Review Roundup

This Review Roundup consists of a few titles that were released earlier in the month that arrived late. Up first is Sorry About the Demon. A family moves into a house and soon learns it’s haunted. Their young daughter is possessed by a demon, but they make a deal with the demon to find someone else for it to possess if it releases their daughter. They find a young guy who had recently been dumped. He’s a customer service rep and his ex wanted more from him. Needing a new place to stay, he accepts an offer to live there without knowing it was haunted and soon realizes something is going on. But it’s not a straight forward possession film, it’s a dark comedy and the demon wants nothing to do with the loser. Along with his friend and a potential date they try to cleanse the house, but it all goes sideways of course. It’s not laugh out loud funny, but I did chuckle at times. I don’t know if I recognized anyone in the film and diehard horrors fans might not get much out of it, but if you want a possession story with a loser and laughs, it’s good for a watch.

Second we have Leave which was overall pretty solid, but I have an issue with. It opens with a cop finding a baby at a gravesite. Along with his wife they adopt the child and it jumps to her about to go off to college. At least that’s what the cop believes. Instead the girl travels to Europe to find out more about her past. She believes she’s tracked down her biological mother, but instead finds out that her mother had been killed and her father was in a mental ward because of it. She eventually meets other family members who have dark secrets. My issue with it is that it tries to have a paranormal angle with ghosts and doors closing, etc., but ultimately it’s just a religious based story. Sure one ghost is helpful at one point, but there’s no need for the ghost angle especially when she’s at the hotel. Also, the film opens in Massachusetts (my home state) and it clearly wasn’t shot there. She flies out of Logan Airport as one would to get to Europe, but the parking lot and airport area look nothing like Logan. I thought the lead actress was good and the story works overall, but get rid of the paranormal angle and it’s much better and more straight forward.

Last we have The Brokenwood Mysteries Series 9. You get six episodes from the New Zealand based crime series. The first mystery involves the death of a musical theater composer. The second mystery involves aging siblings and multiple bodies. Three is about a nun that was strangled and the rest swore a vow of silence. Four involves a nurse winding up dead who uncovered a doping scandal. Five has a death at a hotel with all involved having different stories. Six involves a women’s motorcycle gang and another death. I binged the show over three days because each episode is about 90 minutes or so each so they take a bit to get through. That’s not a bad thing because the acting is top notch and the backdrop is beautiful to look at. If you are a fan of the series, these last few seasons have been good because you get six episodes instead of four like the earlier seasons.