Reviews

Plot of this film: Fiona, journalism student and daughter of a police inspector, is stalked by a psychopath. She investigates, discovers gruesome murders that are connected and her own role in the whole.

Choose is a 2011 TV thriller/B-movie that mixes a bit of gore into a crimes story to appeal to horror fans. It's somewhat reminiscent of Seven, but don't expect too much. I have to admit that the initial storyline is quite strong for this type of film. There are holes in the plot, but not as many as I expected. The whole thing is logical, exciting and even interesting.

The acting and camera work are good, there is tension building... The film was for an hour on its way to make me give it a higher score. But the last 15 minutes seemed as if all the money had suddenly run out. No big climax, no exciting confrontation of good and evil. But just a cheap, 'easy' ending that leaves me a bit unsatisfied. Shame.

Wrecker is a thriller from 2016 that has a very low score on IMDB: 3.4/10. Justifiably?

Yes and no. Actually, this is an unofficial remake. Anyone who has seen Duel from 1971 will recognize many elements: A red car being stalked by a psychopath in a very large truck. This time no salesman like in Duel, but two attractive young ladies on their way to a holiday resort.

Wrecker is an imitation of Duel in many ways, just never as excellent. Still, you are left with an exciting film, with beautiful landscapes and okay acting performances. Horror and horror is completely absent. A hit cop is the only blood we see.

Certainly not a top film, certainly not a very original film either. But quite fun, not bad for a film with a limited budget. I think 5/10 would be a fairer score on IMDB. Since we are now well below that, I make it a 6/10.

I live near a second-hand shop where you can always find heaps of DVDs for prices between 1 and 2 EUR. Ideal for rediscovering long-forgotten direct-to-video films from the late 1990s and early 2000s.

So I bought No One Can Hear You, a thriller from 2001. Only 10 reviews, the last one over 10 years ago and barely 4.3/10 on IMDB for the moment. A bad movie?

Not at all! I found this early 2000s film really exciting. Well, the story was clearly not very original and the budget was not very big.

The film was sold at the time as Horror of the Slasher type and that will be part of the explanation for the low score: if you are looking for a really dirty, bloody, groomy film, it is better to choose another film. But for those looking for a thrilling Who Done It with a serial killer, you'll get a lot. The acting is good for this type of film, the filmography is solid and the story builds tension well!

Highly recommended for thriller fans to pick up from the second-hand racks!

De eetclub (The Dining Club) is a Dutch film based on a Dutch book by Saskia Noort. In fact, the same criticism applies to the film as to the book: it is a "thriller" made for an audience that otherwise would not like Scary, Suspenseful stories.

The plot can be summarized nicely: wealthy married women with a lot of free time together form an elite club, which revolves around taking turns preparing haute cuisine and playing hostess. There is something going on with their very rich men and when there are victims a little later, it turns out that the good friends from the dining club also have secrets from each other. Think of a kind of Housewifes of Beverly Hills with a murder mystery mixed in.

Not everything is bad: the beautiful ladies are believably portrayed as rich housewives and are also beautiful (or should I say expensive) enough for their role. It is true that the dialogue during the first half of the film does not seem to be about anything, except that it is very quiet and boring in the expensive residential area. But isn't that what all the rich housewives are talking about?

The murder mystery is the biggest weakness: not a bad idea, but the execution is weak, there are holes in the story and it never gets scary...

I give this movie 6/10 because it's not really made for fans of real thrillers. This is a 'murder in a housewife' s tale' film, for fans of films and series about rich housewives, who want a mystery as an excuse to marvel at the expensive houses, clothes and eating habits of rich people. Just like the book, it is not a real thriller, but that doesn't make it bad either. Worth a view if you are into this sort of light caliber thrillers.

Not very good, but nice for what it is

Swarmed, renamed Killer Bee on my Dutch DVD, is a typical B-horror TV film, where the threat is a dangerous animal. In this case a genetically engineered swarm of wasps. If you put on these types of films you know you are not going to see an awards winning film.

Still, I liked this movie for a bit. The story is full of illogical things, but they don't really bother you, in fact it's exciting enough to keep attracting your attention. The special effects are cheap but sufficient. The acting is quite good for this type of film. There is some mild humor and it is often the less sympathetic characters who fall victim to the wasps. My favorite kill scene was the unfriendly journalist who locked herself in a limousine but forgot to shut off the air intakes...

I wouldn't spend a lot of money on it, but if you find this on DVD in a stuff shop, it will be a fun Friday night movie, hence 6/10!

