Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
Directed by John Knautz
Starring Trevor Matthews, Robert Englund, Rachel Skarsten
Anchor Bay
Release date: October 7, 2008

When I read the title Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer, I laughed. I went to school with someone who shared (almost exactly) the same name as the titular hero. When my mum saw a photo of my friends and I, aged 16, in my yearbook she pointed at him and with genuine concern asked, “What’s wrong with that little girl?”

Luckily, the hero of this film is not a pale, shaven-headed, pre-growth-spurt 16-year-old. Jack Brooks (Trevor Matthews) is in his twenties, working as a plumber by day because he is a regular guy trying to make a living and taking science classes in the evening because his girlfriend told him to. But Jack’s irritating girlfriend Eve (Rachel Skarsten) is the least of his problems.

When Jack was a young boy he watched helplessly as his family was eaten by a monster. It was all he could do not to shit his pants. But he plucked up all the courage he could muster”¦and ran the hell away. Since that night, Jack has refused to talk about it. His feelings of helplessness at not being able to help them and the shame he feels at running away were allowed to grow and now simmer at the surface, boiling over in displays of extreme rage.

One night after science class, Professor Crowley (Robert Englund) asks Jack to fix the plumbing in his old, creepy house. But unblocking the noisy pipes awakens something buried in the yard. Crowley discovers a crate hidden deep in the earth containing a skeleton — and the corpses’ black heart which comes to life when Crowley touches it. The black heart forces its way down Crowley’s throat and takes control of his body making him look like a staggering drunkard with an insatiable appetite, eating all he can. And like a drunkard, he throws it up.

Meanwhile, Jack’s frustrations with his counsellor, girlfriend, van, life, continue to mount. Fellow student John’s (James A. Woods) flirtations with Eve and stories from old man Howard (David Fox) at the hardware store push his patience to its limit.

Crowley (eventually) morphs into a huge Jabba the Hutt-style monster whose enormous tongue sucks the life out of the mouths of his students turning them into flesh-eating beasts. Only one man can save them. What better way to deal with anger than to take it out on some human-hungry monsters? Cue extreme violence.

With its young, beautiful cast and bucketfuls of blood, this could easily be mistaken for another death-by-numbers teen horror. But this is a refreshing change from the recent trend of gorenography (or whatever this week’s term is). For a start, the main protagonist, Jack, is not some horny teen but a twenty something struggling to deal with the death of his family which manifests itself in his severe mood swings.

The mixture of horror and comedy is often a difficult one to get right. Here, the horror is always right; just enough suspense to balance out the gore. The comedy comes mostly from two different places: the moments of brilliant physical comedy by Robert Englund when his body succumbs to the black heart and also when Jack loses his temper it is done in an extreme way, both physically and verbally, that it becomes ridiculous and hilarious. Think of Richard Dreyfuss’ Dr. Leo Marvin from What About Bob? or John Cleese’s Basil Fawlty from any episode of Fawlty Towers.

There are some great performances from a cast of relative unknowns. James A. Woods is sure to get his own movie one day. But the performance of the movie goes to Matthews. The role of Jack Brooks didn’t exactly stretch his acting ability — it showed he can act both very angry and not-so-very-angry really well — but he carried the movie. If he wasn’t so great to watch it would have been a very different film. I was worried that the inclusion of Englund would serve only to distract me from the fact that they hired unknown actors. Not so. Every actor does a great job but it’s such a shame Jack is the only character that is really developed (which makes for some unnecessary kissing near the end).

There are holes to be picked, of course. Like I said, the characters, with the exception of Jack and Crowley are not entirely developed, and the second act grows a little weary and struggled to keep my attention. Structurally it could have done with some mixing up; Howard’s story felt unnecessarily long and should have happened sooner. As soon as act three begins though, it’s relentless and makes for a satisfying ending.

Shaun Of The Dead still sets the standard to which all other modern horror comedies are compared. JB:MS is a very good effort, showing a good aptitude for both genres, but not really excelling at any. There is a huge amount of fun to be had watching this movie, though. Like Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, Knautz and Matthews are that most fascinating of film buffs — intelligent and ambitious. They are sure to make waves on the movie scene in the future.

DVD Bonus Features

The amount of extras on this disc is very impressive considering the relative low budget and very little media coverage. None of that “˜animated menus’ as a special feature crap.

First off is an anecdote-heavy, almost nauseatingly complimentary, but mostly funny feature-length commentary with director John Knautz, producer Patrick White, composer Ryan Shore, and Trevor Matthews.

A behind-the-scenes documentary coming in at over 45-minutes long gives the audience a broad insight into the many facets of making the movie. Everything from the challenges the stunt performers faced to Matthews and Knautz explaining their decision to include the younger actors in the make-up process so that they wouldn’t be scared of the monsters on set is included. Aww.

David Scott, the effects designer, talks about making the monsters right from the design stage through to the finished model.

Matthews, Knautz, and Englund are amongst members of the cast and crew taking part in a panel Q&A at the world premiere in Spain.

Composer Shore, Knautz, and Matthews talk about creating and recording the movie’s score.

A collection of deleted scenes which would add little to the film and were right to be excluded. One entitled “˜apartment’ again has nothing to add to the film but would make an interesting short film in itself.

A collection of scenes from the movie are available to watch with their storyboard comparisons.

The great short film Teen Massacre directed by Knautz , starring Matthews is also included. It’s about a group of students in the woods collecting samples for a science project and find a ravenous zombie in a cage. This is also available with commentary

Lastly, there’s a short “˜making of’ featurette.