Tag: Pilou Asbæk

Hail Sailor! When There’s No Rest for the Wicked After Navigating the Hoary Seas, What’s Next?

Set on the Faroe Islands in 1862, No Rest for the Wicked blends forbidden romance, Norse folklore and slow-burning Gothic horror. Its haunting atmosphere works better than its confused vampire mythology.

No Rest for the Wicked Movie Poster
Screened at Fantasia Film Festival on July 25, 2026 at the Salle J.A. De Sève

No Rest for the Wicked is a great title for a movie. With early marketing and reviews from the 2026 Fantasia Film Festival describing it as a queer love story wrapped inside a Gothic vampire drama, perhaps Lestat has a new rival. If we’re judging who wears the crown for best-looking vampire, Helge (Pilou Asbæk), the Danish whaler, wins hands down.

There’s also something to be said for stripping away the Gothic excess that vampire stories from this period embraced. Set in 1862 on the Faroe Islands, this tale exists on the edge of civilization, where survival comes before superstition and every stranger is met with suspicion. Young Baldur (Egor Venned) doesn’t have much to do, and he’s like every other kid from a small village: bored.

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Just How Often Can Major Get Blown Up in Ghost in the Shell (2017)?

Ghost in the Shell

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

The live-action Hollywood “remake” of Ghost in the Shell (GitS) hardly succeeds in waxing the philosophical from Masamune Shirow’s manga or the anime directed by Mamoru Oshii. While I knew these ideas will be the farthest thing the hive mind planned for the Western adaptation, I secretly hoped for some redemption. A few scenes from the anime were nicely recreated in live-action format, but I wanted more substance than style, to which this film had in abundance. When this movie is partially shot with Alexa 6K (65mm) cameras, I’m hoping the National Geographic IMAX theatre in my hometown gets it during this film’s second run at theatres so I can see this movie proper on a square screen.

While I did not expect much of the Frankenstein-style discourse to exist throughout the film, there were a few moments Major (Scarlett Johansson) tries to understand who she is, why she was created and where her “ghost” comes from. This actress basically got a chance to play a different kind of Black Widow, a person stripped of her identity to become a professional hit-man (woman) and not have “family” to worry about. When she’s the main character, at least fans of this actress got what they wanted instead of waiting for a Marvel Comics Entertainment version.

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