Rating: B-
Dir: James Panetta
Star: Phil Herman, Debbie D, Christopher Kahler, Marcus N. Jackson
Full disclosure: I have not seen the first two entries in the Jacker franchise, which came out close to thirty years ago. Normally, I would have sought them out, but I wanted to get this up before we go headlong into our annual 31 Days of Horror, which starts… um, tomorrow. So time was against me. However, I don’t think you need to have seen them. It probably helps, in terms of recognizing some of the returning characters. However, as someone oblivious to all that, I enjoyed this low-budget slasher with no pretensions of being other than a low-budget slasher with no pretensions. Taking that into account, naturally, it’s better than most of its kind.
From what I can tell (and, again, based entirely on what we get here), Jacker is a murderous ghostly entity capable of transferring itself between hosts. We see this in a prologue where the father of Mike kills his mother, then is gunned down by the police. An ethereal form travels into Mike, as he’s being led out of the house. A lot of years later, the adult Mike (Herman) comes out of a three decade hiatus as a serial killer, and resumes his spree of murder. Particularly on his radar is Gloria (D), a previous victim who was left for dead, yet survived. She has now written a book about her ordeal, and – understandably – is increasingly concerned that Mike/Jacker intends to tidy up her loose end.
She’s not wrong, though the road to Gloria is long and paved with a slew of other corpses, belonging to whoever is unfortunate enough to cross the path of Jacker (let’s take “Mike” as read the rest of the way). As depictions of psychopathic serial killers go, Herman is kinda likeable, with a dark charisma that has you rooting for Jacker at some points. D is also good, her character gradually falling apart, and there’s solid support from Kahler as her boyfriend, Chris. One thing I noticed, is a severe lack of young characters. Traditionally, the slasher is populated by teens and college students. Whether consciously or not, it feels like most people here are middle-aged or older.
On the other hand, some parts were sold off on IndieGoGo, and the performances are terrible. I get selling, say, the chance to have your picture used as a previous Jacker victim. But these speaking roles demonstrate the difference between actors and us amateurs. While it never becomes boring, a sharper hand of the edit might have helped, with the film in a holding pattern for too long before Jacker shows up in Gloria’s house. There, things did not go as I expected, and the concept means Jacker can take whatever form the makers desire going forward, giving them scope. Finally, I do want to commend composers Raksmey Ek and Marvin Maddicks Jr. for their score, which often seems to be visiting from a far larger production. I might just have to go back and check out this film’s predecessors. I definitely hope we won’t have to wait thirty more years for a fourth installment.
Pre-orders are now open for the movie, through the Jacker 3 Facebook group.