Marshmallow

Summer Camp, some of you might have experienced it in your childhood while some of you didn´t ( it´s ok if you never experienced it ). I did go to one summer camp at the age of 12 in 1989 in my hometown Uddevalla. This summer camp took place at a cabin camp location outside of Unda ( the name of the sea area ). The cabin camp was inside a forest area so if we wanted to go to the ocean for water activities we had to walk by foot. I remember we tried going out in a canoe each in the ocean while we didn´t have any big waves, it went pretty good. I also remember one day the summer camp arranged so we could go out on a large fishing boat, just to see how the fisherman worked and they let us try fishing. This summer camp back in the summer of 1989 was actually pretty fun, plus it was here i fell in love for the very first time in a girl named Linda ( also 12 years old at that time ). We were friends during summer camp but i never told her how i felt. I was really shy at this age so i was terrible at communicating with girls. Anyway, i had a good time at this summer camp and i hope many children worldwide enjoy their summer camp visit as well. Speaking of summer camp there are a lot of movies that takes place at a summer camp. For example you have classic comedy films such as Ernest Goes To Camp and Meatballs ( with a young Bill Murray ). Of course you have a lot of slasher horror films taking place at a summer camp. One classic slasher horror film i reccomend is the 1981 horror film The Burning from director Tony Maylam ( who also directed the 1992 classic Split Second with Rutger Hauer ). The Burning is a very traditional 80´s slasher horror film with fun practical make up effects and i like that the murder weapon is a garden shears. If you want to watch The Burning i highly recommend the Arrow Video blu ray release of this film. Early this year i read online about a summer camp horror film called Marshmallow that had a cool movie poster design. I am always open to check out horror films that looks inspired by the 80´s. Is this a must watch this autumn or will Marshmallow most likely be forgetten?

Morgan ( Kue Lawrence ) is travelling to his very first summer camp known as Camp Almar. Morgan get a rough start by the bully CJ ( Sutton Johnston ) while trying to fit in with other children. But as the days go by, Morgan is about to discover a secret in one of the cabins at night that will change everything.

I think it is fair to say that this film Marshmallow is clearly inspired by Netfllx TV series Stranger  Things, you can tell by the style of this film and especially the 80´s influenced music score. The cabin summer camp location is perfect for a horror film in this genre.  It is old school summer camp where children and teenagers are meant to be activated. Swim in the lake, play different sport activities or even read books. There is no TV set or any computers, mobile phones are locked inside by the summer camp leaders. At first this seems to be a pretty normal standard teen horror film ( that´s still good thankfully ), but the biggest surprise is where the film takes us towards the end. I did not predict that ending so im happy they decideed to do something different than i expected. The children cast gives solid performances in this film, especially lead actor Kue Lawrence playing the charactor Morgan. I think a lot of children can relate to this character being a bully victim, and there is especially one scene by the lake where it´s difficult not feeling sorry for him. Thankfully he get along really well with a kid known as Dirk ( played by actor Max Malas ). Of the adult actors i enjoyed the performance of actors Giorgia Whigham, Pierson Fode and Paul Soter ( yes the actor who played the character Foster in both films of Super Troopers, worth a watch if you love comedy films ). The strength of Marshmallow really comes towards the final 45 minutes of this film, when the horror elements finally finds it´s rightful place. I mentioned Stranger Things earlier and i really appreciate that director Daniel DelPurgatorio tries to keep the spirit of 80s horror alive in a modern film. The plot is told in a very simple way, just like a lot films from the 80´s. To be completely honest i don´t see any point mentioning any flaws with this movie. Marshmallow gives a nice nostalgic throwback to my childhood and i would recommend  this film, especially for old school horror fans.

