real family, no purpose in life other than work. That really show you that this job doesn´t give you much else other than just a paycheck. One of the issues i might have is that some of the gun battle scenes might feel a little bit stiff. If you are going to make shoot out scenes, make them fun and entertainng at least. Otherwise i think this is a pretty solid action film if you just want something simple to enjoy.  Director Shane Dax Taylor deliver a film made for old school action fans, i think that pretty much says all you need to know.

Rating: DDD

If you want a physical blu ray copy of this film, you can buy your copy on the following link:

Exit Protocol [Blu-ray]: Amazon.de: Martin, Scott, Lundgren, Dolph, White, Michael Jai, Kirk, Charlotte, Taylor, Shane Dax, Martin, Scott, Lundgren, Dolph: DVD & Blu-ray

We Bury The Dead ( Blu ray review )

If there is one specific category where you can find a lot of different stories, it is within the catgeory known as post apocalyptic films. You have pure horror films within this genre, and then you have more science fiction inspired stories combined with some drama influences. There are a couple of thriller post apocaplyptic films out there as well, but for the most part it seems that films makers forcus on horror stories mostly. There are several post apocalyptic films i could easily recommend, depending on what genre you enjoy most between horror or science fiction films. But let´s focus on one specific title at this moment that you can actually find on Netflix where it´s streaming. We are of course talking about the 2017 post apocalyptic horror film Cargo, based on a short film from 2013 directed by Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke. The short film Cargo is actually great ( you can watch it on YouTube ) but the 2017 Netflix film adaptation from the same directors is actually even better. Cargo tell the story of father Andy ( played by actor Martin Freeman, mostly known from the British TV series Sherlock, who does a really good performance in this film ), who tries to protect his baby daughter Rosie ( Lily Anne McPherson-Dobbins ) from the undead walking around the Australian wilderness. He lost his wife who unfortunately turned into one of the undead, so he is basically alone out there trying to survive. Cargo is a very well made post apocalyptic film where the Australian outdoors looks really beautiful, the characters are well written and the acting is in general really good. I do think the Australian wilderness mathches the story really good, since this is in the middle out ow nowhere so if you get attacked there is no one who can help you. Definetely worth a watch on Netflix if you have not seen Cargo. Speaking of Australia and zombies, early this year a new horror film called We Bury The Dead was released in cinemas workdwide. Sweden didn´t show this film in theatres here, so i decided to pick up a physical blu ray copy from the UK instead. Considering i have always been a fan of post apocalyptic films and zombie films in general, is this film worth to watch or should you rather go and watch Cargo on Netflix instead?

After the United States accidently detonates an experimental weapon of the Eastern coast of Tasmania, the city of Hobart is destroyed, and victims on the island not caught in the immediate blast are rendered brain dead. It seems like some of these undead function in different ways, some of them barely move while others are far more advanced and may attack. The Australian military need all the help they can get, to take care of all the rotting dead bodies they have to move from different locations. American physiotherapist Ava Newman ( Daisy Ridley ), volunteers to help taking care of the dead bodies. Ava is placed on a team with Clay ( Brenton Thwaites ), who go through homes looking for the undead, where some of them might still be alive. Ava´s biggest concern is to find out if her husband Mitch ( Matt Wheland ) is still alive.

To say that We Bury The Dead is a very traditional zombie film would be wrong to say. Sure, there are zombies seen in this film during different locations, but what this film really is trying to say is how we deal with a world that changed. Nothing is what it used to be, and when we need ordinary citizens working to pick up dead bodies everywhere, you know that this is not the society that we were all hoping for. There are no ordinary schools running, no shops running either. It is basically just taking the supplies that you need too survive. Some people don´t even know if their loved ones have survived or have turned into the undead. Which is why our main character Ava is very important, connected to the main plot and the struggling she is going through trying to find her husband. One thing i really appreciate about We Bury The Dead is that they mostly use still standing zombies, not running, just giving us very disturbing eye contact with their dead eyes. Even if some of them move they do this in a creepy way, while we get too see a few faster. Reminded me a bit of director Lucio Fulci´s classic Zombie Flesh Eaters, since this is one of those zombie films where zombies barely move that fast at all. I appreciate that We Bury The Dead tries to go back to that old school format of 1970´s zombie films, it helps this film stand out a little bit in this specific genre, and the practical make up effects of the zombies look great. When it comes to the main character Ava Newman, i personally feel that actress Daisy Ridley ( who you most likely recoginze from the latest Star Wars films as the character Rey ) deliver a solid performance of a woman trying to deal with so many issues. The horror elements works well with the plot, and i have to say the cinematography by Steve Annis looks great. We Bury The Dead is actually a nice surprise in a horror genre that´s been having a difficult time finding interesting stories, this is actually a solid choice if you enjoy movies that includes zombies. Perhaps some dialogue scenes are a bit too long and dull, otherwise i can´t really complain. Director Zak Hilditch ( who directed the solid 2013 Australian post-apocalyptic thriller These Final Hours, worth checking out on physical media ) proves with We Bury The Dead it is still possible to give life to this specific horror genre, and definetely worth picking up if you love physical media just like myself. No speacial features on this UK blu ray release that i got, still worth adding to your horror collection.