Recently at the thrift store I came across Curfew on DVD. A low budget 'Horror' film from the late 80s with a fairly low score on IMDB and mostly not so positive reviews. But the box' front and the back cover appealed to me and for 2 EUR you can take a chance.

I'll be honest, I enjoyed the movie. Yes, the acting rightly did not receive any Oscars and the film work was not innovative either. But as a viewer you do get a very exciting storyline and no shortage of suspense. The story is never the less nothing original: Two escaped murderers take revenge on the people behind the justice department and brutally slaughter their families. However, the last family fights back.

A film that was supposed to be sold as a slasher, but is actually more of an atypical American home invasion thriller with quite some Eurotrash influences. A minimalist synthesizer tune has in Giallo tradition managed to support the images and suspense.

Actually 7/10 but because I don't agree with the low scores I made it 8/10. For fans of Eurotrash.

Last week I found in Possessed by the night in the thrift store. A long time ago I had once seen the film on a Friday night on TV. In the 90s and 00s, many commercial channels broadcast 16+ films late on Friday evenings: B-Horror and Erothrillers. Possesed by the night is a marriage between these two genres, an odd couple of 16+ genres aimed at diffrent audiences.

The plot very briefly summarized: A writer with a writer's block visits an antique shop in search of inspiration and becomes fascinated by a glass jar containing a spirit in spirit. Meanwhile, his publisher has gambling debts, so he sends a secretary, played by Shannon Tweed, to help speed up the writing. But the secretary becomes possessed by the glass jar and forces the author to have misogynistic sex with his wife. And then an unhinged Mafia hitman walks in.

I'll start with the good news: the movie is pretty fun to watch, even in 2023. As far-fetched as the plot is, compared to a mass of other B-roll erotic thrillers from the '90s, Possessed by the night has a pretty suspenseful, constructive story instead of the usual wafer-thin story mixed inbetween a succession of sex scenes.

Also more original given the horror impact, although the horror remains below average and will not attract demanding horrorfans: Special effects are largely absent and the film never gets scary nor gorry.

Acting performances remain below average and frankly I don't think Shannon Tweed had much more talent than these kinds of roles. The other actors do it even weaker if possible, though the Asian shop owner came over as genuin to me...

Anyway, set all cons apart, I was able to watch this odd cross between Horror and Erothriller without frustrations and had quite a bit of fun with it, so a well-considered 6/10. For those with nostalgia to 90s tv-thrillers.

I have the luxury of living close to a nice second-hand shop, where old, used DVDs are sold for 1 to 2 EUR/piece. In addition to the well-known blockbusters, I always find a lot of direct-to-video and TV movies from the late 1990s and early 2000s titles on the shelves. DVDs that were often once sold cheaply in supermarkets and have been all but forgotten in this Netflix era. That's how I found Alone, a TV thriller from 2002. 4.3/10 on IMDB, the last viewer rating dates back to 2008. A bad movie?

Not really! Indeed, the budget was not very high, the concept of serial killers is, partly due to 12 seasons of Criminal Minds, not very special anymore and 90 minutes is perhaps just a bit too short for this film.

But otherwise I am positive about Alone. We see the gruesome murders through the eyes of the serial killer, on victims where we have often been able to follow part of their lives. Meanwhile, we also see the story of an old police inspector who doesn't get along with his much younger new colleague at first, but slowly gains more respect. And then there's the Psychologist who treats a lot of psychopaths but takes more interest in her golf clubs. In short, lifelike characters that are excellently portrayed by the actors. The camera work is neat. A conscious decision was made to make the image shock every now and then when looking through the eyes of the serial killer. You have to like that, but it didn't bother me.

Certainly an interesting, exciting film to get cheap from the 2nd hand shelves!

I found this movie in a thrift store, where it had been renamed "Attack on the Queen" for the Dutch DVD release.

It's a pretty suspenseful direct-to-TV thriller that scores undeservedly low here on IMDB. Sure, the story isn't very realistic, plot and character choices are predictable and obviously there wasn't a lot of budget. But still, I've seen much worse movies with higher scores!

The acting is excellent, the action scenes are neat and if you as a viewer can put aside the absurd premise - the president of the USA and China who want to negotiate world peace at sea on a cruise ship but are hijacked by the entourage of an actress from Taiwan - then you have a thrilling, realistic 90-minute action thriller.

For fans who couldn't get enough of Under Siege.

Recently in the thrift store I came across Gun's Eye from 1989/1990 in the DVD rack. It was a 2004 release from EmporiumMovies.be. This is a small distributor from Belgium known for re-releases of very bad direct to video DVD's. I had little hope, but the story of a bewitched Luger immediately appealed to me.