Rating: DDD

Home Sweet Home: Rebirth

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

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

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

Rating: DDD

Final Destination: Bloodlines

No one can escape death. At some point in our lives our physical body will shut down and we have to accept death. I am personally not afraid to die, perhaps because i have seen dead people in health care jobs since the summer of 1999. No matter how you feel regarding death, try to look back at the best moments in your life and appreciate those moments. But what if you found out by sudden premonitions that you are warned about future major disasters, where you may be chosen by an unseen force described as Death itself, where you may be chosen to die? That is a small piece of the premise of the beloved horror franchise known as Final Destination. Back in the year of 2000 when the first film came out in the spring, i remember i had doubts if it would be any good. Why you might ask? The poster looked like another college horror film and for that reason my expectations were pretty low. Then i saw the trailer in cinema of Final Destination before i was about to see The Green Mile on the big screen. The trailer did make me curious in this film, the premise seemed different than most horror films at that time. I decided to watch this film in cinema after all and i was pleasantly surprised. The idea that a teenager can have a premonition of catastrophic plane explosion, that gives the plot some interesting twists and turns. I would say this is still a solid horror film today from director James Wong ( who directed the Dragonball Evolution live adaptation film as well ). And i have to say most of the young cast did solid performances. Of all of the sequels that followed i enjoyed Final Destination 2 most of them all. The other ones are enjoyable but to me the fourth one is my least favourite. After many years away from the Final Destination franchise it was announced a sequel was coming out in 2025. So here we are with the next chapter in this film series simply called Final Destination: Bloodlines. Is this one of the better sequels in this franchise or is this not a worthy sequel that fans were hoping for?

In 1969, Iris Campbell ( Brec Bassinger ) and her boyfriend Paul ( Max Lloyd-Jones attend the grand opening of the Sky View, a high-rise restaurant tower. Iris has a premonition of a chain of events that causes the tower to collapse, killing everyone inside. Iris warns the tower´s attendees and prevents the collapse, but in doing so disrupt Death´s design. Fifty-five years later, Iris and Paul´s maternal granddaughter, college student Stefani Reyes ( Kaitlyn Santa Juana ) is plagued by recurring nightmares of the averted accident at Sky View. She decides to locate her grandmother Iris ( Gabrielle Rose ) to get answers to her recurrring dreams. She manage to locate her and finds out that the whole family is cursed.

Wow!!!!

Talk about the biggest comeback in a horror franchise in a long time. Final Destination: Bloodlines does not only find the perfect tone how to make a worthy sequel to this specific franchise, this film also manage to find a way to connect the past in a very clever way with the timeline of the previous films. As most of horror fans know making a really solid sequel is very rare these days, we saw what happened with The Conjuring spin off films known as Anabelle ( where i felt Anabelle Comes Home was the weakest film, so far ). Thankfully you can tell that Final Destination: Bloodlines really worked hard to please not only the old school fans of the franchise while trying to seduce a younger horror fan generation as well. I will get to some things i really appreciated with this film, but let´s talk about some of the characters for a while. Lead actress Kaitlyn Santa Juana ( this was the first time i have seen her acting ) really put in a lot of effort into her character Stefani Reyes. To be honest i was impressed how good she did this performance considering this is her first big lead role. Actor Richard Harmon ( who i enjoyed watching in the post-apocalyptic science fiction TV series The 100 ) is definetely the most charming character in this film playing the wacky character Erik. Actress Rya Kihlstedt ( who is great in the 2015 horror film The Atticus Institute, worth a watch ) deliver a solid performance as struggling character Darlene. Of course in Final Destination: Bloodlines you see the final acting performance by legendary actor Tony Todd and give us one of his strongest acting performance ever, and it is very difficult not to get emotional. His character William Bludworth have been a part of this franchise from the very beginning. One very important detail in this sequel is how gory a lot of the killing scenes are, and i feel it wouldn´t have worked if they cut down on the violence. And i am so grateful seeing bodies being torn apart, heads exploding, all of this is beautiful to witness. The puzzle that lead character Stefani tries to learn to figure out who will die  next works really well with the main plot. Directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein deliver one of the best horror films of this year and finally give new life to the Final Destination franchise. Definetely a must watch if you are a true horror fan.