Rating: DDD

If you want a special release of We Bury The Dead on a 4KUltraHD release with a blu ray included, you can get a special release of this film from the Australian distribution company Umbrella Entertainment on the following link:

We Bury the Dead (2025) 4K & Blu-ray — Umbrella Entertainment

Trap House

A lot of wrestlers have turned into actors in their wrestling careers. We saw it happen with André The Giant, Hulk Hogaan, "Rowdy"  Roddy Piper, Jesse Ventura, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, John Cena, Steve Austin and many others. In a way i can understand why this is a great oppurtunity, to continue your career outside the wrestling ring. With the right script, the right character and a story that works well, it is possible to make a film focused on a famous wrestler. Wrestling icon Hulk Hogan definetely proved his acting ability in the 1982 film Rocky III against Sylvester Stallone as legendary character Rocky Balboa. Unfortunately, the films that followed in Hulk Hogan´s career did not really give him any superstar recognition. It was basically in the wrestling ring he could continue his career. I will say though i did enjoy him in the TV movie Shadow Warrior ( also known as Attack On Devil´s Island ) from 1997, together with legendary actor Carl Weathers, martial arts action legend Billy Blanks and actress Shannon Tween. I remember recording this film on VHS while Swedish TV channel TV3 showed this film. Basically i would say that the TV film Shadow Warrior is a very typical macho American action film. Big muscles, big guns and hot chicks all combined. Hulk Hogan plays SEAL team leader Mike McBride with his SEAL partner Roy Brown ( Carl Weathers ) travel to the Bahamas, to lead an assault to an island fort named Devil´s Island. If you just want a very simple action film that reminded you of the action movies of the 80´s, then Shadow Warrior should be what you are looking for. I can´t remember if i ever saw the sequel released in 1998, i just remember the first film honestly. Anyway, wrestler Dave Bautista have made a lot of films over the years of different qualities. His most famous role by now is without as the character Drax the Destroyer in the Guardians Of The Galaxy franchise. I did enjoy him in the 2013 film Riddick with Vin Diesel as well, and of course in Blade Runner 2049 where he proved he does know how to act. I have to mention i appreciated his performance in the 2021 Netflix horror film Army Of The Dead as the character Scott Ward, he was the right kind of character leading a team of zombie killers. I recently sat down to watch one of his films released last year on Amazon Prime called Trap House, that had very mixed reviews online. Being a fan of Dave and some of his previous film, is this one of his better titles or ir Trap House a hopeless attempt to cash in on his name only?

DEA Agent Ray Seale ( Dave Bautista ) is a single father after losing his wife in cancer, raising his son Cody Seale ( Jack Champion ) as good as he can. When the father of Jesse Padilla ( Blu del Barrio ) is murdered during a DEA operation, the whole family is shattered. They can´t afford to live in their house anymore and DEA won´t help the family with any money. Cody and his friends decide to do a very risky operation to collect money to their friend Jesse and his family. They will steal money from the Mexican drug cartel in trap houses, where they stash money. Their first attempt only manage to steal around 500 U.S. dollars which is far from enough. They decide to do more heists, even though they know they are risking their own lives and others around them.

The first thing that came to my mind after watching Trap House is how 90´s this film feel. It really felt like something that would have been released on VHS back in the day, where you throw different ideas together and mix it all into a blender. Now, i don´t mind if you try to combine two genres as long as you make the film work. And this is where we find one of my issues with Trap House. Because the action scenes with Dave Bautista is actually the best part of the film, in the few scenes where he actually have something to do. It´s the other genre that this film try to combine that does not work with the action scenes. And that is this film is trying to be a High School Musical without the musical numbers, but starring a gang of annoying young people. Why are they annoying? How realistic is it to see these young people survive against a Mexican drug cartel? Not realistic at all and honestly none of these teenagers have any professional weapon training or know how the cartel works. So to let these young people do several big heists against the cartel when we all know they would be killed instantly, this is my main issue with Trap House. If it was a smaller criminal gang doing money laundry or something, that might have worked. But to go up against the Mexican cartel and fix things this easy? To be completely honest this makes this film looks silly. If they would have focused on telling the story with Bautista´s character Ray Seale and his work at the DEA, this would have been a more fun action film. The teenagers could have just showed up in certain scenes, and leave the hard work to the real professionals. Some of the action scenes looks ok, and i do thing the cinematography by Matt Flannery ( who worked as a cinematographer o both The Raid films ) looks good. But that´s about it that i can say that´s positive. If they only would have given Dave Bautista the main character role and just went for an old school action story, Trap House could have been enjoyable. What we are left with is a 90´s inspired action film with family film influences thrown in there. Director Michael Dowse ( who directed the brilliant film It´s All Gone Pete Tomg ) deliver a film that have a few fun moments, but fails to entertain me thanks to the annoying teenagers. It´s not a disaster, but you might as well watch Shadow Warrior with Hulk Hogan and you might be more entertained. Trap House is one of those streaming films that will most likely be forgotten, once you have watched it.