As for the DVD, it is a direct transfer from what I suspect must have been a 14-year-old abused ex-rental VHS, with burned-in Dutch subtitles. The image quality is among the worst in my DVD collection: ugly color reproduction, distortion, lots of pop up noise, parts with inaudiable dialogue, shocking image and some external interference captured as well. But apparently this is one of the few DVD releases of this obscure movie worldwide!

The movie itself I can briefly describe as the best bad direct to VHS B class horror movie I've ever seen. All known ailments of the subgenre are present: bad special effects, substandard acting, holes in the storyline, illogical choices of the characters and then the already mentioned very poor image quality and sound quality.

Still, the movie gave me the kind of chills I once had when I saw Blair Witch for the very first time. The idea that you can buy a cursed Nazi gun in a pawnshop and turn yourself into a murdering monster... It was more horrifying to watch than it sounds when you write it.

People sometimes dare to ask for an outrageous amount of money for old rare direct to VHS Horror. However, I bought my copy for 2 EUR. Others who own this rare DVD may have paid 10 or 20 times this price and may feel cheated, as this is a very, very bad transfer! Be aware of this, the film is worth nothing to most people just because of the poor quality, a waste of the plastic. But if you're open to obscurities and can live with some very substandard quality, this is the best movie of its kind I've seen so far.

Sometimes when time goes by, you forget how great you thought a movie from back in the day was.

Today The Butterfly Effect is almost 20 years old. And I had forgotten how beautiful I thought the film was at the time. Until today I came across the DVD in a thrift store. It's really amazing how this movie touched me just now.

Beautifully filmed, sublime acting and a story that surprises you time and time again. It's a layered story of a young men that inherroted a rare mental disease from his father, that causes black outs in his childhood, everytime something bas is going to happen. As a theraphy he had to write the event before the Blackout down in his journal. Years later he discovers that by reading his journals he not only can relive the memory but by reacting he can change events and change the reactions comming from the event. Small changes in acting then have big consequences in the now, hence the title.

The end almost made me cry. A psychiatric thriller of the highest level. Perhaps the best film of the 2000s. It's just a pity that it has fallen into oblivion.

Language horror on Netflix. Often these are good movies. Initially, la dama del bosque maldito aka Lady of the damned forest also seems to be a good film.

Camping in a cursed forest and scary stories by a campfire. It's not original. But well presented, this can be lots of fun.

Unfortunately, presentation is where things go wrong with this film. After half an hour the story collapses and we get an illogical sequence of bad acting, bad costumes, bad special effects, bad action scenes and especially very bad story telling.

A film that has the quality of the year-end work of high school students. Unfortunately I can't give many points on it.

Beautifully filmed, rattling story

I'm a fan of European Horror from the 1970s. That's why I really enjoyed this movie. The Devil's Men is a nice combination of British acting with Southern European cinemagraphy.

Donald Pleasence and Peter Cushing's typical bad and good roles are reversed in this film. So we see Pleasence as the good priest and Cushing as the evil Satanist. Both actors perform these roles with brilliance. All the other actors also do a great job.

I like the basic concept. Archaeologists who accidentally stumble upon a Satanic cult their tomb. And an innocent Greek village by day that conspires with the Devil by night. Unfortunately the execution is not good. The story rattles and I have the feeling that although everything is beautifully filmed, the images in succession do not fit nicely and often seem a bit unbelievable. The choices of both the heroes and the enemy sect don't make sense either. Why let an important traitor live in the village for so long? Why wait so long to talk to her? The finale also seems a bit too much like a Hammer Dracula film to me. Nevertheless, a satisfying ending.

For real fans of this subgenre this isn't a big deal, but to be honest, there are better (scarier) movies made in this era and genre. A well-considered 6/10.

Roald Dahl was not a fan of the 1990 film adaptation of The Witches, because it altered the ending. I'm glad the good author doesn't have to experience this 2020 film adaptation anymore.

I have three major criticisms:

1. Americanization. The story of an English orphan raised by his Norwegian grandmother has moved to Alabama. Even worse is that the film adaptation has become typically American 'exaggerated'. "Witches don't kill children with knives or guns, they're far too smart for that." That's what Roald Dahl wrote. His witch was actually a child molester. A monster who dressed up as a neat lady. This American film adaptation has turned it into a Demon. It's exaggerated, it's not authentic. Children won't get the fear of being caught on the street by the gloves of lady.

