Jackals

A family employ a former Marine to kidnap and help reverse the brainwashing that their one son has under gone when he joined a dark and dangerous evil cult. The members want him back and lay siege to the family's isolated house. Jackals has a very basic plot but that does not matter, this movie is an exercise in terror and suspense, of violence and darkness. It is well acted and shot, the location gives a real feel of isolation and helplessness. The cult members, all dressed in leather and wearing creepy animal style masks, look terrifying. The movie is set several decades before it was made, I don't know why - perhaps it was to eliminate the ability of any body trapped inside the family home to use their cell 'phone and call for help? (needless to say the landline had been cut off). Overall a pretty decent 85 minutes, better than The Strangers.

I've dig movies like this; a small group of people stuck in a location that fight for their lives against a cult/gang in order to make it through the night. It's a sub genre of thrillers and horror films that we don't get that often and it's a real shame; movies such as "Straw Dogs", "Assault on Precinct 13", and last year's "Green Room" are phenomenal examples of that specific type of movie I'm referring to. While this I wouldn't say is quite on par with the ones I just mentioned, I still found this to be a very intense ride.

Going into this movie, I had no idea as to where it was going or even what it was about. I knew the title and that it was some sort of horror film judging from its box cover. And truth be told, that is probably the best way to go into this movie, so if you are curious to check this out if you are in the mood for a terrifically suspenseful and somewhat gory thriller then skip this review now and go straight to it. I believe it is worth the watch, but if you'd like to hear some of my thoughts well...you're in luck because I don't feel like shutting up just yet.

A movie like this can run into major problems with the characters, particularly that they're just flat out unlikable. Fortunately the writer and director seem to know what they're doing and make sure that even when the characters are being assholes, they're still believable as to why they're doing what they're doing. Every character's motivation is clear and works well in order to create a tense atmosphere for their situation. The score and direction reminded somewhat of John Carpenter's early filmography, especially with its opening scene paying homage to Carpenter's "Halloween" and once the cult shows up in the film it is reminiscent of his film "Assault on Precinct 13" with how they're shot. Speaking of the cult, I did like that this movie captured them as an extremely imposing and intimidating force to be reckoned with. Also, because of this being the kind of movie that it is, it is relatively unpredictable as to how things are going to end, which I also liked about it.

I have issues, honestly some major ones at that. Such as some characters doing some really stupid things occasionally, yet at the same time I had to think about what I would do in the situation and if push came to shove I may have done similar things. Plus this is supposedly based on a true story, so for all I know all of this is completely accurate as to what actually happened. Although with how it ends, which is ridiculously abrupt, it makes me question as to how much of this is factual. Another problem I have with the last act is that a certain character is made out to have a "change of heart" about something that didn't make much sense, granted it turned out to have been a trick, but still the film seemed to be under the impression that I was suppose to buy into this notion. Yet nothing up to this point ever led me to believe that this character would have actually changed like that, which only resulted in making the remaining moments of the movie predictable and I had to wait for it to catch up with me. One last little tidbit, while I did like the opening sequence of the film, it was also pretty pointless; not connecting to really much of anything with the actual story. As though it were inserted at the beginning because the filmmakers needed something in order to get the audience on edge early, but had very little to bridge the gap to do so. Still a neat opening and does introduce the viewer to what they're in for, I just would have liked it to have been better connected to the main plot is all.

One last nitpick was that I had to constantly remind myself that this was taking place in the 1980s. Something about how a large sum of this film is shot and edited, how the characters look, how they're speaking for some reason never felt like I was watching something that was set in 1983. I can't quite put my finger on it. Even the locations that the movie used I sat and thought to myself, "Well I guess this could be taking place in the 80s, or the present". There wasn't anything that stood out to me as, "Yes, this is obviously in the 80s" and because of that I kept wondering "why aren't they just using their phones to call the cops or something?" but then I have to think about it for a moment and remember that this is supposed to be 1983. I don't know exactly what it was about this movie, but that was a problem I kept coming across throughout the run time. Granted, it is a really stupid nitpick that is only the result of the film's probable low budget, but it was still a slight distraction that I thought was worth mentioning.

Regardless of all the negatives listed, I still found this to be an intense slasher that is serviceable for a few scares if that's what you're looking for. It's nice to get a movie like this as apposed to the countless ghost/demon possession we seem to get all the time now. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty modern ghost/demon/possession films that are just fine if not truly great. But I just miss having a little more variety. As much as I love "The Conjuring", I wouldn't mind getting more like this one here. Especially in the theater, which is almost practically an extinct option currently. Anyways, give this a watch. I think it's worth your time if what I have said sounds appealing.

A cult demands the return of their member after his family kidnaps him. My only problem is that about halfway through the family should have cut their losses. The returns diminish ridiculously after that. However, it is a given that people act stupidly in a horror movie. If you can't get behind that most fundamental of horror movie tropes then don't bother. And voila, we have the scenario where I can dig the hell out of this movie even with that big of a beef. I love the evil that flourishes throughout the cult, down to the kidnapped son. I love the high tension all the way through. I do hate the women, especially the young mother but I think the writer has a bias there.

Just another knockoff of The Strangers. In fact, this director worked on that movie, so I guess that's where he got the idea. The bad guys here have slightly more motive than in The Strangers, they're attacking this house to get one of their members back, but beyond that we know absolutely nothing about them or their motives, only that they're another group of mysterious masked people who like to arbitrarily torture and murder anyone in their way.

It's not a terrible movie, but it doesn't really do anything new or interesting either. It's watchable, but completely unmemorable. Don't expect any form of satisfaction from the ending either.

One more thing. Why did they bother to make this set in the early 80's? It seemed to have no bearing at all on the plot or characters and if it wasn't for the old style TV and picture of Ronald Reagan on a mantle that they show for a few seconds in the beginning, you'd never know this was supposed to be happening in the 80's. There's no 80's feel to anything in the movie. Somehow I suspect that they did this for the sole purpose of creating an excuse for no one to have a phone...

It's difficult to make movies this terrible. This is one where you wonder how on earth this was made and does someone have pictures of Steven Dorff doing something very embarrassing? In short, the audience isn't told much about what is really going on because that would ruin any sense of understanding what is going on and why. There is a cult that wears masks when they want to feel scary and they are using knives to slice up people in an awkward "we're in a movie" sort of way. After an opening of senseless violence, you are taken to the cabin in the woods where you learn that a father has grabbed his son and his friend who apparently are now a part of a cult. Dorff plays the deprogrammer.

The acting is terrible. Dorff can't save the film and it's clear that they couldn't pay for him to be on screen very long. But not only is the acting terrible but the dialogue is laughably stilted and awkward. The longer it goes on the more you wonder why on earth you're watching because every character acts about as dumb as you'd expect in a bad B-horror movie.

And as was asked by the forgettable girl, why didn't this gang just break the windows and bull rush the cabin and kill all of them. Wouldn't be too difficult. But if they did, you would have all this scary imagery going on to prolong the movie for an interminable hour to create something that resembles The Void. "We must have all our cult people stand motionless in the dark with masks on to create a semblance of something scary that could only be explained by a movie director choreographing this charade." Even the scared family is trying to figure out what on earth the father is trying to do since even stupid people wouldn't act the way he is.

I actually haven't provided any spoilers. I'll just say that the movie deliberately doesn't provide you what you should know because it needs something to get you to watch until the end. Why? Who cares? This is not just bad. It's spectacularly bad.