Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 48

Prey For the Devil Review: The Devil Wants In, But Do We?

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

Sister Ann hopes to become the church’s first female exorcist, driven by childhood trauma from her mother’s possession by the devil – something she is also in therapy for. So, save for the female exorcist angle and the fact that she is seeing a trained mental health professional, the horror movie Prey for the Devil has precious little to offer in terms of new scares for an exorcism-centered flick. Although it does explore interesting themes of guilt, shame, and trauma.

Directed by Daniel Stamm, Prey for the Devil stars Jacqueline Byers as Ann, a spirited young woman of the church who secretly sneaks into exorcism classes. When she becomes entangled in the dangerous possession case of ten-year-old Natalie (Posy Taylor), she soon discovers the stakes are far more personal than she ever imagined.

Set in a Catholic Church with an exorcism school and a restricted ward full of possessed patients, Prey for the Devil unfolds chronologically but is interspersed with disturbing flashbacks of Ann’s traumatic childhood with her possessed mother. Nuns aren’t encouraged to perform exorcisms, so the first half-hour of the film follows Ann’s attempts to learn on her own, eventually convincing Father Quinn (Colin Salmon) to train her. But eager to be more than a trainee, Ann performs an unauthorized ritual with her friend Father Dante (Christian Navarro), which leads them to a lot of trouble. And when ten-year-old Natalie’s case gets violently out of control, Anna once again tries to overstep her limits.

What’s most surprising about Prey for the Devil is its subtle pro-choice stance, despite being a heavily religious film centered on the Catholic Church and the Vatican. One of the possessed victims is a young woman who suffers a miscarriage and is consumed by guilt because she hadn’t wanted the child. Ann reassures her that it’s okay to have those feelings, offering a perspective that feels unexpected in a movie with such strong religious themes. But of-course, this is a 93-minute-long horror movie, so it’s hard to establish what the creators were hoping to do with that thread of thought.

The second half of Prey for the Devil is predictable, slow, and boring, with almost no genuinely spooky moments. It’s packed with the usual bone-cracking, child-crawling-up-the-wall type of scenes. While a few scenes are creepy and gross, the film is largely not-so-scary. It’s a shame because both the cast and the cinematic setting are solid, but the storytelling feels insipid. From the very start, the devil seems intent on possessing Ann, yet the film never explains why. The climax delivers a conveniently successful exorcism – interestingly, without much holy chanting from the Bible.

If you want to see a fun, fresh horror film about possession, try the Australian indie film ‘Talk to Me’ instead.

Prey for the Devil is on Netflix and Prime Video.

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See Your Love Series Review

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

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When a bratty trust fund baby, expected to run the family business, is attacked by armed assailants, he hires a caretaker with a hearing disability to look after him. Throw in some mafia elements, a fiancée, another side couple, and you get See Your Love – a familiar “rich employer falls for poor caretaker” tale (‘Last Twilight’/’Moonlight Chicken’) except this time, the caretaker is the one who is specially abled.

Directed by Chiang Ping Chen, Taiwanese series “See Your Love” spans 13 episodes and stars Raiden Lin as the wealthy reluctant heir Yang Zi Xiang, while the much taller Jin Yun plays Jiang Shao Peng, an ambitious young man who cannot hear, but is a certified caretaker looking for jobs. If you’re a fan of Chiang Ping Chen’s previous works (‘Be Loved in House’/‘Plus and Minus’), you’d most likely enjoy this romantic show too.

Like a lot of Asian shows, the strongest ingredient of “See Your Love” is the lead couple’s visuals, they both look great, their chemistry is cute, and they pull of their roles with the right amount of onscreen charm. However, Zi Xiang and Shao Peng’s ‘strangers to lovers’ story is surrounded with a lot of chaotic noise. For instance, Lin Chia Yo plays Cheng Feng Jie, Zi Xiang’s assistant, who handles almost all his work, gets a significant romantic side-story, which was boring and over the top. Although, to be fair, Lin Chai Yo is charming as the ‘work hard, party harder’ kind of secondary lead, a workaholic who is also a bit of a playboy.

