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.