STACK #257 March 2026

MOVIE FEATURE

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SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE GOES FULL THROTTLE GENRE: Action RUN TIME: 89 mins Sisu was the sleeper hit of 2022, an ultra-violent yet gleefully brutal exploitation movie about an old bloke with special skills who lays waste to a platoon of Nazis during the Lapland War in 1944.

F ew could have predicted it becoming an instant cult hit, but in the wake of John Wick -influenced movies like Nobody and Atomic Blonde , it found its niche by presenting one of history’s most reviled villains, the Nazis, for evisceration. Now comes Sisu: Road to Revenge , a sequel that ups the ante, goes hell for leather, and switches out the SS for the Russian Red Army. This movie is to the original what The Road Warrior was to Mad Max : bigger, brasher, and a heck of a lot bloodier (if that’s even possible). The film finds our hero Aatami Korpi, a former Finnish Director Jalmari Helender is currently helming the upcoming Rambo prequel, John Rambo , a project he has described as the fulfilment of a childhood dream. DYK?

commando, crossing the newly drawn Russian border to dismantle his family home and transport it for safe reassembly in honour of his slain family. Of course, the Russians catch wind of his movement, and the KGB set an endless barrage of soldiers after him. The result is a bloodbath of absurd proportions, and a movie that will have you cheering with gleeful abandon. Although a sequel may have seemed obvious to fans, director Jalmari Helender was initially hesitant. He had come up with new ideas, none of which he deemed good enough, but once he tapped into the concept of his hero having a home to preserve, it all fell into place. “It’s important that Aatami is not actively on a mission,” said Helender during the film’s

publicity tour. “It’s better that he’s minding his own business and someone is trying to hurt him. My goal was to have an emotional

• Sisu: Road to Revenge is out Mar 4

feeling towards Aatami’s life.” When it came to influences, you might be surprised to learn that Helender took inspiration from one of Hollywood’s earliest jesters. “Buster Keaton. I didn’t want to have to pay attention to the laws of physics and stuff. And the hardest thing is to try to invent something that no one has seen before or can expect.” Glenn Cochrane

IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU’LL LOVE THESE:

Sisu, John Wick, Monkey Man, Novocaine No Pain, Atomic Blonde, Inglourious Basterds

FUN FACT

GENRE: Horror RUN TIME: 104 mins

FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2 INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 smashed box of f i ce records with the biggest post Thanksgiving opening ever in the US.

Few could have predicted the runaway success of 2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s. The Blumhouse Productions horror hit became the studio’s highest-grossing film to date.

N ow, two years later, director Emma Tammi returns for another night of terror at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza - the abandoned pizzeria haunted by Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and Mr. Cupcake, the killer animatronics first introduced in the beloved video game series. “I hope it exceeds everyone’s expectations,” says Tammi enthusiastically, when chatting about her bonkers second instalment. “The film expands on

characters as well. “There’s more set pieces, more locations, and we were really tying this film to the Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 game. So, for the fanbase coming in, it’s going to deliver in spades. It really is a thrill ride and a super fun popcorn movie.” Given that prior to the first Five Nights at Freddy’s , her only feature-length film was the low-budget indie western-horror The Wind , it would be reasonable to assume that breaking box office records and having to deliver a follow-up would be about as daunting as it gets. But Tammi takes it all in her stride. “It was so exciting that we got to make an additional film, so that was just awesome. The fact that it connected with the fanbase so strongly was also gratifying. It does add pressure to the mix, but it also felt like an exciting mandate to something that we knew

people wanted.” Most sequels these days are basically rinse and-repeat, recycling the format and hoping viewers won’t notice (we always notice), but when it came to Freddy’s 2 , Tammi and co. made sure to keep things fresh. “We were constantly trying to find things that felt

the world that we established in the first one in such exciting ways, with so many more animatronics and some great new human

organic to the expansion of the character arcs, but also hitting the mark for making it bigger, scarier, and more exciting.” Glenn Cochrane

• Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is out Mar 4

IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU’LL LOVE THESE:

Imaginary, M3GAN, Tourist Trap, The Monkey, Chucky: The Complete Series

24 MARCH 2026

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