Jack brooks: Monster Slayer

A Slowzombies review

Expectation is indeed a strange brew, it does odd things to your brain wether it's positive or negative. I had quite a bit of expectations around this particular flick. The concept of a plumber with anger issues fighting monsters Ashley J. Williams-style undoubtably was interesting. On the other hand, there was quite a lot that could go wrong with this movie. If it wasn't funny enough or failed to provide the apropriate level of tounge-in-cheek sillyness, the movie would leave a bad taste in ones mouth, to the point where a Uwe Boll movie would be a breath of fresh air in comparison.

The story is, as mentioned, not horribly complicated. The titular plumber comes to clash with a demon who is possessing his science teacher, turning the latter into a tentacled animatronic fiend. The choice of having the majority of the movie to be set in a highschool, despite the main characters being a good couple of years to old to be in one, is interesting, as it allows the movie to discretely poke fun at teen horror stereotypes. Otherwise, the pliot is nice and properly predictable, with some foreshadowing so blatant it borders on humor in itself, at least to the genre-savvy watcher.

When it comes to acting, I can't really say anyone stands out as particularly bad or good.One can argue that the talents of Robert Englund is misused slightly, most of his major scenes on-screen are highly slapstick/sillyness-driven, and doesn't really tap into Englunds potential to freak out and flat out scare. One must be wary, however, of judging this like one would judge a movie that takes itself seriously. Therefore, I'll settle on the neccesarity of the sillyness portrayed by the man who gave the sleaze slasher a name and a, properly charred, face.

When it comes to the special effects, we're talking proper oldschool. Any notion of modern CGI effects are discarded in favor of animatronics, giving the monsters beasts and ghouls a nice trip through uncanny valley. It's obvious the filmmakers did know a good deal about the limitations of these special effects, because they seem to do well with these scenes, avoiding the many possible pitfalls of machine monster mayhems.

Overall, I'm content with my purchase of Jack Brooks: Monster slayer, it certainly isn't the most thrilling horror movie you will find, but when it comes to humor and just plain fun, it has it in spades. Perfect for weak-hearted, or -stomached moviegoers who wants some nice and easy halloween fun, or the slightly more hardened horror veteran provided you've got a sense of humor. Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer is highly recomended.

Final Rating: 5 of 6 Headshots

In closing, I would like to state that I'm actually hoping for more Jack Brooks sequels. Sure, the movies won't be less silly as the series progress, but the tounge-in-cheek style hopefully will ride the wave more stylishly as the more serious movie series.