See Jane Run

I didn't expect much from a Joe Estevez movie after "gems" like Death Row and Zombiegeddon. See Jane Run is actually a pretty good movie. While it obviously doesn't have a budget and isn't a blockbuster horror film like Hostel or Saw, I thought that the acting and picture were extremely good. The actors didn't overact like they do in most horror flicks. I thought that was great. The story wasn't anything new, but it kept my attention and the payoff was good at the end. I think that the direction of the film was the weakest link, but the actors and cinematographer did an awesome job and I would definitely recommend See Jane Run to anyone looking for a movie that skates the line between horror and art house.

Taking its title from the popular children's basils "Dick and Jane" is a clever little idea; the only problem is we never actually see Jane run. In fact, we don't see Jane do much of anything except whine, look mopey, and, overall, be a real party pooper.

The plot of this film is about as clichéd as it gets in the slasher genre: a group of friends are traveling through the country, decide it is a good idea to pick up a hitchhiker, get lured into going to a barbecue restaurant (which is actually a house) and begin to get killed off one by one by the madman living there. Yes, sounds almost exactly like "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," doesn't it? Only one problem...this film isn't nowhere near as effective.

First, Jane is supposed to be our heroine, yet she is extremely annoying, whining about anything and everything and is obviously suffering from some sort of social anxiety disorder that is never really explained. This makes it impossible to root for her or to really care what happens to her. Secondly, the friends are assured that the place they are being sent to is the "best barbecue restaurant in the state of Texas," yet when they pull up IT'S A FRICKIN HOUSE!! I mean, a real house in the middle of a suburban neighborhood! I don't know about you, but that would be my first clue that something is not right. I certainly wouldn't go to the door expecting to be served barbecue, but that is exactly what the four of them do. Even worse, it's actually a really nice house, taking away any hope of the setting providing creepy atmosphere. Run down crappy house in middle of nowhere=scary. Nice, new suburban house with awesome landscaping, cool backyard patio, and nice looking neighbors close by=not scary. Even worse yet, the killer is completely not intimidating or scary in the least. Think of Jerry Seinfeld as a serial killer. Nothing remotely scary about it, is there? He wears no mask, is not huge and stocky, and acts pretty normal (you know, despite the killing part). Again, like so many of these films, the ending is completely predictable once we establish that Jane is our heroine (as lousy of one as she is), though the last 20 minutes of the film consist of her being tied to a chair. Oh...she almost gets rescued by a jogger (yeah, when a passing jogger can here your victim tied to a chair in your garage, you know you haven't selected your location wisely).

The positive thing about this film is that it is gorier than what I thought it would be. Not that I am a huge gorehound, but when pretty much everything else about the film sucks, it's a nice surprise. The blood flows here in gallons, and for being such a wussy looking killer, the guy actually is pretty brutal with his weapons.

Overall, this film is a lame rip-off of "TCM" and countless other films that COULD have been creepy and effective, but the filmmakers seem hellbent on doing everything they could to make it NOT creepy and effective. Even "The Butcher," another recent DTV slasher film with a very similar plot was able to get the setting/atmosphere right. This was just a real let down.

My Grade: D- (the death scenes keep it from being a complete failure)

I'm a huge indie horror fan. And I mean real indie, not big studio movies pretending to be "independent". If you love that type of movie like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the original Night of the Living Dead, then this movie is for you. If you're looking for stuff like SAW or HOSTEL which are more your high level indie/low level studio, you might not appreciate it. In fact, I kind of got the feeling they were really trying to recreate that old style TCM feel. The story was workable, definitely a plus in this kind of movie where half of them just don't make sense. The acting was solid and really reminded me of that 60's, 70's style. FX were better than expected.

ScreamKing ReportCard:

Splatter? YES Gore Score: 8 buckets Story: 5 buckets FX: 7 buckets Actors: Joe Estevez! 8 buckets Recommend: Joe Bob would love it. If you love the indies, go for it!

Hell no... I wonder what drives amateur film makers to make such senseless movies. Take it for granted... this movie is not gory, it has no suspense, it has one of the most boring main actors EVER and the plot seems written in 5 Minutes. What do you get.... 4 Kids are on a trip, 1 couple, 1 loser and 1 strange girl named Jane who seems to be on sleeping pills. At first the strange acting of her and the loser drives your attention to whats behind it... but there is nothing. After picking up a cool dude they end up in the house of a strange religious barbecue-freak who invites them... and come on, you know whats coming. 5 kids... strangers house, barbecue?!?!

Until anything happens you have to sit through 50 minutes of nearly nothing happening, just to get some lame kills and a 15 Minute torture sequence. Even here Jane doesn't change her facial expression and her whole character and actions are neither explained nor make any sense in the end. And to give you the biggest letdown, Jane doesn't even run. The plot is ridiculous, making barely any sense in fusing loosely touching threads together to a big mess and the acting is awkward in the beginning and plain ridiculous in the torture sequences. Now if you watch movies for hot irons to the face, good ole cannibalism and a computer generated decapitation... watch this and fast forward in between the 3 "highlights". It really drives me nuts to see so much time being wasted by those involved and those watching on a script that could have been written by a retard with more logic to it. BAD! Especially because its trash that tries to be more and falls flat on its face. Introducing a main character like Jane without any hint of resolving makes me wants to slap those responsible for 90 minutes of my life being wasted.

I'm constantly amazed by the trash that people pass off as entertainment / horror- and this film is a prime example of just that. It was, in my opinion, neither entertaining or horrific.

I would suggest the acting is horrific, the lack of story line is pretty horrific and the camera work is pretty horrific- but as far as content goes, this is far from a decent horror movie.

I originally saw the movie when it was rated as 6.x on IMDb, and I was hopeful ... unfortunately, I was duped. I can only presume some poor so, and so, had seen the film and wanted someone else to suffer the pain they had in going to watch this poor attempt at a horror film. Well, I'm learning- I used to trust IMDb- but, as with most things in the public domain, the opinions are not controlled and anyone who rated this film higher than a "1" should really consider whether or not their faculties are intact. It was appalling, abysmal, awful, terrible ... I really cannot think of a single redeeming factor in the hour-and-a-half of my life that I will never get back that I spent watching this film.

If anyone can help me in finding a redeeming quality, please do so- I'm desperately looking for something positive to find in this film to justify the time that I spent watching it, but I can't for the life of me think what that could be.