2. Anne Hathaway was miscasted. It is what ruins it even more. She doesn't fit her role as a grand high witch, her role is all heavy overacting, a lot of dramaqueen and she doesn't offer any depth. I had hoped that Eva Green would have been cast as the supreme witch instead, because she has already played very strong similar roles, such as in Dark Shadows. Unfortunately.

3. Style and special effects. Ugly and not scary. That the supreme witch can fly is even laughable and did not appear in the book. Outfits of the witches are a bit wrong too. Why is the grand high witch wearing a bdsm corset underneath her dress, in a family movie?

Still 5/10 for those who haven't read the book. They still have an okay family movie. Still, I recommend the 1990 film to them.

'Till Death is a classic suspense thriller that stands out for being perfectly executed.

The plot of 'Till Death is simple yet interesting: 10 years ago, Emma (Megan Fox) was a young photographer who was attacked by a robbery killer. She fell in love and married Mark, then an ambitious young attorney at the District Attorney. 10 years later, Mark has made fortunes with his own law firm. But he has also become resentful and love between him and Emma has bled to death. On the anniversary of their wedding day, he takes Emma again to the place of their first date: a remote country house in a snowy landscape. Emma is unaware that Mark is wanted for Fraud. He commits suicide in the morning and Emma discovers she is handcuffed to his corpse. To her shock, that's not all he leaves behind for her. Before his suicide, Mark got the robbery killer from 10 years ago out of jail on parole. The killer comes for Emma and for something she has...

The storyline is predictable but what a beautiful film work and excellent acting! It's not often that a suspense movie is made in a way that Hitchcock would have done it!

Fun fact: In addition to the gas from the car, all the knives and tools, and the cell phones, Mark also took away all the shoes. So 2/3 of the movie we see Emma walking barefoot through the house and through the snow. I remember Megan Fox's feet are popular with certain aficionados, so another reason for them to see the movie. ;-)

8/10, because I think this is a classic you need to see if you love suspense.

Matriarch is a not so special, but very solid British thriller.

The plot, of a pregnant English tourist who ends up in the family of a female serial killer in the Scottish countryside after a car accident, is quite grim. Other than that, there isn't much horror in this movie. Goor and groom is missing, but the story is exciting. The fact that a ghost is added at the very end is a bit forced and it does not add up.

Beautifully filmed with a very limited budget. Good acting and good character development of the main characters.

It's a tight 7/10. Matriarch is Certainly not a classic, but a good Friday evening film to relax after the work week.

Mad cows have never been so scary

Isolation is an Irish low budget horror film that I didn't expect much from. It was a pleasant surprise.

The story is very simple: a small Irish farmer is bankrupt after an agricultural crisis, but suddenly gets the opportunity to earn a lot of money. A scientist, with more ambition than ethics, is using genetic engineering to breed a new breed of cows that can reproduce faster, grow faster and thus generate money faster. However, the genetic engineering fails and the cows give birth to flesh-eating parasites instead.

It's an idea that a monster of the week script could have been from an episode of The X Files in the 90s. That's a good thing, because the weird idea is surprisingly well executed, looking at horror sci-fi classics like Alien, without reaching this high level of quality.

Not the highest quality, but pretty good overall: pretty good acting, pretty good storytelling, pretty good soundtrack, pretty good cinematography. Kudos to the extremely good use of the only location: the shabby farm. Incidentally, I think the choice of title "Isolation" is a strange choice for this film, I expected a different kind of film.

The build up of the plot is a bit slow and the finale is a bit too predictable, but otherwise a very good story that I give 8/10 for. For fans of both Euro Horror and The X Files.

Although the DVD box says horror, I would call Nightmare at the end of the hall a psychiatric drama with a paranormal storyline.

The plot is decent but unfortunately also a bit predictable. In short, a traumatized author is offered an offer as a teacher at her former boarding school. In the room where her best friend committed suicide, a student who looks just like her has moved in. What follows is a search for the reason why the girlfriend committed suicide. And why the new pupil looks so much like her.

It was an interesting film, but the cinematography, the acting, the plot twist, the special effects,... Everything could have been better. Unfortunately. There is just no single thrill to be found, a big shame.

Still 6/10, because I watched the film without getting bored. If you find the DVD very cheap in the budget racks, then consider. Do not expect an exciting thriller and certainly not a horror movie.

The Watcher screams 1999 in many ways. Not least in the special effects: probably very expensive and yet terribly unrealistic.

The story is also one of those before a series called Criminal Minds soldout the serial killer fiction. What was still very scary in 1999, a charming but merciless serial killer, is nothing special anymore from the perspective of today.