As far as the romance is concerned, it’s hilarious and cringey how many times the leads accidentally fall or crash into each other. Thankfully, at least their falling for each other sort of makes sense. The rich Zi Xiang, who is treated terribly by his father, melts under the care and attention he receives from Shao Peng. Raiden Lee is playfully likable as Zi Xiang, who first comes across as an arrogant airhead, but reveals himself to be a considerate softie.

Shao Peng is easily the most compelling character in See Your Love, a confident young man who believes, “The deaf can do everything except hear,” and proves it by working twice as hard. The early episodes highlight his challenges as a person with a hearing disability, but he is uplifted by a loving family who supports him at every turn. With zero spoken dialogue, Jin Yung charmingly conveys Shao Peng’s emotions and depth through expressive facial cues and fluid hand gestures.

This is the kind of show that could’ve easily been wrapped up in eight episodes, but is weighed down by unnecessary side-plots. After firmly establishing itself as a light romantic-comedy (even though it’s not as funny) for most of its runtime, with some mafia like elements here and there, the climactic episodes just randomly ramp up the violence.

Overall, “See Your Love” is a bloated, formulaic show, which is redeemed by its good-looking leads.

Rating: 2.5 stars on 5. Watch it on iQIYI/Viki/WeTV/iflix

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Kinda Pregnant Review: A Fake Bump & Real Chaos

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

Amy Schumer plays a different kind of train wreck in the 2025 Netflix comedy Kinda Pregnant, where her character Lainy, an English teacher, fakes being pregnant right after a brutal break-up, just because people are a lot nicer to expectant mothers. But things get complicated when she makes a great new friend and falls for a new guy who thinks she is pregnant. How is she going to get her fake belly story straight now?

I picked Kinda Pregnant to watch on a two-hour flight due to its 97-minute runtime, confident the comedy would keep me busy until landing. However, writers Julie Paiva and Amy Schumer struggle to deliver fresh, laugh-out-loud moments in the first half, which led me to take a break from the film after half an hour. I mean, this film was supposed to be a break, then I had to take a break from my break. But… but… that’s not to say it’s completely unfunny – it does have some comical scenes.

The film opens with a flashback to establish how Lainy always wanted to get married and be a mom ever since she was a child. So when Lainy’s best friend Kate (Jillian Bell) gets pregnant before her, a jealous Lainy ends up with a fake belly, pretending to be pregnant around a select few people. Among them is the feisty, angry mom Megan, played by the charming Brianne Howey, and new crush Josh Lewis (Will Forte). Lizzé Broadway plays Shirley, an annoying colleague from Lainy’s school who is also pregnant and thus bonds with Kate. Urzila Carlson plays Fallon, a nutty guidance counselor and Lainy’s only friend who is aware of the pregnancy sham.

We all know what happens in a comedy based on a lie – things go great for the protagonist at first, then they get into trouble for lying, then comes the apology, and everything is almost hunky-dory in the end. Kinda Pregnant sticks to that formula. It also tries to be a romantic comedy in the second half, serving up the usual cliché of lovers falling out before the climax, only for one of them to pull off a cheesy grand gesture to win the other back and seal things with a kiss.

There really isn’t much to critique about Kinda Pregnant, it’s just another run-of-the-mill comedy you can watch in your free time if you really can’t think of a better one to stream.

Rating: 4 on 10. You can watch Kinda Pregnant on Netflix.

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GhostBox Issue #4 Review

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

The last two issues of GhostBox by Mike Carey, Pablo Raimondi, and Jose Villarruba started with witticisms or at least lines that sounded sarcastically fun. That’s not the case with issue #4, where the first page is a burst of chaos – the cop who was chasing protagonist Chloe is up in the air, surrounded by crazy visions of angels and demons.

