REBIRTH: HOME SWEET HOME (2025)
4 stars
Signature Entertainment. Digital Platforms 14 April and DVD & Blu-ray 12 May.
This is based on a best selling survival video game from 2017 – though whether it is a good adaptation I couldn’t tell you as I am not a gamer (the extent of my gaming “prowess” stretching to being rubbish at Space Invaders!).
The film opens with a vision of destruction – seen by a young novice Buddhist monk, Chan (Alexander Lee), high up in a mountainous temple. He decides to travel to the city to try and stop it happening.
American cop Jake (William Moseley) is taking a holiday in Thailand with his Thai wife Prang (Urassaya Sperbund) and daughter Loo (Akeira Hadden). Distracted, their youngster goes missing –they find her with Chan, who seems to know Jake and says he is ‘the keeper of the gate’ and will be facing great challenges. Jake is rather confused by what the monk has said.
Later, they are in a shopping mall getting a gift for Grandma. Prang takes their daughter to the restroom to clean her up when suddenly a lone gunman starts shooting the place up. Jake’s instincts kick in and he tries to help by confronting the shooter. The place is soon swarming with cops. He manages to shoot the attacker – who is acting strangely and also calls him ‘the keeper’, only to then explode in spectacular fashion!
Jake and his family are separated after this demon detonation. As Prang and Loo try to leave the scene they see people outside violently attacking each other. Chaos in the streets as they endeavour to find safety.
Having survived the blast, Jake is left wandering around trying to find his wife and daughter– he is attacked by a “zombie” girl, intent on killing him. Outside the city is under attack by a gigantic, skeletal, demon (an effective CGI creation), as the populace begin to kill each other, as if possessed.
Can Jake find his family – and will they survive the destruction that is going on all around them? And what about the prophecy of him being some kind of gate guardian? He hooks up with Chan, who tells him to follow him if he wants to see his family again.
At this point the monk explains about The Hindrance – a kind of limbo between heaven and hell and how Jake is responsible for opening the gates of hell and unleashing the demons. This is a big info dump that explains the story. Only Jake can close this portal and prevent what is happening.
This starts out with a bit of a TRAIN TO BUSAN vibe, with well staged attacks by the hordes roaming the streets. The depictions of the destroyed city are effectively rendered with good use of locations, specially in what appears to be an abandoned shopping mall. With plenty of destruction and cool monsters, it will come as no surprise to learn that co-directors Alexander Kiesl and Steffen Hacker (who sign themselves as Alex and Steffen) come from a background in visual fx. The film is crisply shot by Maher Maleh. Whilst it is not wildly original, and Chan is given way too much dialogue along the way to explain what is happening, overall it’s a fun romp, if sometimes a touch cheesy and with variable acting.
Steve Kirkham
