Based on the novel written by Colleen Hoover, and directed by Vanessa Caswill, Reminders of Him keeps empathy and courage present. The foundation is established, and the film has feelings of disconnect looking to be rebuilt. The halting point is the life-changing error of a tragic loss. The film fuels its emotions through desperation spiraling. There is the sense that finding forgiveness is not in the cards. The courage to keep going persists. Some moments in the story felt cheesy, but I also felt a decent vibe through various parts of the film. As most know due to recent well-publicized controversy between actors, this is not the first adaptation of a novel written by Colleen Hoover.

The film’s main character is Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe), and she has just been released from prison. An accidental error has caused her former love partner Scotty Landry (Rudy Pankow) to be die. Her life is blocked from Scotty’s family. His parents are Patrick and Grace Landry (Bradley Whitford and Lauren Graham). They do not want Kenna in their lives. They also want her to have nothing to do with her daughter Diem (Zoe Kosovic). However, Kenna finds a way to build a connection again. She becomes friends with a bartender named Ledger Ward (Tyriq Withers). Ledger is close to the Landry family and Diem and knows Kenna’s past.

The film becomes a journey of self-discovery. The direction of the film keeps the grieving prominent. Kenna tries to rebuild her life, but the thought of rejection is always in the back of her mind. There is also the fact that Patrick and Grace want nothing to do with her. Ledger is the only one trying to ensure Kenna hasa second chance. Reminders of Him intertwines the tragedies and the struggles which surround Kenna’s past and Kenna’s daughter. The pacing is appropriate. At the same time, there is a romantic dynamic in the mix involving Kenna and Ledger.

Finding love is the component of Reminders of Him that is all over the place. The theme is compelling and mesmerizing in the way it shows how light has the chance to shine again. Kenna wants to feel loved by her daughter, Patrick, Grace, and maybe even Ledger. However, the road to recovery and picking up the pieces are her hurdles. Kenna’s faults may stand in the way of her redemption and are the obstacles that linger in Reminders of Him.

Throughout the film, I felt the sense that refusing to forgive was very harsh. The backstory is tragic, but the facts and the evidence repeatedly get dismissed. I do understand that direction, especially since there is a fatality in the mix. Overall, from my vantage point, the concept of hate is too strong at times. Forgiveness is still possible, but I wish that Reminders of Him looped it in more gradually. I did not appreciate the pot of boiling hatred in this story, but the courage to never give up is spot-on. Three out of four stars for Reminders of Him.

The title is fun and sketchy. Many will think of the famous song by the Talking Heads. However, it has no correlation to this film. The premise of the story made me feel like I was watching a repeat plot of a videogame. The film nails it with scares and kills, but the rest of the film is flawed yet utterly exhilarating. Directed by Gabin Polone, this is Psycho Killer. The familiar traits of many terror and slasher films I love are combined in Psycho Killer. Titles which correlate to this film range from Weapons to Se7en. The same writer, Andrew Kevin Walker, is also behind those films. While he may have written for some masterpieces in the past, the direction was not quite as promising as well in Psycho Killer.

The film is a murder mystery that keeps pace by keeping the grizzly components as the primary scenario. A killer kills and creates a trail. There are clues, but also a pattern where evidence goes awry. The pattern is put together and broken again, but the grizzly violence continues to shock and awe. Some may enjoy this and others will not. My mind was neutral. Although I usually love films where suspense includes puzzles and patterns, those factors did not have me aching to solve much during Psycho Killer.

The main character is Jane Archer (Georgina Campbell). She suffers a tragic loss with a killer right in front of her. The killer’s character name is Psycho Killer (James Preston Rogers). He goes from state-to-state, using traceless methods to continue to kill and send messages. While Jane tries her best with her investigations, Psycho Killer is always ahead of her. With his many tactics of kills happening on his behalf and timing them perfectly, there is a unique rollercoaster in which one kill is more detrimental than the other. The film is creepy and disturbing but still lacks quality because the predictability is so much like a videogame.

I have mentioned the concept of a videogame multiple times in this review, and I even struggled to decide if this movie did it for me or not. The videogame that Psycho Killer seems to have clips from and correlations to is called Hatred and is only available to download on Steam. The game is tougher to find because it is so violent that it got an AO rating. Psycho Killer does not have the same level of violence as the game Hatred but shares the extreme and predictable theme—kill them all! This plotline is becoming more prevalent and overused in so many slasher films like this. In short, the film was poorly written, yet there were moments of extreme graphics that were cinematic. Overall, though, Psycho Killer is below average. The kills may impress some viewers, but the quality of context is why I’m still unconvinced about this movie. In the end, I believe this director is still getting his feet wet with a genre that he may want to continue in his career. Two out of four stars for Psycho Killer.