Quick recap: Chloe and her sister Jan inherit a remote, dilapidated property from a distant uncle and come into possession of a mysterious box that houses several dead souls. Jan is murdered by a dangerous shape-shifting monster hunting for the box and finds herself transported into it after death. Meanwhile, Chloe is accused of her sister’s murder, leaving her pursued by both the police and the monsters seeking the ghostbox. Issue #3 of GhostBox ends with a blonde-haired ghost possessing Jan’s already dead body, while Chloe performs a cleansing ritual to get rid of the evil demons tracking her.

So, issue #4 is all about Chloe trying to figure out what to do with the GhostBox, while the villains attempt to track her down. At this point, GhostBox is beginning to get a little convoluted and uninteresting to follow. I am usually a big fan of colored comics and bright shades, but the artwork in this issue felt overwhelming – I found it hard to keep my attention up and follow the pages. Amid the whole ‘angels versus demons’ business, there is a whole lot of politics and power play going on in the ghost world, which might be intriguing for some viewers but is already tiring me out.

Like I said in my previous reviews, Chloe still hasn’t grown on me as the principal protagonist, and I might just stop following the series. The artwork is decent, but the storytelling lacks the kind of magic, mania, and energy needed to keep readers invested in the tale.

Rating: 2.5 on 5. GhostBox is also available on Kindle Unlimited.

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Sakamoto Days Episode 4 Review: Haunted House Fights

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It’s raining assassins in Sakamoto Days, all of them on a mission to eliminate the primary protagonist, Taro Sakamoto, the legendary retired hitman. After dealing with the poison-wielding assassin in episode 3, Lu and Shin must now face even deadlier assailants targeting their boss.

Titled “Hard-Boiled,” episode 4 of Sakamoto Days remains set in the theme park. After spending time on outdoor rides, Sakamoto’s wife and daughter head to a haunted house. Meanwhile, a notorious duo lies in wait, overconfident that they can finish the job in seconds. Known as Boiled and Obiguro, the pair add some mild comic relief – Boiled being the serious, macho type who favors bombs as weapons, while Obiguro is a playful young girl harboring a secret crush on her partner.

Despite multiple hitmen and a personal connection between Boiled and Sakamoto that leads to some flashbacks, this episode feels a bit overstretched. It lacks the dynamic action one would expect and doesn’t deliver many laugh-out-loud moments either. The haunted house setting in the amusement park offers a great opportunity for eerie, high-stakes showdowns, but the creators fail to fully capitalize on its potential.

Overall, this is a decently entertaining episode of Sakamoto Days, but it could have been much more entertaining. While the series revolves around how Sakamoto remains an intimidating force despite his weight gain and retirement, the story often seems to glorify his thinner version a little too much, especially in this episode’s end.

Watch ‘Sakamoto Days’ on Netflix.

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The Mars Room Book Review

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram | GoodReads)

“The Mars Room” follows Romy Hall, a former stripper serving a life sentence in a high-security prison, who recalls fragmented memories of her life, vividly detailing the harsh reality of living among criminals in a system that seems to care for no one.

Rachel Kushner’s writing style is so frenetic, it feels like The Mars Room is a real-life memoir, where a person simply jots down any interesting memory that comes to them. Most of Romy’s memories are from working at a place called “The Mars Room.” It’s there that one of her clients, a creepy man, begins to stalk her. His obsession with Romy leads to her incarceration – she acts out violently in self-defense, lands a crappy state-appointed lawyer, and ends up in jail. She ends up in Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility, surrounded by dangerous women, each one with a wilder story than the other.

But this book isn’t just about Romy; it also follows a few other characters. Some are her fellow inmates, while one is a correctional educator who struggles to avoid entanglements with attractive prisoners like Romy. Later, we even get the perspective of Romy’s stalker. The author skillfully weaves these narratives together, though at first, the shifts can be frustrating, as it’s unclear how they connect to the main character.