Rating: DD

Posthouse

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

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

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

Rating: DDD

Lookout

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

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

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

Rating: DD

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

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

40 Years Anniversary Movie Review Of Stand By Me

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

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

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

Rating: DDDD

Jurassic Reborn ( Blu ray review )

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

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

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

Rating: DDD

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

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

Good Boy ( Blu ray review )

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

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

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

Rating: DDD

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

Good Boy – Filmvalvet - Studio S & Friends

The Long Walk ( Blu ray review )

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

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

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

Ratiing: DDDD

Hunting Season

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

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

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

Rating: DDD

Delivery Run

Fast food delivery, the perfect way to relax at home if you want to watch a movie, just watch some Netflix show or perhaps just read a good book while eating. I have ordered a lot of fast food delivery in my days, and especially on a weekend if im really tired from work. Usually i like to order from Subway, simply because i love a lot of their brilliant sandwiches.. If you want to make them more healthy, you just get more vegetables and less sauce. Unless i want a real pizza night and just order one, just to enjoy while having Netflix playing iin the background. If i want a good laugh i just watch a classic comedy with legendary comedian John Candy, or Chevy Chase. You can never go wrong with either films of Fletch or the sequel Fletch Lives ( i own both of them on blu ray ). When it comes to movies that bring up the subject of fast food, or restaurant food in general we have a lot of titles to choose between. I have especially a personal favourite, and it´s not about specifically about delivery food. It is a British independent horror film called K-Shop from director Dan Pringle. This film takes place inside a British town, where young people love to party and enjoy fast food on their night out. On a local kebab restaurant where employee Salah ( Ziad Abaza ) deal with drunk customers, his own father ( who owns this restaurant ) gets pushed on to the ground by thugs. His father is seriously injured and ends up dying, Salah have no other option but to take over his father´s restaurant. Each night he deal with drunk customers, he accidently murder one of the customers. To get rid of the body, he chops it up and make kebab meals of the human flesh. Who is going to know? K-Shop is a very brutal, gory horror film that looks good, have good acting and use effective practical make up effects. Definetely worth picking up on physical media. Speaking of fast food, a thriller film called Delivery Run looked interesting last year when i watched the trailer. I was able to get a physical copy of this film to review it. Is this a thriller you should watch, or should Deliver Run be thrown in a trash can together next to bad food?

Delivery driver Lee ( Alexander Arnold ) is in a very difficult spot in his life. He owns money to different people, he is struggling to keep his bills paid. He does still have his job delivering food, but that´s not going to get him the money he needs. While driving out food he encounter a big snow plow truck that almost ram him off the road. Lee have no idea who this maniac is, and as he continue to deliver food, driving around the winter landscape, he is about to meet this maniac again.

Did you by any chance see the 2020 psychological thriller Unhinged with Russel Crowe as a psychopath? Imagine that film but made into a fast food delivery winter version, add the Jeepers Creepers truck as well ( at least i was reminded of this specific truck ) and you pretty much have the description of the film Delivery Run. This is a very simple plot and very easy to get into, it almost feels like that kind of film we would get back on VHS in the 80´s or the 90´s at the rental store. No complicated characters, just made for a certain type of audience who loves similar films such as Unhinged. One difference though is that the film Delivery Run have some comedy influences thrown into this thriller, which doesn´t always work to be honest. I do appreciate the effort though, because in the 90´s we actually had quite a lot of thriller comedy releases ( with a mixed result, and i highly recommend the 1997 thriller comedy Suicide Kings with legendary actor Christopher Walker ). It takes a while before the thriller aspects kicks in, even though this is a short film landing on 77 minutes only. What makes this film work outside of the thriller sequences, is the lead character Lee ( played by actor Alexander Arnold, who i recognized from the 2018 war action drama film The Outpost ). Lee is that kind of nerdy character with no luck, always getting himself in trouble while he does have a good heart. I think the character of Lee match well with the plot of this film, considering he is a perfect example of a man who have a hard time finding his place in life. The performance from from Alexander Arnold is alright, Actress Nadine Higgin as money collector Rebecca is a highlight in this film. Ok, so we have to mention what doesn´t work that well. The attempt of humour in this film doesn´t match well with the thriller aspect. I see what they were trying to do, not a bad idea, but to be able to make this combination work you have to have some funny dialouge at least. As a thriller though this film still manage to deliver some good times, and director Joey Palmroos was clearly inspired by the 80´s and 90´s film making this film. If you just want something simple to watch, Delivery Run will most likely be a good watch on VOD.