Rating: DDDD

The Painted

Something not that many people know in my private life is that my mother Lena painted several beautiful paintings, especially in the early 70´s. Even though i have not seen all of her paintings over the years i remember one specifically. It was a painting of Swedish nature around the city known as Skövde. She really captured a realistic look of nature surrounding this city and i have visited this city in the past, so i can remember where this painting was supposed to be located. The majestic trees and even a small details such as leaves was very well crafted in this painting. So in 1992 at the age of 15 i decided to try art class at my school. At first i struggled finding what  painting style would fit me, but then i noticed the art of The Netherlands painter Vincent Van Gogh in several art books and i was especially interested in his sunflower paintings. Before summer break of 1993 i finished a painting inspired by Van Gogh´s sunflowers and my art teacher was suprised how well i managed to capture the style on Van Gogh. My painting with other students at art class was included in a art school exhibition and it was a wonderful experience seeing your own painting beeing shown to visiting guests. I don´t know if you knew this but there are several horror films that includes the subject of art. It could be paintings, sculptures or even wood used to create art. One film i personally recommend is the 2015 psychological horror thriller Deep Dark from director Michael Medaglia. Deep Dark tells the story of non sucessfull art creator Hermann ( Sean McGrath ) who still lives in his mother´s home. He is informed he needs to leave since she will be renting his room out. Hermann manage to rent an apartment that his uncle owns. It is in this apartment where Hermann manage to create his most impressive art work yet, but his dark personal lifestyle will affect him. Deep Dark is a bit of a different film experience and should be appreciated by some people who loves art related stories, give this film a chance on VOD. One of the horror films this year i have been looking forward to see is the art inspired film The Painted, it´s not often we see horror films influenced by art. Is this a film that turned out to be better than i expected or is this a film you should skip at all cost?

Mother Evelyn Elster ( Aleksa Palladino ) is informed that her estranged cousin passed away and Evelyn inherits her fortune and her house as well. Evelyn move here with her husband Adam Elster ( Sean Bridgers ) and their two children. What this family doesn´t know is that in this house there is a unique painting that is cursed.

It might sound difficult to make a horror film that´s inspired by art combined with supernatural horror influences and make this combination work. Thankfully this film manage to find the right balance and especially make the art influences a very important detail connected to the plot. I will get into the art a little bit more later but i have to mention something i appreciate about this film. The fact that the story takes place in the late 1960´s and they actually capture the time period in a realistic way with family life during this time period as well as costume design and 1960´s home design. This is important to me personally that you make an effort to capture the time period in history, that you are trying to tell a story set in the past. The cast of this film does in general a good job with the acting, and i especially appreciate the chemistry between actors Aleksa Palladino ( perhaps mostly known for TV series Boardwalk Empire ) and Sean Bridgers ( you should check him out in the 2011 horror film The Woman, especially the Arrow Video blu ray release ) as the married couple Evelyn and Adam. I feel that these characters capture a realistic portrait of how marriage can be after many years while raising children. Speaking of the children i really appreciate the performance of actress Jessica Ruth Bell. Seeing this young woman break down by fear from the entity works pretty effective. The paintings coming to life is a very cool detail and especially the main painting transforming through the evil entity. The background story to the cursed main painting matches well with the plot. As a horror film i feel that The Painted manage to tell a classic paranormal story while making a positive impact with the art influences. Perhaps some of the horror scenes could have been more scary, but in general it works. Director Sasha Sibley proves that you can still make paranormal horror films with a different approach. The Painted will most likely be appreciated if you watch this film with  an open mindset.