While I liked Kushner’s writing style, I really needed some more structure from this story because, in the end, it just felt underwhelming. Romy doesn’t seem to care much about anything except her young son, who is left at the mercy of her estranged mother when she is imprisoned. And the thing is, how does the reader care about a protagonist who doesn’t give a damn about themselves? Especially when not a lot of interesting things are happening around her. Besides, foreigner viewers will feel overburdened with all the colloquial terms and references about San Fransisco, although, I suspect that maybe those from the region might enjoy local descriptions.

In the end, “The Mars Room” is a frenzied read about a woman prisoner, her life experiences, and her desperate attempts to connect with her son. The climactic chapters were a little jarring, however, it helps understand the twisted psyche of the stalker that ends up destroying Romy’s life.

Give this book a try if you’re intrigued by the idea of a fictional novel set in women’s prisons. I especially enjoyed the parts featuring interactions between the prisoners and the elaborate schemes many women devise to “trap” someone – either to help them escape or to fund their lives once they’re released.

Rating: 3 on 5.

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Baban Baban Ban Vampire Episode 4 Review

“It’s just how humans take photos of their food before eating!” – Vampire Mori tells himself, after taking a photo of a sleeping Rihito on his phone. But it seems like the vampire might feel more than good old animalistic hunger for the teen.

Titled “The Vampire’s Slumber Party”, episode 4 of the anime series “Baban Baban Ban Vampire” hilariously begins with a scene of Mori realizing Franken is a young Virgin boy, which means he would make the perfect meal for Mori. But Mori cannot decide when he should devour the new guy… before Rihito or after.

In a little twist, instead of becoming sworn enemies with Mori after being defeated in a fight, Franken becomes his latest fan! Much to Mori’s annoyance, Franken follows him everywhere, although the vampire enjoys the idea of having his two meals (Rihito and Franken) by his side on their own volition.

Episode four is a pretty fun quick episode, where Mori tries to use Franken to keep an eye on Rihito, even though the plan funnily backfires. The edition ends with introducing a new mystery character who wants Mori dead. It will be interesting what happens in the next episode!

You can watch Baban Baban Ban Vampire on Netflix.

Ro & The Stardust: Short Film Review

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Three generations of women are stranded in a foreign planet in the sci-fi short film “Ro & the Stardust,” and only one of them dreams of escaping. Will her wish come true?

Directoled and written by Eunice Levis, the short stars Cindy De La Cruz as titular protagonist Ro, a young girl with a rebellious streak, who secretly helps her grandmother make a spaceship, the only way out from their planet.

Less than 20 minutes long, “Ro & the Stardust” is an awkward blend of family drama and science-fiction elements. Ro’s grandma is no astronaut, so their project seems a pipe dream.

For those looking for a solid sci-fi film with snazzy special effects, “Ro & the Stardust” is a pretty underwhelming watch. It’s the kind of story that could’ve simply taken place on earth and didn’t need the science-fiction angle at all.

Rating: 2 on 5. You can watch the film on YouTube or Netflix.

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Budding Crisis Issue #1 Review

One of the strongest army in the world loses precious cargo – a small box with magical seeds – right under their noses at a foreign port where they have little authority! Will they be able to get them back before the thieving thugs make the seeds disappear for good?

Created by MK Reed, Jonathan Hill, and Allie Drake, Issue #1 of the comic book series “Budding Crisis” sets an intriguing magical tone for the story, without revealing too much about where the plot is headed at the moment.

Set in the fictional ‘Bay of Cygnus’, the first few pages quickly establishes the tyrannical nature of the army in charge. And honestly, the thugs seem to be quite shady too, so at this point, it’s hard to determine who is going to emerge as the primary protagonist of the tale.

This a colored comic book series, and the artwork is slightly reminiscent of older comics – think ‘Asterix and Obelix’ but with a slightly more mordern and digital touch. I wasn’t completely bowled over by the art, but it’s engaging, and the bright colors help.