Rating: DDD

Horrible B Movies Of The 90´s: Howling VII - New Moon Rising ( 1995 )

I have some really good memories of the 90´s and im grateful being a teenager during this time, The concerts i experienced, all the cinema visits i did every month watching so many classic box office classics, all the Nintendo and Super Nintendo games i played with my friends. Of course we spent a lot of time down at the VHS rental stores renting great martial art films, action films and of course horror movies as well. Speaking of horror movies i have to say the 90´s were filled with some really fun releases. You had the bigger Hollywood releases with great actors, then you had the low budget releases that basically went straight to VHS ( at least here in Sweden ), unless some of them were lucky to be picked up for a theatrical release. For example i remember when me and my school friend Anders picked up Puppet Master 5 on VHS. But it wasn´t in the rental store here in Sweden, instead he ordered it from the UK since Anders was a customer at a British film sale company. If you are familiar with the Puppet Master franchise you know we are talking about killer dolls, or should i perhaps say killer puppets. I was excited about this 5th film in this franchise, since i enjoyed the previous films for different reasons. My favourite have always been Puppet Master 2 and still is to this day. Puppet Master 5 was probably the last Puppet Master film i enjoyed for many years, since after that they really just cashed in on doing prequels and sequels. This film still had some fun kills with the famous killer puppets, and i would say it´s still worth a watch if you enjoy these kinds of B movies. Speaking of another famous horror franchise, who remember the classic 1981 werewolf horror film The Howling? I am still a fan of this film, and then we had all the sequels that were...very different for a number a reasons. I know the second The Howling film is a fan favourite for many people, i can still enjoy it but i prefer the original film. Howling 3, Howling 4, Howling 5 and Howling 6, what about these ones? Well, let´s just say they exist and i think most people have forgotten about them. I have seen them all in the past and i can tell you, especially the sequels from the 90´s are all horrible. One of the worst films in this franchise ( according to most film critics and audiences ) is the film known as Howling VII - New Moon Rising. I actually didn´t see this film until the year of 2018 when i found the film on YouTube (i had only seen the VHS cover of this film in the past ). I decided to watch this film to try and understand why this is such a hated film in this franchise. Have this film gotten better over the years, or is Howling VII - New Moon Rising even worse in present day, possibly one of the worst werewolf horror movies of all time?

In the small town of Pioneertown, a number of livestock and people have been killed mysteriously, and this appears to be the work of a large aninal. A woman´s decayed corpse is found in the desert, she is identified as the local woman known as Marylou Summers ( Cheryl Allen ). While the investigation is going on what happened to this woman, Australian drifter Ted Smith ( Clive Turner ) arrive to Pioneertown, looking for work. They agree to hire him at the local bar, and he seems to get along pretty good with everyone. But the fear of this large animal running out there, does make some of the local people nervous. What is really out there in the desert causing this chaos?

There are a lot of questions that we may never have answered about Howling VII - New Moon Rising.

 

Why does this film have scenes of linedancing where everyone looks completely bored? 

What´s up with the strangest cleaning dance i have ever seen inside a bar wearing Mexican hats ( for some reason ) ?

Is everyone in this town drinking booze everyday since most people seem bored and need to drink to have fun?

I could go on and probably ask at least 20 more questions because nothing makes sense with this film. In a way you could say that Howling VII - New Moon Rising is so terrible that it´s actually entertaining. And i will admit i did laugh in some scenes, because once you try to understand the plot you still don´t understand anything. This film tries to connect with The Howling franchise by showing scenes from some of the previous films, and they still manage to make no sense at all. I have to admit i almost admire how they tried making sense of everything by editing scenes in from this franchise, and they still failed. You have to at least admire the effort, how can you not? This is supposed to be a werewolf sequel, and the plot is more focused on local folks getting drunk, dancing, talking all kinds of nonsense. The town of Pioneertown actually exist, but this is an unincorporated community, located in California. There is some kind of werewolf running around where they use extreme low budget Predator night vision view, and yet that fails on every level to look cool. We have to talk about the main character Ted Smith, played by actor Clive Turner. Even if the acting performance is terrible, at least you can laugh at some of his attempts to be funny with the locals saying cheesy dialogue. Clive Turner is not only the lead actor, he directed this film, is the writer of the screenplay of Howling VII - New Moon Rising, and he is also the producer of this film. He must have been very passionate about this project considering he pretty much did all of this to make sure this film was made. What about the rest of the cast? I would say the only actor that´s actually acting is the actor John Huff as Father John. The rest of the cast is there for a paycheck basically. Howling VII - New Moon Rising may be one of the worst horror sequels i have ever seen, and i feel we need a documentary made on the story behind the making of this film. That could be one of the most fascinating dcumentary films in many years, if im being honest. I would even personally help making this documentary film be made, if we get a crew together to make it. Director Clive Turner will forever be known as the director of Howling VII, and that´s something you should remember. I am pretty sure you will never experience a werewolf film like this one.

