Directed By Jon Knautz
Review based upon the UK Momentum DVD release
When it works well, the horror genre can be all manner of things. It can be challenging, innovative, scary, insightful, moving, uncomfortable, violent, and sometimes all of these. The key thing is that sometimes all a horror fan wants is to be given a thrill ride; something that’s fun and rewarding. “Jack Brooks Monster Slayer” falls into this category wholeheartedly, as a movie that takes the audience on a journey that has buckets of humour and pails of unrealistic gore in equal measure.
The first part of a projected trilogy, the flick opens with our hero Jack (Trevor Matthews) working as a plumber in a deadbeat town. He’s a generally unlikeable kind of guy, full of anger and dissatisfaction with his life: seeking a purpose that hasn’t yet presented itself. The reason for his time-bomb aggression and subsequent ongoing therapy is that as a young boy he ran from the scene as his parents and sister were butchered. Unknown to anyone other than Jack is the fact that the murderer was a wolf-like monster, and he lives with the constant guilt of having fled rather than trying to save his own family.
Jack and his on-off girlfriend Eve (Rachel Skarsten) are attending an evening class in Science, where the plumber meets Professor Crowley (Robert Englund) who asks his student for help with a problem at his house. But Crowley’s home is the stuff of legend, where a particularly unpleasant demon is waiting to be unleashed. Will Jack find his true calling as a monster slayer to stop the demon that is threatening to rise again?
“Jack Brooks Monster Slayer” is directed by relative newcomer Jon Knautz from a screenplay he wrote with first-timer John Ainslie. The whole piece is reminiscent of an 80’s B-movie (largely I suspect due to budget constraints), but unlike other productions this picture uses such limitations to its advantage by injecting the whole proceedings with an infectious atmosphere of fun. Knautz does not try to insult his audience by asking them to take this seriously, and the end result is a direct to DVD gem that’s a rollicking way to spend 90 minutes.
Trevor Matthews as Jack puts in a very sympathetic performance on the whole, allowing the character to develop from someone initially dislikeable to a hero in the mould of Ashley J. Williams from the “Evil Dead” series (the end of this flick is very reminiscent of a key moment in “Army of Darkness” especially). As ever, Robert Englund plays his role as Crowley with gusto, clearly enjoying the whole experience and giving a weight to the proceedings that may have been missing without him. The rest of the cast are largely forgettable and pretty much irrelevant, but Rachel Skarsten as Eve is incredibly irritating (which is the point of course) and as such she does a good job in a rather limited role.
“Jack Brooks” will not wi
n any awards, nor will it set the world on fire. This is a shame as all involved have created a low-budget monster picture that is actually shot impressively whilst building to a very messy and satisfying conclusion. If, like me, you loved “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” (surely it’s no coincidence that these titles are very similar) but always craved for a more adult version with more gore, then this is definitely one for your collection.At times it does feel like the beginning of a filmic series due to the lengthy exposition within the first half, but this actually benefits the piece as it takes time to flesh out Jack’s character arc and gives the hilarious proceedings that follow more impact.
It will be interesting to see where the second film takes our intrepid monster slayer, and the ending certainly points to some creative ideas that hopefully will be fully pursued and realised. This is a great genre piece shot in the style of many of my favourite 80’s horror flicks, and as such comes very highly recommended indeed.
The next time you need a plumber on a dark night, you know who to call…!
7.5 out of 10
A great old school horror-comedy to rival the likes of "Army of Darkness"... I'm really looking forward to the next part already!