Rating: DDD

Gunslingers

With such a modern world that we are living in it´s easy to forget about what really matters. Some might say that having many cars is the true joy in life or what set of golf clubs you own ( even though they were expensive as hell ). The way i view things is different because none of what i mentioned matters to me. I feel it is more important to appreciate the smaller things, such as Sunday dinner with family or having a drink in a pub with a good friend. Sure, i do have a big movie collection that i have gathered for many years, but at the end of the day my family and friends matter far more to me than any physical things. Sometimes when i look back in history and read about how life used to be, i can see why families spent more time together. Just look at the late 1800´s in America around the Gilded Age that started around the year of 1870. This was a time where some families got to experience immense wealth through big business, while other families had to struggle to survive through extremely hard work and rough working conditions. One imporant detail though during this time was the importance of having a solid family ground, spending time together even if times were rough and find ways to survive. I really enjoy watching western films in general that tries to portrait how life was in America during the late 1800´s. One film i feel should be mentioned more often when we discuss the genre of western is the 2015 film known as Diablo. Directed by Lawrence Roeck this film is actually a little bit different than other western films that turns into a psychological thriller. This film have a great cast with Scott Eastwood ( son of Clint Eastwood ) and especially a great performance by actor Waltor Goggins ( mostly known from TV series The Wire ). Diablo is beautiful filmed western and the twist towards the end is a nice surprise, worth a rent on VOD. I always look forward to check out western films and one movie poster of Gunslingers caught my attention. A good cast and a cool title for this genre? I decided to rent this film on VOD and give it chance. Is this the perfect western film to end this summer or is this far more terrible than i expected?

In a town named Redemption, reformed gunslinger Thomas Keller ( Stephen Dorff ) and mad genius Ben ( Nicolas Cage ) are guided by spiritual leader Jericho ( Costas Mandylor ) towards vindication. While confronting their violent histories, their newfound peace is challenged by violence and revenge.

Oh boy, i have to talk about something for a moment that´s definetely the worst part of Gunslingers and that is the performance of Nicolas Cage as the Bible loving character Ben. The voice of this character sounds hillarious on so many levels, and the acting? Let´s just say that this is worse than his performance in the horror film The Wicker Man. I have seen Nicolas Cage do classic performances in films such as Wild At Heart and Leaving Las Vegas ( i even enjoyed his performance in the 2011 medieval horror film Season Of The Witch ), so to see him do a performance as bad as in Gunslingers is just sad. You might ask yourself does this western have any redeeming qualities at all? I would say that the best part of this film is the actual gun battle scenes and let me tell you, they shoot down a lot of people in Gunslingers. That is something we don´t see often in more modern western films so that was a positive surprise. When it comes to acting in general i would say only a few characters stand out. The main character Thomas Keller ( played by actor Stephen Dorff, yes the vampire leader Deacon Frost in the 1998 classic action horror film Blade ) reminded me of classic western characters, doesn´t say too much and is focused finding his kidnapped wife. Stephen have a certain charm in this genre and even if i have seen him do better acting, i do feel he helps this film get back on track for a bit. Actress Heather Graham have some enjoyable scenes, but she should have had more screen time honestly. One big issue with Gunslingers is that the character development is not good. We don´t find out much at all about any character really, and in a western film you expect at least some kind of character development. Gunslingers could have been a fun experience, unfortunately we are left with a forgettable western film. Director Brian Skiba once directed the awful action film Pursuit with John Cusack and Gunslingers is definetely a better film than Pursuit, but that´s not enough to make this a good western film.

Rating: DD

Vacation Ends, Back To Writing New Reviews

Greetings everyone!

I hope you all enjoy summer so far and had some fun moments. The reason why i have not published anything lately is because i had 3 weeks of vacation and decided not to write anything during these weeks to just enjoy summer in general. So this month there will be reviews published but not as many as you may be used to see me write. I have not exactly decided how many i should publish this month but there will be a couple at least. 

I have decided one thing though and that is that i will only write only movie reviews of horror films in the entire month of October, considering that Halloween is during that month. So if you are a big horror fan then the month of October will be something to look forward to, where i will review horror films in several different genres. Thank you all for reading my reviews worldwide, this blog exist thanks to my readers and i appreciate you all. See you soon with some fresh reviews and enjoy the remaining time of this summer. 