Rating: D

If you want to watch this film, you can watch it on the following link on YouTube:

Marabou - Biscoff - 16x9 - 6 sec - SE

Melania

Biographical documentary films can be quite interesting, especially if the film tell a fascinating story regarding a unique personallity or a historical event. I have seen sever documentary films ( including TV mini series as well ) which tells the story of someone fascinatuing. One of my personal favourite documentary films so far is the 2005 film known as Grizzly Man. If you have never heard of this documentary film, let me tell you some details. This is the story of conservationist, bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell, he lived among coastal brown bears in Alaska. Grizzly Man have a lot of footage of his life here in Alaska, which also became his downfall because he was eaten alive with his girlfriend by a bear. Very tragic ending, but the documentary film by director Werner Herzog is very well made, and put together in a brilliant way with some fascinating interviews as well, from people who knew Timothy. We get to find out why he was so fascinated in bears, and his personal struggle with mental health along his journey. I highly recommend that you to watch this documentary film, no matter if you can watch it on streaming or physical media. Everyone who knows me in my personal life knows how i feel about Donald Trump as a person. I think hes an ego tripped asshole basically and that is my opinion. Never liked him and i never will for a number of reasons. You can tell he is a con man selling signed bibles, selling golden shoes, digital trading cards where he is supposed to look like a superhero when he in fact looks more like a Big Mac in real life ( i do as well, i know im big dude ). Last year i heard there was a domentary film coming out about Donald´s wife Melania Trump. I can´t say i was that excited, but i will admit the trailer looked so terrible that i at least had some fun with it. The film turned out to be a massive box office flop, no matter what MAGA supporters say. The budget was around 40 million U.S. dollars and it only made about 16 million U.S. dollars in ticket sales. Plus all the millions they spent promoting this film as well that Amazon Prime paid? Anyway, i took some time to check this film out when it landed on the streamin service Amazon Prime. Is this the best documentary film of this year or is Melania a distsarer from start to finish?

Follow First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump on a journey in her life, not only what she does at the White House, but all the journeys she makes to make a difference. Melania tell the story of how Melania Trump makes an impact wherever she goes, no matter what her next mission is.

I can basically watch all kinds of documentary films as long as they have something interesting to say, or if the story is fascinating for a number of reasons. I wanted to give this documentary film a fair chance, just in case i might enjoy it more than i expected. I am going to be fully honest and say, this is perhaps the most polished, dull documentary film i have ever seen. I simply don´t care about all the luxuary shoes First Lady Melania Trump wear, what special designed dresses she wears, i don´t care what flights she went on all over the world. I want some scandals, i want something that´s actually interesting. Why would i care about a plastic product documentary film, made to make Melania Trump look like the most perfect woman ever in American history? It is almost like the Trump administration have been sitting in the editing room, trying to polish every piece to make Melania look so perfect it´s almost ridiculous. They could have spent 9000 U.S. dollars on a documentary film about me and it would still be more interesting, more fascinating than this dull plastic product. I don´t have any personal issues with Melania, if she is happy living life that´s great. This documentary film however does not make me more interested in her ( personal life ) at all. So many things just feel so polished to make her life look so perfect, im almost beginning to wonder if this was supposed to be a satire from the early stages of the script. Why not tell the story about the real Melania instead? Ok, one small positive detail, she seems very passionate about helping children all over the world, so that´s good.  Her orange husband shows up of course in certain scenes in the film and my first two questions would be:- Hey Donnie, did you miss a spot with the orange mascara? Why did you sleep during Melania´s mother´s funeral? Director Brett Ratner ( who seems to be in the Epstein files, surprised anyone? ) have made a documentary film that´s so polished that it looks fake. That alone is pretty impressive, but still doesn´t make this a good film. I don´t know about you but i would rather watch Season Of The Witch with Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman instead. At least that film is entertaining to watch compared to Melania.

Rating: D

The Beldham

Having a child changes your whole life. Before you were a parent you could go out any night you wanted, hang out with friends anytime you could see each other. You might have travelled together to a foreign country without planning anything, just living life. All of that changes once you are a parent, but this is actually good. Because at the end of the day, you will always love your own child more than anything in this world. All the memories you create together with your child, all the holidays you spend together, it´s all worth it and you can look back and remember the good times. But what if you woke up from a coma, finding out you have amnesia and don´t even remember your own child? This is exactly what happened in the 2021 horror film The Kindred from director Jamie Patterson. This film begins with lead character Helen Tullet ( played by actress April Pearson from the really good British drama film Tucked, a must see ), running outside from a appartment buidling where a man jumped from a roof. It turns out this was her own father, while a car hit Helen as she pass out. A whole year goes by and Helen is still in a coma, until one day she suddenly wakes up. She have problems remembering things because of amnesia, as her partner Greg Tullet ( Blake Harrison ) try to help her come back to ordinary life with their baby Heidi. As Helen train herself through rehabilitation. she gets flashbacks from her past where she is trying to understand her father´s suicide. The Kindred may not be a unique horror film in any way, but i do appreciate this film for lifting up the serious condition of amnesia.The lead actors April Pearson and Blake Harrison both give good acting performances, if you enjoy mysterious horror films i would recommend watching The Kindred on VOD or physical media. Last year i read about a horror film called The Beldham about a mother with a newborn, who experience strange things in her own mother´s house. Since i have a sof spot for horror films with children included, this sounded interesting to me. Is this a horror film you should see this spring, or should you skip this one and just watch The Kindred from 2021 instead? 

Harper ( Katie Parker ) moves in with her baby daughter Christine, into her mother Sadie´s ( Patricia Heaton ) house, where she lives with her partner Frank ( Corbin Bernsen ). At first everything seems to be pretty normal, until Harper begin to see strange things happening around the house. Is she actuall seeing strange things happening, or is her mind playing tricks on her?