The ‘magic seeds’ are wish granting seeds and apparently come from an almost extinct plant. Who is going to finally benefit from its powers seems to be the crux of “Budding Crisis”. However, the last few pages focus on an interesting twist – a common soldier is sent on a strange mission and mystery shrouds the army’s next course of action.

Overall, Issue #1 of “Budding Crisis” is a fascinating start to a historical fantasy story about power, privilege, magic, and thieves.

Rating: 4 on 5. Budding Crisis is also on Kindle Unlimited.

Summer Night Series Review: Tropey Teen Triangles

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

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Creators of the Thai series “Summer Night” want us to believe that the good-looking Phuwin Tangsakyuen, who’s already played primary leads in a bunch of other shows (Never Let Me Go/We Are), is an invisible ‘nobody’ in high school, so ordinary that even his classmates don’t know of his existence. C’mon, that’s just taking it too far, and the makeup team doesn’t even make any effort to make him look like a regular kid—no acne, great skin; he just looks like he walked out to model, maybe with a not-so-great hairstyle. But fine, let’s just play along, even if it’s not believable!

Directed by Captain Rawiphon Hong-ngam, the 10-part series is based on the webtoon “Summer Night ความลับในคืนฤดูร้อน” by Boran and Jormungan. It follows teenager Lune (Phuwin Tangsakyuen), who has just moved to a new school where everybody ignores his existence. Lune doesn’t mind being a nobody and has a massive crush on the school’s most popular girl, Star (Parn Nachcha Chuedang). So when Lune is befriended by the equally popular White (Dunk Natachai Boonprasert) and inducted into the popular clique, he has a real shot with Star. But in a twist, White also likes Star. “Summer Night” follows the love, friendships, and complications Lune faces when he decides to pursue Star.

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The first episode is narrated from Lune’s point of view, who introduces himself and his ‘nobody’ status at school, which of course is comically exaggerated. He sits inches away from the popular kids: the handsome all-rounder White, the beautiful all-rounder Star, tomboy Ivy (Lookjun Bhasidi Petchsutee), and playboy Jewel (Ryu Phudtripart Bhudthonamochai). Each of them gets quick intro scenes before we see Lune’s growing friendship with White and some potential sparks between Lune and Star.

“Summer Night” episode one has a pleasing, bright, summer-themed palette, so the cinematography is visually very engaging, especially given that this is a high-school romance. Dunk Natachai Boonprasert is still a fairly new actor, but unlike his previous roles, he looks more at ease in front of the camera and was at par with Phuwin Tangsakyuen in the episode. When I first saw Dunk in his debut lead role in Thai series “Star In My Mind”, I had written about how he reminded me of Phuwin, and it soon turned out that the entire GMMTV fandom was saying the same thing. Although, once you see them side by side, their personalities are pretty different.

The first few episodes do a good job of setting the tone for the main themes of “Summer Night.” The friend group is pretty cute, even though the personalities are very stereotypical. Phuwin Tangsakyuen’s character Lune however was a lot more annoying than Dunk’s White. Lune is a people-pleaser, who doesn’t speak his mind and causes problems, White ends up being the better friend in the group. Star’s character too starts off cute, but evolves into a bit of a unreasonable brat, making viewers root for Lookjun Bhasidi’s Ivy, whose character is a lot more likable. Ryu Phudtripart Bhudthonamochai as the entitled Jewel has a secondary romantic plot to himself – he falls for Tan (Java Bhobdhama Hansa), who delivers coffee. Their romance was a funny, silly breather in the show.

Overall, this is the kind of show that’s quite familiar, looks great due to sparkly cinematography and pretty cast. The writing doesn’t go beyond the regular, but for those looking for a cutesy/standard teen romance, “Summer Night” is a decent pick to stream over a few evenings.

You can stream “Summer Night” on GMMTV’s YouTube channel.