Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Legend of Bloody Jack (2007)

Wow, is this bad!  A guy and his girlfriend decide to debunk the legend of Bloody Jack, a serial killer whose spirit is said to haunt the woods.  The guy, who is Jack's descendent, brings along Jack's journal so he can read rituals to resurrect him. The ritual works and the guy dies. Too bad he didn't plan ahead on what to do if the legend was true.

A group of friends go to party in the woods over the weekend.  The younger brother hears the legend when they stop for gas and is worried about recent disappearances in the woods.  He thinks they should leave, but everyone laughs at him.

Once at their cabin, the group splits up as young couples in slashers do, and one guy goes to get wood for a fire.  He never returns because the killer has found our young friends and plans on dispatching them all.

There are so many problems with this film.  But the major one appears to be that their post processing didn't work for the night scenes.  They were obviously shot during the day, and there are shadows and patches of sunlight. Plus it's just too darn bright to be night.  I'm sure this is why there is an explanation at the beginning which says that the story takes place in Alaska when there is sun 24 hours every day.

Well that's a great explanation, except they forgot that this means there are other scenes which now make no sense.  The porch lights are on, the lights inside the cabin are on, and there are multiple scenes where the kids are inside and it is obviously pitch black outside.  At one point a ranger shows up at the door and it is dark behind him.

The most hilarious scenes are when the ranger uses a flashlight to search around the cabin and in the woods.  He hears a noise, jumps, spins around and asks who it is, while frantically trying to locate the source of the noise using his flashlight.  It's daylight!  We can see everything!  And so can you!

The dialogue also suffers from poor writing.  A prime example is when one couple are in the van getting naked when the girl hears a noise outside.  Again, it's daylight so you can see everything out the van windows. The guy doesn't want to check it out because they're right in the middle of things.  She tells the guy he needs to check on the noise because she's about to be murdered, to which the guy replies, "I thought this weekend would be different."  So... she gets murdered every weekend?  We all burst out laughing at that.

Plus there is a woman driving her car down the deserted road and two of the kids flag her down for help.  She gets out and notices the guy has a gun and says she won't give them a ride as they may be psychos.  They deny this and toss the gun away.  This starts an argument between the woman and the kids.  Seriously?  She thinks they're going to kill her, yet she stands there and argues about why she won't give them a ride.  Palm slap to the forehead!  Unbelievable.

The film has weird edits where you can't tell where the people are located in relation to each other.  There is a ranger who resembles Dick Miller, which is a plus even though its not relevant.  And there is a strange scene where one of the kids has been disemboweled and asks her friends to kill her and they do?!  Geez, how about seeing if you can get some help before she dies?

This movie will leave you with lots of questions.  Who is Bloody Jack?  Why does he keep coming back?  Why does he kill people, especially strangers?  Why does he wear a scarf?  Why does he disappear and reappear at will?

This movie is terrible and the twist at the end is really irritating, but if you watch it with a group of friends you might have a good laugh.  

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