Jack the Reaper (2013)

Powerful

Fresh and Exciting

Absolutely brilliant

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

After their bus crashes while on a field trip, a group of high school students—blonde bike Sommer (Hope Jaymes) and her deaf cousin Maya (Amber Zion), insensitive jock Steve (Tyler Wolfe), his brother Shawn (Jay Gillespie), token black guy Andre (Richardson Chery), token black guy number two Tyler (Jemal Draco), token tubby Harold (Christopher Raff), token Asian girl Trudy Yoo (Grace Jiyoung Park), token albino Brian (Andrew Olson), and tasty but troubled brunette Jesse (Alexandra Holder)—wander into a nearby carnival where they are hunted by an eyeless killer brandishing a pick-axe.Jack the Reaper definitely won't win any awards for originality: the whole film is extremely derivative, a supernatural teen slasher that culminates with an entirely predictable 'they were dead all along' plot-twist (which is blatantly signposted along the way: the teens are from Charon High School, their football team are The Ferriers, and the name of the road on which our characters meet their fate is Death's Door). The film is also unlikely to find much love from gore-hounds, the majority of its death scenes occurring off-screen.But as highly unoriginal and as bloodless as The Reaper undoubtedly is, I was rather surprised to find myself reasonably entertained for much of the time, thanks to its varied collection of well-developed teen characters (in the case of likable school slut Sommer, very well-developed!), a pointless but fun cameo from horror regular Tony Todd (who gets star billing), a suitably macabre setting, and a genuinely freaky killer. If only they had added some gore, some nudity, and found a less clichéd way to wrap matters up

'Charon High School:' now there is a great start, Charon being the oarsman on the boat that crosses the rivers Styx and Acheron separating the living world from the underworld. The film is a murder elimination derby, so nice telegraphing.Twenty-something actors playing teen characters in high school gather for a field trip. Heather is pregnant by a not ready for fatherhood boy. Jesse's being treated badly by her father. Various bullying pairs are present. One of the girls is deaf.All the idiots on the bus have not completed a paper about the Industrial Revolution for one of their classes. The teacher makes everything clear: do the field trip without nonsense, then pass the class. Otherwise, fail.Mr. Steele gives the first lecture at a location filled with memorabilia from the 19th century part of the Industrial Revolution. He emphasizes the dangers of the iron horse.One of the kids sees a figure by the road on the way there. Mr. Steele later identifies him as Railroad Jack, who is a reaper of sorts. If one has seen him, then he has eyes on you, and so on.On the way back, the trouble starts. The bus crashes. The f word is issued liberally. The cell phone coverage fails. The teacher is gone. The bus driver is gone.Then the kids see the 'carnival.' Sure. The kid who warns about the man she kept seeing on the way is laughed down. They find no one, they find no telephone that works. Are these clues? They get a number of the attractions to operate, and have fun for a while, but then the fun ends.Will any of these deserving teens survive? -----Scores------Cinematography: 4/10 Camera shake, washed out appearance. Seems to be only VHS quality in sunlight as well.Sound: 7/10 I could make out the spoken words. The incidental music was not the best.Acting: 4/10 All the actors portraying teens gave poor performances. Why not hire absolute amateurs of the correct age and get better performances? Tony Todd was great as usual; that's what the +4 is for.Screenplay: 4/10 Teen murder elimination derby; better than some, worse than most.SFX: 0/10 Horrible.

Don't waste your time or money on this completely unremarkable, unoriginal, utterly dreary, relatively bloodless mess of a film. Granted the latter wasn't an issue for me as I saw it streaming on Netflix, but I digress. This rancid half-baked little horror tale of stereotypical clichéd 'teenagers' running afoul of a serial killer in a deserted carnival is somehow even worse than that description would seemingly entail. Furthermore, while technically not even reaching an hour and a half of running time, it felt much longer due to its sheer awfulness. Poor Tony Todd deserves better. And don't even get me started on the ending.

Yes, classic horror lives again. Jack the Reaper is truly a throwback to classic horror. Think Hitchcock...I did.I especially loved the character development not often seen in today's horror films. You develop an understanding of each character and what brought them to their reality and anxiously relate to them. This film is directed with beautiful attention to detail and creates an associative imagery that provides foreboding clues. I really got pulled in! Whereas there is a good amount of profanity in this film, at times it actually provides some much needed comic relief. I can easily see the potential (and HOPE HOPE HOPE) for many more Reaper adventures...or misadventures. I, for one, can't wait!