Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- A Stranger in the Woods 2024

- Underground 2023

- A Nashville Wish 2024

- molkipolki 2023

- The Ghost is a Lie - Take Two 2024

- Return to the Theatre of Terror 2023

- The Ghost is a Lie - Take One 2023

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

Watch List

Philippines / USA / Canada 2019
produced by
Ronald Stephen Monteverde, Erik Matti, Brenda Gilbert, Ben Rekhi, Anjay Nagpal (executive), Steven Thibault (executive), Adam Davids (executive), Nick Spicer (executive), Nate Bolotin (executive), Frances Rementilla (executive) for State of Awe, Reality Entertainment, BRON Studios, XYZ Films
directed by Ben Rekhi
starring Alessandra de Rossi, Jake Macapagal, Arthur Acuña, Micko Laurente, Lou Veloso, Angeli Bayani, Jess Mendoza, Timothy Mabalot, Sher Khalifa Floresta, Susan Coronel Malonzo, Manu Respall, Neil John Carandang, Sherwood Kip Conales, Myla Roy-Monido, Bernardo Carritero III, Edmund Santiago, Hermana Concepcion, Jerry Solomon
written by Rona Lean Sales, Ben Rekhi, music by William Ryan Fritch

review by
Mike Haberfelner

The Philippines in the early days of president Duterte's "war on drugs": Equipped with a list of (former) drug users, the police roam the slums to round up all those on the list to put them into a rehabilitation program - a program most join as they think they get off that list that way. Among them are also Maria (Alessandra de Rossi) and Arturo (Jess Mendoza), who have long been clean already, but a list's a list. And yet, a few weeks later, Arturo's shot dead in the street and a sign is attached to him claiming he's a pusher. Maria is devastated, especially since the help from the police is minimal, and eventually she finds out Arturo was gunned down by vigilantes in league with the police. Maria tries to find a job to support herself and her three children, but since she's still on the list of drug users and there's no way to get off it, she runs into locked doors at every turn. So ultimately she offers her services as an informer to the chief of police (Jake Macapagal), and he gladly accepts - after all, as former user she's bound to know the scene. But ultimately Maria's shocked what she's gotten herself into, as basically her job is to identify pushers for her partner, hitman Alvin (Arthur Acuña), to execute them on the spot. Rattled as she is though, the money's good, so she stays with the program. With time, Alvin teaches her to shoot, too, and eventually she makes her first hit.

Meanwhile, Maria's eldest son Mark (Micko Laurente) starts to wonder where his mother is getting all the money from, and as she's gone almost every night, he makes all the wrong assumptions and gets more and more confused in the process - which drives him into the arms of local teen drug pusher Joel (Timothy Mabalot).

Maria is less than sure about her latest victim to be, Peter (Neil John Carandang), who seems to be a much too nice and innocent guy to have anything to do with drugs, and she tells Alvin as much - but he shoots Peter dead anyways ... and the news report on TV the next morning shows Peter was even more innocent than Maria suspected, but when she confronts Alvin with it, he shrugs it off, as for him Peter was just another job, and he knows he and Maria are just used by those higher up under the guise of the war on drugs and are actually just pawns of a corrupt system. Of course, Maria now wants out, but that's easier said than done ...

 

Now above all, this is not an uplifting movie, it really seems to go from bad to worse, and the fact that it's that rooted in reality doesn't make this any less disturbing - so you better don't watch this on a down day. That said, Watch List is actually pretty powerful cinema, especially because it doesn't just paint a dire picture of Duterte's Philippines but packs its social drama in a really exciting thriller that doesn't try to just drive its message home sledgehammer style but dedicates itself to telling a story first, the message being only secondary. And it tells its story well, showing genuine structure and build-up to a harrowing finale, and the film's helped of course by using authentic backdrops that make the story palpable, and a very able ensemble led by a strong central performance by Alessandra de Rossi.

 

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find Watch List
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find Watch List here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find Watch List at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!