Cheers from Daniel 

Finding Nicole

Women all over the world have a lot of struggles to go through. We have female politicians who constantly get attacked just because they are women and ( according to some men ) should not be allowed to be politicians. We also have women who are constantly seen as nothing more than sexual objects, that their voices doesn´t matter while they are hard working women trying to do the right thing to make a positive society. We also have a lot of women who unfortunately are victims of different kinds of abuse, where men have no respect at all for any women and basically use them for their own pleasures. It´s a sick world we are living in where women have to fear for their lives, when they should be able to live a normal life without being worried or not knowing if they will survive. If we for example look at statitics for domestic abuse in the UK we have facts that says that 26% of women aged 16-59 report having experienced some kind of domestic abuse as adults. 15% of men report the same. When you read these numbers of statitics for domestic abuse you realise how bad it really is. Speaking of this subject, perhaps some of you remember the 1991 psychological thriller drama Sleeping With The Enemy from director Joseph Ruben ( director of the 1987 classic thriller The Stepfather with brilliant actor Terry O´Quinn ). Sleeping With The Enemy tell the story of librarian Sara ( Julia Roberts ) who fakes her own death from a sailing boat to escape from her abusive husband Martin ( Patrick Bergen ). At first Martin tries to accept that she is dead, until he finds proof that she escaped to the town Cedar Falls, Ohio. Martin travel there to bring back his wife to him, no matter what she feels. Sleeping With The Enemy is a solid thriller that shows domestic violence in a marriage and i have to say Patrick Bergen is really good as the abusive husband. A film worth watching on streaming. Recently i had an oppurtunity to watch director Harley Wallen´s latest film Finding Nicole, a film based on the true story of domestic abuse victim Nicole Beverly. Director Harley Wallen have directed several quality films in the past. Is this one of the better drama films this year or is Finding Nicole not as good as i was hoping it would be?

Nicole Beverly ( Kaiti Wallen ) thought she would have a good life with her two children and her husband Warren Beverly ( Mari. G ). But everything is falling apart thanks to her abusive husband who even threaten to kill her and their children. Nicole have no option, she has to fight for her rights, her life and the safety of her children.

It becomes very clear that Finding Nicole is a very emotional film that captures a realistic view of how a woman can suffer in a domestic abusive relationship. All the punches the main character Nicole have to recieve, death threats on both her and her children as well, where she also is forced to have sex, all of this is very difficult to witness as a viewer. Knowing that this is something that happens every single day to women all over the world, where some of these women will never be heard ( some of them might end up dead ). I have not read the book about Nicole Beverly that this film is based on, so i don´t know how much of this book is told within the film. When it comes to acting i have to say this film is filled with powerful performances. Actress Kaiti Wallen who plays the main character Nicole Beverly, she really digs deep into her portrait of Nicole Beverly. You can feel her pain through her facial expressions and the sadness through her own words. To be honest this is the strongest acting performance i have seen actress Kaiti Wallen deliver in her career so far. Actor Mari G. who plays Nicole´s abusive husband Warren Beverly reminded me of legendary actor Patrick Bergen´s abusive character Martin in the 90´s classic Sleeping With The Enemy. Both of these men have deeply disturbing behavior towards women and are addicted to control their partners. Mari G. manage to capture the personality of domestic abuser in a realistic way. Actress Shawntay Dalon who play Nicole´s attourney Shonda Wright, Esq have some court scenes that are especially really powerful together with actor Sean Whalen. Wonderful actress Debra Lamb have no problem delivering a solid performance as Nicole´s mother Susan. Finding Nicole does not only tell the story of Nicole Beverly, this film will make female victims worldwide feel a connection and a chance to finally be taken seriously after many years of abuse. Director Harley proves once more what an excellent director he really is with beautiful camera angles and knows how to tell stories that will affect you. Finding Nicole will touch your heart, a film everyone needs to see to fully understand victims of domestic abuse.

Rating: DDDD