Still, I thought The Watcher as a whole was a nice movie. The acting is strong, both the main characters are explored in depth just right enough and the cat and mouse game between detective and serial killer is exciting.

There's better, but if you can find this on sale for cheap on DVD, you can't go wrong. Therefore 6/10.

A recommended German Wolf of Wallstreet clone

I enjoyed Rising High aka Betonrausch. It is a German mixture of comedy and drama. As far as I know the story is fictional, but it is presented as if it actually happened. It is the story of a young businessman who becomes very rich very quickly through fraud and deception and then very quickly loses everything again. It is reminiscent of The Wolf of Wall Street, without Betonrausch ever reaching the quality of the Hollywood blockbuster.

But nevertheless a very affordable German film. Germany is not known for their jokes and humor, but the understated light comic style works well for this film. Characters are explored just enough and the film never gets boring. And furthermore, all the glam from The Wolf of Wall Street is represented: fast cars, expensive tailor-made suits, large villas, wild parties and the necessary drugs. It is beautifully portrayed, with a good soundtrack. The acting is okay.

For fans of The Wolf of Wall Street quite a recommended film on Netflix. So a well deserved 7.

Despite the English name, Prey is a German Netflix original. Apart from the German actors and the German dialogue, Prey has a mainly American feel. Especially as a copy of other American 'escaping the killer in the woods' movies.

Prey doesn't add anything new, nor does it provide a very well-written plot. There is little room for deepening the characters. I would have liked more character development, especially for the villain's story.

But the film is beautifully filmed and because of the high speed also a bit exciting. The ending is weak and predictable, but you don't get bored for the rest of the movie. Acting is okay, but nothing worthy of an Oscar.

The Netflix equivalent of the midweek evening TV movie from the old days: not very good and not very bad.

There are already a lot of long, detailed and very good reviews here. So I'll keep it short: I think the remake of Suspiria is a very bad film.

I am an admirer of Dario Argento's Giallo Thrillers, as well as his Gore movies. But I never understood his absurd Suspira. A beautifully filmed, charming Italian film. But a far-fetched story that is nonsense.

The remake has an even bigger nonsense. And the film is also gray, ugly, has a lot of arthouse pretentiousness and is never scary or exciting. The acting is bad and the soundtrack a disaster. Very overrated very bad movie.

I had the Blu-ray of (Incident in a) Ghostland in my collection for a while. It was only now that I watched the effective. I was expecting a good movie, but I was really amazed by what I saw. The movie puts you right into the action, then leads you astray and then makes a plot twist that I never saw coming.

Psycho-horror that unexpectedly manages to innovate, with the franchise, banalized concept serial killer made by the Criminal Minds TV series "Exploited twice a week for 15 years". The DNA of this movie actually goes back to the American primal slasher of the late 1970s. It's John Carpenter's Halloween reimagined. In Ghostland, you see through the victim's eyes, feel the victim's fears and become one with the urge to survive. It made me realize why so many serial killer bait horror movies aren't very scary...

The film is very well taken care of: beautifully filmed in which I must say that the directors have succeeded very well in making the harsh cold radiate from the screen. The soundtrack is a lot of knocking on doors and walls, but it works wonderfully. The acting across the entire cast is just perfect.

I'd give this movie 9/10, but I'll make it 10/10 because I think this is an overlooked movie when looking at the Horror classics of the 2010s.

I was expecting a Belgium interpretation of something like Pulp Fiction, but I got a load that was hard to cope with.

I get the story, but only just. There is a psychopat in Wallonia, Belgium. He thinks he is a hitman in America, Callifornia. He has gotten a mission: to kill the 12 followers of lucifer. So we get a movie of 12 absurd chapters of 12 absurd murders with a lot of absurd story telling mixed in.

Doubleplusungood could be described as an homage film, an arthouse film, a European non-commercial film that is tributing to a certain idea of America, land of gore, violence, guns and ofcourse of thriller films with antiheros dealing with the villans. Over the course of the 12 murders, we are following the footsteps of some sort of hyper, cinema-genic cross between an aged and traumatised Robert De Niro and a vintage private detective from a neo noir film.

I have all the respect for small arthouse move directors that spend years filming on an incredibly tight budget, doing production all by themself and having to do with crowd-funding to cover the costs. There has been done a lot with little, some scenes are really really great. But most of this movie is not so great. The story is hard to believe. The character is hard to live with. The audience this move targets, is a form over content minded select group. To me, it's little more then a homage to bad taste...