'Videoman' is one of the all too rare films featuring a greatly flawed middle-aged male protagonist I can readily relate to, which, quite frankly, also made for frequently uneasy viewing! Ex-video-shop proprietor Ennio Midena (Stefan Sauk) is a disenfranchised, heavy-drinking divorcee, an increasingly bitter loner, wholly unwilling to connect to the self-absorbed swill of social media, an analogue diehard in a disorientating digital age of instant gratification, constantly obsessing about once again opening a niche video emporium; his dream one step closer to corporeal reality as he has secured a mysterious high-paying customer for his rare, mint-condition VHS copy of maestro Lucio Fulci's legendary video nasty 'Zombie'. The strangely charming 'Videoman' is an engaging, appealingly retro-flavoured, darkly tinged, character-based drama about the murkier side of life-consuming collector-mania, metropolitan loneliness, boozy existential despair, all blissfully bathed in the neon-hazed hue of lovingly synthesized 80s nostalgia!

The fitfully likeable, irksomely opinionated Ennio's maddeningly circuitous path to desperately locate a valuable missing tape, finally get free of debt, and find love is rarely less than compelling cinema. Ennio's stultifying insular, basement-dwelling inertia is considerably brightened by the arrival of 80s music fan, Egypt-loving dipso Simone Karlsson (Lena Nilsson). And the film's elusive nemesis 'Faceless' makes for an eerie peripheral presence, and the Giallo pastiche is amusingly staged, and the slew of euro-cult references are a delight, especially edifying is the lurid discussion over Rosalba Neri's 'body part' double in Fernando Di Leo's gruesome Giallo 'Slaughter Hotel'. An additional B-Movie bonus is the spot the-cult-movie game director Kristian A. Söderström clearly wants us to play, as 'Videoman' features 'Eye-Patching' excerpts from Bo Arne Vibenius's iconic 'Thriller: A cruel picture', and his lesser-known grindhouse classic 'Breaking Point', with a splendidly grisly 'insert' from Carlo Vanzina's cult 80s slasher 'Nothing Underneath'. Metalheads might also appreciate the brief cameo by writer/musician Daniel Ekeroth as fellow video collector Jonas 'Franco' Karlsson. 'Videoman' is a delightfully vivid, deliciously downbeat drama that is well worth 'tracking' down!'

Interesting idea but not the zombie movie i was looking for,it's a long winded story of who took his tape with him trying to track down the thief only to discover it was in his microwave. The man was an achoholic and so was his girlfriend so maybe that why it got put in microwave. This movie was on sky premiere i don't know why!

Reading about this perhaps little-known Swedish film, it sounded like something I could relate to, I myself am a massive collector of DVDs, and this was all about a video collector, and it was rated well, so I hoped for the best. Basically, Ennio Midena (Stefan Sauk) is a VHS (video home system) video tape collector. He used to run Sweden's best video store but has since moved to Gothenburg and developed a drinking problem since its closure. The only people that still rely on Ennio's collection video cassettes are his friends, who often come over to watch a film with him, or other collectors or nostalgic fans of videos looking for titles, especially 1970s and 1980s horrors and thrillers, to borrow or buy from him. Ennio is close to being evicted from his basement flat-cum-video library. But he believes his problems may be solved when he receives a call from an anonymous woman. She is looking for the film Zombie (aka Zombie Flesh Eaters),a rare and collectable film to find on video tape, and she is offering 10,000 euros to purchase it. But things go awry for Ennio when the movie gets stolen, and he must start a desperate hunt for a perpetrator. The mysterious (and possibly murderous) buyer threatening him is known only as Faceless, but Ennio will stop at nothing to get the rare tape worth thousands back. Carolin Stoltz During his search, Ennio meets divorced fellow alcoholic Simone Karlsson (Lena Nilsson),who has an obsession for everything from the 1980s, especially the music, fashion, and culture. Simone a victim of workplace bullying and struggles to develop a relationship with her grown up daughter. These outsiders joined by nostalgia and broken dreams starts a romance. But Ennio is in danger of losing all grip on reality as he looks for the tape before the proposed handover to the buyer. Also starring Morgan Alling as Giallo-Bosse, Martin Wallström as Chefen - The Boss, and Amanda Ooms as Simones Kollega - Simone's Colleague. The performances are fine, there is a story I could just about follow (loosely based on a real-life collector, who cameos as a janitor),I'm not sure if I fully got the romance, but I guess it doesn't matter. What I enjoyed were the many references to movies, the 70s and 80s, the incessant synth music score, and the many dark scenes filled with purple and pink lighting. The film works well as great nostalgia for any retro fan or cinephile like me, and with its eerie atmosphere throughout, it an intriguing dark romantic comedy thriller. Good!