Seven sisters (2017)

	Also Known As: What happened to Monday?
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Tommy Wirkola
	Actors: Noomi Rapace, Willem Dafoe, Glenn Close, Marwan Kenzari
	Country: GB, F, B, USA
	Genre: SF, Action, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 11.09.2017, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English with German subtitle
Synopsis: Nicolette Cayman (Close) lead research on biology and her political power managed to impose rules of natality control. When Terrence Settman (Dafoe) gets seven daughters, these had to come in the clandestinity. Over years they develop differently and each of them goes out for school, later job work, only one day per week.
Review: The plot is amazing. And the evolution of the story is great! The seven sisters are used to give a rhythm to the story and the dramatic plot. When the first one disappears, they all believe she has been attacked and stick together against the controlling society. The story has no flaw but some contradictions that are hidden by the very rhythm action. Even if one could indeed say that Noomi Rapace did a great job in covering seven roles, but most of these are very cliché and simply done. Like put a hoody on the shoulders and you can play the rebel. Or wear glasses and sit on a chair and you can play the computer nerd. Due to the high pace it might have been impossible to make better. In one scene, the boyfriend of one sister sleeps with another sibling and this scene is really well acted by Noomi Rapace. I mean of course the part when she discovers his apartment and when she feels this kind of contact for the first time. The role of Cayman who already managed to let the natality get controlled but is still running for a political high position is quite contradictory. Ok. At the end, all these contradictions and weaknesses do not save the excellent plot that could have become an excellent movie. It is good to see a new movie by the Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola of Dead Snow.
Rating: 5 /10

Dead Snow (2009)

	Also Known As: Død snø
	Year of first release: 2009
	Director: Tommy Wirkola (Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters)
	Actors: Vegar Hoel, Jeppe Beck Laursen (Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters), Charlotte Frogner
	Country: N
	Genre: Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 29.06.2013, DVD, Home cinema
Synopsis: A group of friends decide to spend Easter's week-end in a mountain hut. They will meet an army of undead Nazi soldiers!
Review: In the past two years I have seen quite some Norwegian movies (Troll Hunter, Norwegian Ninja, Let the Right one in, Cold Prey 1-2, Thale) and Nazis return movies (Iron Sky, Frankenstein's Army, The 25th Reich).The idea in this movie is not original (a classic slasher with zombies) but it looks less cheap than what I thought it would. As in all Norwegian movies I have seen, the actors are always surrounded by beautiful landscapes that make you want to visit the country. It seems easy to make a good-looking movie there, you just have to invent some story to tell between two scenes where you show the mountains! And when you think the movie becomes too predictible, the main characters rebel and start slicing up the zombies in the most creative ways. Not too bad indeed for a second movie and not surprising that Tommy Wirkola was given the direction of a big Hollywod movie afterwards. Dead Snow 2 is in production.
Rating: 6 /10

Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014)

	Also Known As: Død Snø 2 (original)
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Tommy Wirloka (Dead Snow, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters)
	Actors: Vegar Hoel (Dead Snow), Amrita Acharia, Carl-Magnus Adner, Jocelyn DeBoer
	Country: N
	Genre: Horror, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 22.03.2014, CINEMA theater, MFFFN14
Synopsis: Martin (Hoel) is the only survivor from an attack of undead nazi soldiers that decimated all of his friends. The attack is not over. He has to stop them.
Review: I liked the first Dead Snow already by Tommy Wirkola who then directed Hansel and Gretel in the USA. It was a cheap but efficient zombie movie like Evil Dead but with the cabin in the mountains instead of in the wood, because of course it takes place in the north of Norway. It is obvious that Wirkola learned a lot since his first movie, and got a much bigger budget. Dead Snow 2 is very very funny. There are countless bloody situations and original ideas: killing two young moms and their babies with a tank rocket, calling an American Zombie Squad to the rescue ("sorry but I do not speak the language of Thor"), the hero exchanging arms with his archenemy and gaining his powers to revive the dead, using bowels to syphon gas out of a bus, and much much more.It is only a pity that this enormous well of ideas dries up towards the end. Still I would highly recommend it if you like this genre. Probably the best "nazis are back, dead or alive" movie (compared to the first Dead Snow, The 25th Reich, Frankenstein's Army or Iron Sky), and the best horror comedy I have seen in a while. The funny tagline for this movie "Heil Five!" couldn't match the one of the first: "Eins, Zwei, Die!"
Rating: 8 /10

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow)
	Actors: Jeremy Renner (The Avengers), Gemma Arterton (Byzantium), Peter Stormare (Starship Troopers, Minority Report), Famke Janssen (The Faculty, X-men 1-3)
	Country: D, USA
	Genre: Action, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 08.09.2013, HD VOD, 11" computer screen
Synopsis: The two kids from the tale have grown up to become witch hunters.
Review: If I was in a bad mood I would say that this movie is typical of the brainwash Hollywood is delivering us nowadays. Maybe I am specially sensitive to that because I have just seen 19 smaller budget movies at the Munich Fantasy Filmfest and all of them, even the bad ones, were more original than this blockbuster. The good thing with this movie is that it is easy to watch (in my case on a hangover day in an airport lounge). Also I find Gemma Arterton sexy, especially in leather. The twists in the screenplay keep the viewer interested altough you see them coming minutes ahead. There is a historical village, antique weapons made of wood, iron and leather, and ugly witches with fantastic powers. Tommy Wirkola makes a good job after having been spotted for his nice Dead Snow, and one cannot complain about the look of the movie, the action, the rythm and the fight scenes. It is just that if you think a little about it, nothing makes sense. It is interesting to compare this view of witchcraft with the one Rob Zombie proposed in The Lords of Salem: diametrically opposed.
Rating: 4 /10

Fantasy Filmfest Nights 2014

So as not to wait a full year for another edition of the Fantasy Filmfest in Germany, the organizers have planned those so-called Fantasy Filmfest Nights which take place half a year after the main festival, actually last for two days and introduce 10 movies.
This year's edition in Munich will take place on March 22-23, and here are my recommendations on what to watch, more based on what I know from the directors and read about the movies than on the trailers.