Review of Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer (2007) by Ralph G — 27 Sep 2008

I thought this film was spectacular for what it was. For years now we've been waiting for someone to competantly take the reigns from Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson. We needed someone to show us the love when it comes to good old fashioned horror comedy. Jon Knautz and Trevor Mathews brings us that. Jack Brooks is a low budget (by Hollywood standards) horror comedy that follows in the footsteps of Evil Dead and Dead Alive. Although not quite up to snuff, Jack Brooks does show a lot of promise and I'm excited to see what comes next from these Ottawa based film makers.

All of the monsters are brought to you in practical makeup and costuming. Very reminiscent of early 80s Chiodo Bros stuff. Lots of bood and goo. The Cyclops looked great on camera. The demons were awesome, and the wild creature was pretty cool. My only problem was the final transformation of the professor, but I can't really see any way of doing it better other than CG. If you could get through Peter Jackson's Dead Alive "Mother" puppet at the end, than you'll have no problems here.

Robert Englund was great. It's nice to see him come back with a better role than some of his later projects and actually do some good with it.

If you get a chance to pick this up, do it. It's a nice addition and a compliment to the genre.