The Beldham may start off as just a pretty ordinary psychological horror film, where we begin to wonder if there is something wrong with the main character Harper ( played by actress Katie Parker ). Have she experienced something traumatic in the past? Or is there something mysterious going on inside the walls of her mother Sadie´s ( played by actress Patricia Heston, who i remember especially from 90´s comedy TV series Everybody Loves Raymond ) big house? Without going into spoilers, i will tell you what i think works with this film. The fact that this film changes tone and become more mysterious after a while, was exactly what this film needed. There was a moment where i felt that this could become too predictable, and when you make things too easy that could become a negative impact on the main story. Thankfully the plot is a little bit more complicated than that, and towards the end we do see a completey different twist that at least made the film more interesting. The acting is in general alright, and i especially appreciate the screen chemistry between the daughter and mother characters Harpie and Sadie. They clearly have a lot of personal issues between each other, while Sadie is trying to raise her baby. Nice to see legendary actor Corbin Bernsen ( yes the actor who made The Dentist movies from the 90´s ) here in a nice smaller role as the character Frank. Regarding the plot, the witch influences is what really makes this film interesting. If i had to find something to say that´s negative, perhaps they could have made the plot even more twisted, or left an unexpected surprise that would have been nice. At the end of the day, i would say that The Beldham still manage to work as a horror film if you accept it´s not bloody or very violent. This is more a psychological horror film meant to play with your mind. Director Angela Gulner proves with The Baldham that you don´t need a big budget to make a good psychological horror film. Worth a watch on VOD if you enjoy old school folklore horror films.

Rating: DDD                                                                                                                       

Return To Death Park

Bounty hunters, what would life be without them? They are the one who takes care of the trash, making sure that criminals are not running away too far. You could probably say that bounty hunters are pretty much another form of officers, except they specialize in capturing fugitives who have not paid bail.  We have seen Bounty Hunters in many different kinds of movies in the past, where one of the most classic bounty hunter films have to be the 1982 sci fi action cult movie Blade Runner from director Ridley Scott. Legendary actor Harrison Ford is brilliant as the Bounty Hunter charatcer Rick Deckard, of course i have to mention the wonderful acting performance of Rutger Hauer in this film as the replicant Batty. Blade Runner is a must own on physical media or on digital, one of the most iconic 80´s movies. Let´s stay within this specific genre of Bounty Hunters films, we need to talk about a classic that doesn´t get mentioned that often anymore. In the beginning of the year 1987, action star actor Rutger Hauer released his film Wanted Dead Or Alive from director Gary Sherman ( director of the 1981 horror classic Dead & Buried ). The film tell the story of bad ass Bounty Hunter Nick Randall ( Rutger Hauer ), who is offered 250.000 U.S. dollars by the CIA to get a terrorist named Malak Al Rahim ( played by legendary KISS member Gene Simmons ), who blew up a LA theatre with a bomb. What made Wanted Dead Or Alive so good in the category of Bounty Hunter films, is the chase between Bounty Hunter Nick Randall and the terrorist Malak. Rutger Hauer is great as always, i was just surprised how good Gene Simmons was playing a terrorist. Definetely worth a watch on streaming, VOD or even physical media, Wanted Dead Or Alive is a worthy 80´s action classic. Speaking of action films, director Ken "Ace" Brewer delivered the old school action throwback known as Death Bitch back in 2024. I enjoyed this film, and especially actress Linnea Swansson´s character Alexis Walker. I did review this film on my movie review blog, so if you want to know my personal opinion go check out my review of Death Bitch. Not that long ago i was given an oppurtunity to review Ken Brewer´s slasher horror film Return To Death Park through a screener sent to me, a film i knew nothing about. Since i am a fan of slasher horror films in general, i was curious to see if this would be something in my taste. Is this one of the better films in this specific genre, or is Return To Death Park just as forgettable as Kevin Federline´s 2006 studio album Playing With Fire ( which im pretty sure most people have forgotten about ) ?

The Death Park Killer´s ( Ken Brewer ) body vanishes from the morgue, sparking new murders. A whole crew of Bounty Hunters led by Chloe ( Josi Kat ) is out looking for the masked killer, hoping to get their hands on a reward of 50.000 U.S. dollars.

