Basement Jack

BASEMENT JACK is another cheap slasher movie, an independent straight-to-DVD effort that looks and feels exactly the same as at least a dozen others. It has the old greyed-out colour palette look going on, alongside a non-threatening villain, lots of cheap gore effects, and a strictly pedestrian narrative.

The titular character is a psychotic who choses bad weather as a time to go around menacing innocent families. There are a lot of scenes shot in rooms filled with blood sprayed over the walls and the like, but the emphasis is on graphic kill sequences as Jack goes around slaughtering all in his path.

He's an irredeemable villain, but the kills have zero impact because there's no characterisation here whatsoever. There is some talk in an attempt to build a proper story, but none of it is very interesting. The best cast member they could come up with is Tiffany Shepis, who started out as a Troma starlet. I found BASEMENT JACK tired and distasteful, and I couldn't help wondering why I was bothering to watch it.

A serial killer, nicknamed Basement Jack because of his penchant for hiding out in his victim's basements before killing them, is released and returns to the small town of Downer's Grove to continue his massacre and finish off the one victim who was able to escape is slaughter years before.

This film desperately tries to be a throwback to 80's slasher films, but it is too slow-paced and padded with the killer's backstory that it commits the worst crime a slasher film can: it becomes boring. The pace does pick up in the end and there are some ambitious attempts at heavy gore; however, it is extremely fake looking and some is obviously CGI. However, the director is able to create some nice atmosphere is spots and, despite the fake looking gore, the film looks great. In the end, though, this is nothing you haven't seen before and it has been done much, much better.

FrightMeter Grade: D+

Young man is tortured with a 9 volt battery by mother as a kid and turns into a killer only during thunderstorms.

If you buy into that premise, you might also like the bad acting, horrible script, the dead victims whose eyes are literally blinking and moving on screen, and storms without rain.

I didn't.

Characters actions simply don't make sense. Not sure if you've ever licked a 9 volt battery. I have. It doesn't hurt in the slightest. You feel a dull tingle. That's how we'd test to see if they were good as kids. None of us turned into serial killers.

And why do so many of the corpses move when they're supposed to be dead?

Didn't anyone see this during the editing?

IMDD says this movie had a million dollar budget.

Where did the money go?

Being a slasher movie fan, I was thinking, well, it can't be all that bad. I mean, even the worst films have some good thing about them.

Let me tell you right now.

THIS ONE HAS NONE!

The movie is just terrible, and the worst part is that they took it seriously. Acting is truly bad. Even for a slasher movie... At most points the stabbing scenes are made badly and you can see how they miss the person. Even at a moment when a person is stabbed through, falls to the floor and then... No blood on their back when the knife just came out.

If you are thinking about watching this movie, I can only tell you one thing: DON'T!

There is a whole list of things you can do instead that are much more entertaining: - Starring a white wall for a couple of hours - Counting Flakes in you cornflake box - Going to sleep

and much much more.

I saw this before GROWTH and enjoyed it infinitely more. There was much more of a story here and the horror was to a level that I was more or less expecting. it is not a great horror film but it is entertaining and works well and I like the ending, not disappointed at all.

Lots of blood and gore and you shouldn't have to wonder why this or that happened when it did, just enjoy the movie.

Again no star names and again it is a movie aimed at the teenage market. I am no teenager anymore but this is fine, though I am not sure what the bits are which were considered unsuitable for cinema release.

by comparison it is a poor mans WRONG TURN but don't worry about that.

When the girl was hitching a ride early on in the movie, I did wonder how the driver died (or was killed) by Basement Jack? Didn't figure that out.

Bound to be divided on this one but for a movie on a small budget it serves up well.