Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer

What the hell has happened to the modern monster movie? From the king of cult shock films Takashi Miike to the box-office success of the Hostel series to somehow legitimizing a 5 sequel SAW franchise, it's clear that the monster movie of yore has given way to a new era of "shock horror." Raised on a steady diet of Guantanamo Bay and Grand Theft Auto IV, the youth of today seem more interested in watching the meticulous re-creation of real life violence (occurring in some kind of moral vacuum) than they are in seeing the romantically bloody playout of Good versus Evil, which is what scary movies used to be about...

While 'shock horror' has existed for a long time (did someone say 'Texas Chainsaw?'), it's never been near as popular as it is today. I'm not here to perform a deep social analysis, but I can tell you about one new Canadian made film that works against the grain, hearkening back to the days when horror was about cool monsters, buckets of blood, and weekend escapism (i.e, the 80s?). Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer is the work of a trio of Ottawa based independent filmmakers (and VFS alum) who grew up on a steady diet of 'Nightmare on Elm Street' and were put off by the "recent trend towards R-rated torture porn." After five short films, Monster Slayer may still be a decidedly R-rated debut feature, but this tale of a reluctant young antihero battling the mythical (and bloodpack-loaded) forces of latex evil in the halls of his own night school is ultimately more gut-busting than it is gut-wrenching, and will appeal to anyone sick of pseudo-snuff and still crossing their fingers for an 'Evil Dead 4'.

Contemporary Horror Sucks
If modern horror filmmakers aren't busy recreating and exploiting the biologically induced cringes of real-life violence, then they're forgoing any gore for the sake of ominous music, cross-eyed children, and foggy blue filters (i.e The Sixth Sense and its crowd of imitators). I yearn for the good ol' days when horror was escapist fun, not just a dark reminder of our own immorality, or worse yet, mortality. Romero's zombies worked because their reflection of humanity was metaphorical, while villains like The Fly or even Freddy Krueger himself were always clearly relegated to the world of fantasy. Don't even get me started on those Leprechaun films...

When Eli Roth released Cabin Fever back in 2002, I was hoping we'd usher in a revival of the old-school, fun horror film. That movie combined the gore and comedy in a hilariously twisted, occasionally horrific, and downright intelligent package -- with every critic's comparisons firmly locked on those classic Evil Dead films. I'm an 'art film' inclined snob, but a movie like that was just about my ideal summer escapism. Unfortunatley, Roth chose to follow up with the aforementioned 'Hostel' films, and America gobbled up the torture porn with such voracity you'd think it was deep fried.

Oh, and over the course of my ranting, I've ignored the whole 'Scream' and 'I Know What You Did Last Summer', pop culture, teen-film-cliche-ridden subset. I'm obviously not a fan, for a lot of the same exploitive reasons I never was able to fully get on board with 'Halloween' or 'Friday the 13th.' There's a reason the Evil Dead films get incited so often; it's because the horror-comedy mix is so rarely attempted, never mind pulled off successfully; Re-Animator, Braindead, and the afforementioned 'Cabin Fever' forming my own non-Dead holy trilogy of sorts. And while Monster Slayer doesn't quite reach the absurd heights of those classics, it's another great addition to the endangered genre of splatter-comedies.

My horror loving days just about ended after Army of Darkness (I've been duped into renting one too many overrated Asian 'fringe' horrors, turned 'Hostel' off halfway through, and thought 'The Ring' was a bore), but I was more than ready to support some homegrown talent working outside of the Hollywood system, trying their best to bring the fun back to the horror film....

'Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer' Does Not Suck
Tervor Matthews plays Jack Brooks, a charming young plumber and night-school chemistry student who spends most of his energy trying to keep his persistent but uncontrollable bouts of rage to a minimum ("I smashed a bottle over my head cause I couldn't open it.") His anger problem stems from a childhood camping trip turned mutant attack, forced to witness his family's brutal murder at the hand of a classically vague (but pretty convincing) man-in-suit movie monster.

