Rendel (2019)

"All a Bit Grimmer than Marvel"

Jesse Haaja's dark superhero movie gets a release from 4Digital Media.

The evil VALA corporation has launched an untested vaccine called Nh25 into the market by bribing or killing everyone who has tried to stop it. But someone is trying to stop them, or at least stop the widespread availability of the drug by killing off the members of one of the underworld gangs responsible for its distribution.

Born from the very drug he's trying to stop, black-masked (or is it a mask?) Rendel is hacking and blasting his way through the men who made his and other people's lives hell. When VALA recruits a group of mercenaries to get rid of Rendel for good, it leads to the kind of violence only a reasonable-sized budget can do justice to.

The world wasn't exactly crying out for a superhero movie from Finland, but here's RENDEL anyway, and as these things go it's not bad. It's certainly a lot darker than its US counterparts, with the titular character much more of a killing machine and the emphasis of the movie on the scuzzy lowlife milieu in which he operates rather than brightly coloured costumes and witty dialogue. 

4Digital Media offers the options of the movie in its original language with subtitles, but there's also an English dub that's...interesting to listen to, but if you want to experience the film as it was intended stick with the subtitles.

RENDEL is out on Monday 25th February 2019 on DVD, VOD and digital download