Ave Mater

This Swedish film is set in the city of Gothenburg and opens with the discovery of a woman's body. She is found lying face-down with a symbol carved in her back; hers isn't the first body to be found in such a way. The police, led by Göran Lidman, have no real leads to go on. Former pastor Gabriella offers to help... she tells them the killings are the work of a cult called 'The Sons of God'. There are more deaths and Göran, Gabriella and those around them will face severe dangers before the cult attempts to carry out its awaited ritual on the day of a solar eclipse.

For the most part I rather enjoyed this film. It started off as a normal, if somewhat gory, murder mystery. For most of the film it was unclear whether the cult was a group of religiously deluded individuals or whether their evil, supernatural activities could ultimately succeed. This meant that until the denouement we have the usual sight of investigators following clues, meeting potential witnesses and comparing the events to a possibly linked crime spree in Finland. The ending is fairly shocking but ultimately a little disappointing. The acting is pretty solid and the effects are decent enough. Overall a decent enough mystery/horror; not really a must see but neither is it something to be avoided.

These comments are based on watching the film in Swedish with English subtitles.

No pun intended - and I totally get if this is not your cup of tea. Even if you think this is the worst thriller out there (which I think is wrong - or I would rather tell you that lucky for you, you have not watched a lot of movies). This is a decent effort into ritual killings and a lot of mayhem.

Police is not always up to the task at hand, when it comes to solve mass murder things. You have to dig the movie, the pace it takes and the violence it showcases (as in helping to move the story along - though I have seen way better ways of that being handled) ... not the greatest then, but far from the worst ... if you like crime thrillers, you may give this a try.

And I'm not talking about the characters in the movie - I'm referring to the people who made this monstrosity. That can be the only explanation for why this movie even exists. This film is SO bad, you'll feel like you need to seek forgiveness from the almighty for wasting two hours of your precious life on it.

This film leaves my immortal soul aching for the answers to eternal questions. Questions like:

• Is this the best that Sweden's film industry can do in the 21st century? If so, condolences to the Bergmans.

• What poor suckers bankrolled this disaster, can they get their money back?

• Why does every actor in this film look like a slovenly mess who got hit with the Ugly Stick?

• Who at Netflix thought this film was worth putting on the site? And why is Netflix raising my prices to show me cr@p like this?

Forgive them Father for they have sinned. But, dear reader, you can save yourself and skip this movie now and forevermore.

Incoherent plot, fight scenes coordinated by a sock puppet, more Scandi blah than Scandi noir it makes channel five hallmark crap look like die hard, don't watch it it's mince.

WHO gave this guy pass from film making school?? Utter rubbish.

Gave it two start for shots of Gothenburg the rest - plot, actors, fights, editing utter cr@p.