Review: Jack Brooks

What makes JACK BROOKS so successful is the fact that unlike 99.9% of the English Canadian films out there- it doesn’t aspire to be high art. Rather- it only exists to be a good time at the movies- and in that regard it succeeds wildly. In many ways- it’s kind of an old fashioned creature feature. It doesn’t feature any vampires, zombies or werewolves, and rather than employ a lot of fancy CGI- it uses good, old fashioned practical effects (which is a very good thing for modestly budgeted film like this). Many will say the film is obviously heavily influenced by THE EVIL DEAD- and while I’ve no doubt that it did influence them to some degree- it never comes off like an imitation or carbon copy.

Despite his limited resume- newcomer Trevor Matthews comes off well as the titular hero. Despite the hero’s passing resemblance to Ash from EVIL DEAD, Matthews (who also shares story credit, and is a co-producer on the film) never attempts to ape Bruce Campbell- which is a trap many other would be horror movie heroes fall into. Matthews does a good job in the action scenes- and is especially effective in some of the more humorous moments (his therapy sessions are very funny- and for me, were the highlight of the film).

Also noteworthy is Robert Englund as the unfortunate Professor Crowley. While he winds up turning into a big special effect halfway into the film- Englund is terrific in the first half of the film- and he shows off some serious comic chops during his slap-sticky transformation scenes. It’s nice to see Englund play something other than Freddy Kruger at this point in his career- and I missed him once he was out of the film.

I should also mention that despite the low budget- JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER is a very well crafted and polished film. The technical specs (especially the amazing sound design) are all first rate. Director Jon Knautz, and producer Patrick White have managed to make a top notch horror comedy-and I could easily see this film obtained a strong cult following at some point. The huge audience I saw it with seemed to thoroughly enjoy the film, and I definitely look forward to seeing what the filmmakers have up their sleeves- and I look forward to the further adventures of JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER.