This Week at Home

1998's Fallen sees Denzel Washington face off against a demonic serial killer. It has a great supporting cast including John Goodman, James Gandolfini and Donald Sutherland but its Denzel's show and he is on top form as both suave supercop and, as the scale of what he up against becomes clear, back to the wall (unconventional) family man. Visually, its peak 90's and benifits from being set in the days before all research was done via internet. The ending is either a fun twist or mean depending on your point of view but either way this is a hidden Denzel gem that should be more remembered.

2017 Netflix film Little Evil takes a more comedic approach to the supernatural, with newly married Adam Scott discovering his step son is the Antichrist. Billed as "The Omen meets Sean of the Dead" the desire to ape the latter is clear from the get go but it falls some way short, the fast edits and musical cues so meticulously executed in Edgar Wright's masterpiece coming across forced and pointless here. Some laughs do land but in placing the emphasis so firmly on the paranoia and awkwardness of becoming a stepfather most of the other characters just come across as annoying.

What Josiah Saw sees Terminator alumni Robert Patrick and Nick Stahl play estranged father and son in a family dealing with the ghost (maybe figurative, maybe literal) of a dead parent. The film is split into three parts as we meet the variously family members on route to them reuniting to deal with an oil companies bid to buy their rundown old farm. The three parts all have their own flavour but share an air of mystery and unease. When the last act unfolds things play out differently than you might expect and help make sure this a film well worth checking out.

Final film of the week is new Netflix release Day Shift, which sees single dad Jamie Fox trying to pay the bills by killing vampires and selling their teeth. Unfortunately for him there is a new big vamp player in town and he manages to piss her off making his job even more dangerous. This action comedy isnt laugh out loud funny from start to finish but Fox is great, even if he is just basically playing Jamie Fox, and supporting players Dave Franco and Snoop Dogg entertain. The films real strength is great action scenes, you may have seen people hunt vampires time and again but not like this and the completely over the top final act is just what you want from a film like this. I can picture the middling reviews the film will receive but you would need to be pretty joyless not have a good time watching.

Film of the Week: Day Shift. What Josiah Saw is interesting and Fallen an overlooked gem but Day Shift gave me exactly what I was looking for.

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Uncomfortably (Ve)Numb

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