Matthews shows off some nicely restrained comedic talent in his early, ranting scenes with the school guidance counselor/psychologist. And while he's been getting some comparisons to Bruce Campbell, Matthews reminded me a lot more of a younger Jason Lee with that weird asshole-slacker appeal. His violent episodes are naturally funny, but the physically comedy never quite hits like the Stoogian 'Evil Dead,' failing to rise above fist-in-a-brick-wall shenanigans. He still had me smiling throughout, and with some continued focus the guy has some major potential to become Canadian cult icon...

The theme of unchecked aggression obviously works quite well for a gore-driven horror film, and will appeal to the male adolescent target audience, but the movie fails to ever make the statement it could on Jack's violence, never mind our overly aggressive society. Other than 'harness that shit to destroy the baddies' and 'revenge is sweet'. But, director and co-writer Jon Knautz, who met producer Patrick White out here at the Vancouver Film School, had pretty clear intentions from the get-go: an escapist picture with three things in mind: action, comedy, and horror, "in no particular order."

A lot of the team's own potential marketability was likely dependent on securing Robert Englund to play the part of Dr. Crowley, Jack's remedial Chemistry teacher. If you don't recognize the name, Englund is the man behind the makeup of Freddy Krueger, basically the icon of the genre for all those geeks growing up in the 80s. And it probably didn't hurt having a childhood hero around to give these filmmakers more motivation to ensure the final product was more than run-of-the-mill.

While Englund is certainly serviceable, he's mainly a name and doesn't really have any special charisma when stripped of the rubber mask and nails. His socially dysfunctional, self absorbed 'mad professor' is entertaining but cliche; his antics aren't quite able to sustain the mainly murder-free first fifty minutes, but Englund still wrenched enough giggles out of our small press screening to prove that he's got more than just a well-latexable face. Still, I ultimately think the money used for his paycheck could have been better spent on an extra monster or two...

With so much of the early screentime given to Englund, I left wishing more focus had been given to developing Matthew's only-glimpsed comedic side or fleshing out his fellow students. James Woods (not that James Woods) shows some major potential as the stoner friend who's trying to nab Jack's girlfriend, a character who's so absurdly one-dimensional she comes across as satirical. The remaining cast of students is pretty strong, but they're not really given anything to do before being disemboweled -- and some extral highschool comedy could've written itself, especially when the professor is smearing his vomit all over the blackboard.

While most of the first hour is devoted to fleshing out Jack and Dr. Crowley (between some gross-out humour and teases of gore), the chaos of blood begins after the Doctor's post-plumbing discovery of an ancient black heart, which soon transforms him into an insatiably hungry troll like creature until... well, I don't need to ruin much more -- but the creature effects applied to Englund rank up there with the best in monster movie latex work. The crop of beasts and mutant/zombie-students that pop up around him are equally convincing, and their subsequent butcherings are gleefully bloody, in death scenes that seem inspired by equal parts Sam Raimi and George Romero. Although it fails to ever provide that truly unforgettable gross-out scene, all the creature work and other effects are top-notch, and the bloodshed is unique enough to keep most gore junkies satisfied.

For being a pretty low budget affair (around 2 million, I've heard), the movie looks a hell of a lot nicer than you'd expect. While it suffers from some poor lighting in the third act, the film was otherwise remarkably well shot, rivaling the look of anything being released by the studios.

Sometimes these splatter movies go dreadfully and unnecessarily over the top towards the end in an attempt to outdo themselves one last time (bring out the mucus!), but 'Monster Slayer' manages to stay just behind the line of complete indulgence. That doesn't mean you won't see children getting their hands bitten off or faces being pulverized via repeated fire-extinguisher smashes, but it's all delivered with a goofy, tongue-in-cheek tone.

The sequel-bating bookends feel a little too contrived and ultimately rather needless; isn't it a given these days that even a mildly popular horror movie is an excuse to start a franchise (even if straight-to-DVD)? Just save part two for part two, we know it's inevitable. Regardless, I'm sure horror fanatics could do a lot worse in terms of escapist gore than a potential 'Monster Slayer' 2-4, and it's great to see a Canadian made production getting such positive attention from the horror community. Here's hoping they spearhead a Canuck-driven splatter-comedy revival -- it might get my cynical ass back in the multiplexes.

Header photo of Robert Englund as Dr. Crowley, side photo of Trevor Matthews as some troll creature thing.