Do you remember watching slasher horror films back in the 80´s and the 90´s, that was so low budget that still managed to entertain you somehow? This is exactly what Return To Death Park manage to do. This is the kind of B horror slasher film that have no deep plot, it´s all about killing people and trying to go old school in similar ways as Halloween. If you love these kinds of films and accept the limited budget, this could be something for you. Personally i would say that i enjoyed the masked killer most of all, known as The Killer ( played by director Ken Brewer ). The mask may not be very original or different from many horror masks, but i still feel that it works in the concept of this film. After all, this is supposed to be a film made for this specific genre, where you want to see bodies being stabbed and murdered in different ways. The fact that the killer is brought back to life like the 1985 horror film Re-Animator is a fun detail. We do get some hot women included as well, so this is of course one important detail if you want the male audience to be happy. I should point out that this is a sequel and i have not seen the previous films. That´s ok, i could go into this film without knowing anything from the previous films and still be entertained. Even if some acting performances are pretty terrible ( in a fun B movie way ), i do enjoy the character Shady ( played by actress Linnea Swasnsson who was enjoyable in the low budget action film Death Bitch ). Not only is her character cool, but i would have liked to see her have more screen time. Actress Bridget Powers also deliver as one of the Bounty Hunter characters, just having fun on screen. We do get some practical make up effects killings, but this is where i wish we could have had more brutal kills. I want hands flying, libs pulled out of the body ( more than just two scenes ), i just love seeing disturbing killings. Otherwise i would say Return To Death Park is like a cheesy written love letter to the B movie community, it has all the ingredients you were hoping would be included, while instead of using words the killer just slash bodies instead. Director Ken Brewer is clearly inspired by slasher horror films at VHS rental stores of the past, and this is a simple yet entertaining B movie. Return To Death Parl may never win any Oscars but it will find it´s way to the audience with big hearts for B movies.

Rating: DDD

Now You See Me, Now You Don´t

Magic tricks, some people love to see magicians do tricks while others would just rock out at a Metallica concert. I am going to be honest and say i prefer Metallica if i had to choose, being an old school metal fan does make your nostalgic metal heart go warm. I do think there are many talented magicians all over the world, and i have seen some magic shows on TV. Back in the late 80´s i remember watching the magician duo Siegfried & Roy show on Swedish TV, i can´t remember what the show was called but it was filmed in Las Vegas. I only remember some things about that show and they were definetely entertaining. And the stage costumes? I mean no one looked like Siegfried & Roy, they were like the Liberace version of the magic world. I always wondered if they were gay, doesn´t really matter but they definetely knew how to put on a magic show. We have had films inspired by magicians such as the 2006 film The Illusionist, where actor Adward Norton played the magician character Eisenheim the Illusionist. This was a fascinating film for a number iof reasons. First of all the film is inspired by the real Asutrian magician Erik Jan Hanussen, who also was a nazist, hypnotist, mentalist, oculltist and astrologer all combined. The second fascinating detail about the film was we get to see the life that Eisenheim lived during the late 1800´s, how he managed to get himself recognized through his magic shows. The costume design did look great as well i have to admit. Edward Norton is really good in the lead role, and a shout out to actor Paul Giamatti who also does a strong performance. Worth a watch on streamimg or on physical media if you prefer that. Some of you might have seen the magic trick American heist film Now You See Me released in 2013 with an incredible cast such as Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Mark Ruffalo and Morgan Freeman. A charming heist film i enjoyed back in the day it came out. I did see the sequel in cinema Now You See Me 2 back in 2016, it was alright. I think Michael Caine actually saved this film to be perfectly honest. Now, i never would have expected that we would get a third film in this franchise, but here we are with another film with some casting changes. I did not see this film in cinema, i decided to watch it on VOD instead. Is this a really entertaining heist sequel to this franchise or was this a terrible idea making another one?

Ten years after the Horseman´s last performance. three young illusionists-Charlie Geese ( Justice Smith ), BoscoLeRoy ( Dominic Sessa ), and June Rouclere - impersonate the Horsemen using deepflakes and holograms to drain a corrupt crytocurrency exchange owner´s wallet and share thestolen funds.  They are approached by the real J. Daniel Atlas ( Jesse Eisenberg ) - the fiorman of the Horsemen - who reveals he was sent by the Eye, a secret society of magicians, cia a tarot card to recruit them for a mission to steal the largest diamond called the "Heart Diamond" from Veronika Vandeberg ( Rosamund Pike ), the head of a South African diamond company. To be able to pull this off, they will have to use some of their best magic tricks.

When you make a film franchise by making a third film you have to be able to keep the audience it was made for. The Expendables franchise is a perfect ecample of a franchise who knew how to do that, even if we only had 4 films so far. When it comes to the Now You See Me franchise this is supposed to be made for fans of magicians, magic tricks in general and putting on a show. This is one of the biggest issues that i have with Now You See Me, Now You Don´t. They try to do some magic tricks that are supposed to blow our minds. But if im being completely honest, most of these magic tricks felt boring, predictable and not very exciting at all. It is like they just wanted to cash in on the audience, hoping fans of the previous films would turn up. Instead of focusing on making the magic tricks, they just find a way to make the tricks look cheaper than usual. The good news is that we do have some new team members in this film, unfortunately these young actors characters doesn´t really give much to their characters. I will say though actress Ariana Greenblatt ( who i enjoyed in the 2021 Netflix film Awake ) as the character June at least give some charming scenes, i just wish she would have been given more character development. The old cast from previous films are about the same, and of course Jesse Eisenberg is hard not to like as his character J. Daniel Atlas. But not even his character can bring much magic to this film, when the tricks themselves feel uninspired. A few action scenes are...ok at best? Especially one scene in a magic tricks built house, where the upside down rooms give some enjoyable moments. We do have actress Rosamund Pike here as Veronika, and even if her accent sounds fake at least she is enjoyable to watch in her scenes. Other than that i feel that Now You See Me, Now You Don´t failed as a sequel. Where are the fun magic tricks? Where is the charming tone of the first film? This feels just like it was made just to please true fans of this franchise, but im not so sure this film will please even the fans. I wouldn´t call this a really bad film, i just feel that with so many great actors attached and this is what we got? I would have expected more to be honest. Director Ruben Fleischer directed the Zombieland films which i both enjoyed in the past. Both of them are way better than Now You See Me, Now You Don´t, wich makes this film very forgettable.

