Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer

October 16, 2008

There have been a lot of horror movie homages over the past few years, from Hatchet to Behind the Mask. These films mainly relish in winking at the audience in regards to their past horror movie references and trivia. It’s pretty rare when these films actually rise to transcend their self-referential genre and become one of the great films which they are emulating.

Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer pays homage to all the old school monster flicks and Evil Dead style demonic possessions. The difference between Jack Brooks and the other types of tribute films is that Jack Brooks actually stands on it’s own two feet as a bad ass movie which packs horror and comedy into the same punch. The storyline is pretty simple. Small town plumber Jack Brooks has some anger management problems. He’s seeing a shrink, but the sessions don’t seem to be helping him much. When he was a young boy, he saw his whole family ripped apart by a creature. Since the event, he has always blamed himself and just hasn’t been the same. Jack Brooks is enrolled in a night time biology class with his girlfriend Eve, but only because she insisted on it. Eventually, Jack helps his professor with some plumbing problems the professor has been having at an old house the professor has been renovating.
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