Review of Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer (2007) by Andreas O — 18 Jul 2010

All Work And No Rage Makes Jack A Dull Boy.

All grown up, Jack Brooks, is struggling to cope with the childhood trauma of watching his family brutally murdered at the hands of a monster. Along with that he is dealing with a dead end job, a nagging girlfriend, therapy sessions that go nowhere, and a night class that barely holds his interest. Its not until Jack's professor becomes the victim of an ancient curse does he realize his true calling and the reason for his pent up rage. Now he must deal with some of his old demons, as well as some new ones.

This was by far my most anticipated film of the entire film fest. I briefly heard about it through the grapevine of the horror community. It was mostly getting buzz about being very "Evil Dead 2-ish". Which means I was bound to be in love with it. On top of that, the great Robert Englund was playing the Professor. It wasn't until months later did I get a chance to catch the trailer online for it. 2 minutes and I was sold hook, line, and sinker.

The early talks of it being similar to the legendary Evil Dead 2 is dead on. You have a lead that is part egotistial, part loose cannon, and part idiot much like Ashley J. Williams. Its not until the character gets presented with the evil do they turn into the hero they are meant to be. Aside from the lead characters being similar alot of the main parts of the plot are pretty close. Instead of watching friends be turned into blood thirsty demons, Jack's classmates are the victim of the possessions. The demons even look very similar to the deadites from the first two Evil Dead films. Its obvious after watching this film that Jon Knautz and John Ainslie are probably just as big of fans of Raimi's work as I am.

My favorite thing about this film is the makeup. Instead of using high budget and sometimes crappy CG, they decided to go the old school route and do real makeup. Its shocking but very refreshing to see. Most lower budget films opt to go the CG route and because they don't have the money to hire a great team, the work comes out looking like garbage. Seeing the real deal will always be appreciated more than seeing computer work.

The only problem with the film is the pacing. It takes a little longer than I would have liked to get to the point. There are great moments of comedy throughout the first 2/3's of the film but I found myself saying "come on already". Robert Englund was also a big help at carrying the slower portion of the film.

Overall I give the film a B-. In the world of campy horror this will eventually be a classic. Its just too bad that its going to get horrible distribution and not the theater credit it deserves. Eventually though, through enough word of mouth, I expect the horror community to gobble it up. If you like films like Evil Dead and Dead Alive, this film is right up your alley.