The Plot
Jack Brooks (Trevor Matthews) has a problem. He gets angry. A lot. Like the Hulk without the mutation. Although he's seeing a counselor, that hasn't abated his tendency to punch anyone who looks at him cockeyed. To be fair, though, he has reason to be upset. When he was a boy, he witnessed his parents and little sister being torn apart by a hairy troll-like creature. The frustration of not being able to save them has steadily built up over the years, and now, Jack, a plumber and part-time college student, is at his wit's end trying to control it. (It doesn't help that his girlfriend, Eve [Rachel Skarsten], is constantly nagging him to get his act together.)
In the midst of this inner turmoil, Jack gets a job working on his teacher's pipes. (Insert XXX-rate joke here.) Professor Crowley (Robert Englund) has just moved into a big old house with a mysterious past, and he asks Jack to get the water flowing. In the process of doing so, Jack unwittingly uncovers a box buried in the back yard. After he leaves, Crowley unearths the box and discovers a skeleton inside with a black heart still intact.
The heart, it turns out, belonged to a demon, and it quickly possesses Professor Crowley, mutating his body and turning him into an eating machine. Soon, monster Crowley spawned other beasts, and it's up to Jack to put his anger to good use...slaying monsters.
The End Product
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer feels like part one of a trilogy -- a great start, but a mostly functional warm-up for things to come that spends most of the time introducing the characters and tracking Jack's gradual development into a "monster slayer." That said, the characters are strong -- from volatile antihero Jack to prissy Eve to absent-minded old codger Howard (David Fox, in a film-stealing performance) -- and worthy of a sequel, or even a TV show along the lines of another "slayer," Buffy.
The tone is light, with humor that's if not laugh-out-loud, then at least chuckle-out-loud funny. When the comedy doesn't work, it's usually due to either the limited range of star Matthews or a script that doesn't push the envelope enough beyond cheap physical gags. Luckily, Matthews is surrounded by the strong comedic skills of Fox, Skarsten and even Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund, who seems to relish his anti-Elm Street role as a mild-mannered professor being transformed into an otherworldly creature.
Beyond the humor, what separates Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer from most modern horror movies today is the special effects and makeup. Truly "old school" in approach, the filmmakers don't use one second of digital effects, and the film -- as well as the movie world at large -- is better for it. It's a thrill to see the creativity that goes into action sequences involving "real-life" tentacles and airborne stunts -- things that we've become accustomed to seeing created on a computer. If Jack Brooks is movie magic, then most films today are movie science.
The film manages to capture some of the horror-comedy magic of Evil Dead 2, although in general it falls short of that rarified air. Once the action starts, director Jon Knautz delivers a Sam Raimi-like over-the-top zest, full of exaggerated camera angles and a cartoonish sense of fun that's aided by the comic book-y villains. Gore fans expecting a splatter-fest similar to Evil Dead, however, might be disappointed to find the blood 'n guts content relatively skimpy, offset by sundry other icky bodily fluids (think Slither).
Despite some amazing makeup effects, the limitations of the budget for Jack Brooks show in a plot that ends up being much smaller in scale than its promise. Just when it starts to build up steam, it's over, leaving you wondering if they could've pushed the story a bit further. I guess that'll have to wait for part two.
The Skinny
- Acting: B- (It's unfortunate that Matthews, the star, is the weakest actor.)
- Direction: B- (Adequately revisits early Sam Raimi.)
- Script: C+ (There are nice moments of humor, but the overall story isn't very substantial.)
- Gore/Effects: A- (A throwback to the good ol' pre-digital days.)
- Overall: B- (An enjoyable start to a horror-comedy franchise?)
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer is directed by Jon Knautz and is rated R for horror violence and gore, and for language. Opening date: August 15, 2008.