Rating: DD

Reset

When it comes to distribution companies for low budget films, one of the most well known ones is of course known as Uncork´d Entertainment. Over the years i have seen a lot of their low budget movie releases, and i have to say in general i have enjoyed many of their releases. There are a couple of exceptions of course such as the 2019 low budget horror film Pet Graveyard, this one could have been interesting but didn´t have interesting characters or a good story. Pet Graveyard tried to be a rip off of the 1990 classic Flatliners with a complete different plot basically, the idea itself wasn´t bad but they didn´t do anything interesting with the main story. Since we are talking about the distribution company Uncork´d Entertainment we might as well talk about one of their releases that should be seen. And i had to go through a long list of films and decide to pick one, and i decided to choose the 2017 independent horror film Ghosts Of Darkness from director David Ryan Keith ( director of Redwood Massacre and the sequel Redwood Massacre: Anniliation, both worth a watch ). The story is pretty simple, one paranormal investigator Jack Donavan ( Michael Koltes ) and a psychic Jonathan Blazer ( Paul Flannery ) are contacted by a mysterious man who tell them to come out to an old house in the countryside. He inform them about the past of the house, and what happened here many years ago. If they accept the offer that he have prepared for them, they will be paid well just to stay in this old house. It is well known for being haunted, which paranormal investigator Jack doesn´t believe in at all. As both men agree to stay a couple of days, they are about to experience the evil past of this house. Ghosts Of Darkness is a well made independent horror film, and the acting is better than i expected for a low budget film such as this. Pretty effective horror scenes and some good practical make up effects. Ghost Of Darkness is worth a watch on DVD or VOD if you enjoy old schoiol ghost horror films. Last year i missed out on some of the latest releases from Uncork´d Entertainment and i decided to pick one of the titles. I decided to go for the sci fi hororr film Reset, because the trailer looked interesting using practical make up effects aliens. Is this a film you should see as a horror fan, or is Reset doomed to fail finding it´s audience on VOD in a near future?

Lucas ( Adam Holley ) is a struggling father who´s daugher Eden ( Lorelai Brown ) was abducted by aliens and never came back. The aliens do visit sometimes while Lucas seems to experience time loops in his ordinary day life, when he get to revisit the same day and experience another meeting with these creatures. A local diner waitress Ruth ( Caitlin Westfall ) becomes the next person who experience the same time loops, where both of them are trying to understand what these creatures want.

Imagine if you did like a Groundhog Day version of a science fiction horror film, without any comedy ingredients and go for a much more serious plot. This is one way to describe this film Reset in a simple way. Now, when it comes to UFO movies and films about alien abductions there are a couple of titles that have pulled this through. For example the 2014 sci fi horror film Extraterrestrial from the director Colin Minihan, that film had a fun premise plus i really enjoyed the alien design as well. Reset is of course made on a much lower budget than Extraterrestrial, and that is something you can tell by the CGI effects and the alien costume. I do have some smaller issues with Reset but let´s talk about the positive first. The location of a countryside house is great, especially when we are talking about a sci fi alien abduction film. This is far away from any larger city, which means it´s far easier to feel the alien visits to be more creepy when you know not many people live here. Speaking of the aliens, i have to say i dig the design choice for these creatures. Especially the faces with the big sharp teeth, they made an effort even if they are working on a limited budget. The plot is actually kind of interesting since the main character get to repeat certain time loops with his abducted daughter, showing up in a different body ( yes i am fully aware this may sound strange ). The mystery surrounding why the aliens are doing this doesn´t get fully explained, not until towards the end. Im not sure if the conclusion is what i was hoping for, but i still think it works with the plot The main characters Lucas and Ruth,  played by actors Adam Holley and Caitlin Westfall is actually a good match for this film. The acting is good enough to work with the main plot. Ok, so one of my issues with this film is the CGI effects in certain scenes, especially a bed scene where a woman´s body seems to be controlled by alien forces. The CGI effects in this scene looked terrible and i feel they must have known this wouldn´t be effective. Perhaps they couldn´t do better because of budget issues, i still think the CGI effects needed to be fixed in this scene. In general i would say Reset deliver as a sci fi horror independent film, especially using aliens attacking as we remember from old 1950´s films using costumes. Director Michael Yaminne deliver a interesting plot twist for an alien abduction film, and i have a feeling fans of this genre might appreciate it just as i did. For the audience it was made for, Reset could be worth having on your VOD watch list.

Rating: DDD

OBS! If you want to watch the film for free you can watch the film on YouTube channel Flix For Free on the following link:

Reset (2025) | FULL SCI-FI HORROR MOVIE | Adam Holley | Caitlin Westfall | Lorelai Brown