Jabberwock is set in ancient times & starts as two men, Cid (Raffaello Degruttola) & his mate ride on horse back through a barren wasteland, it suddenly begins to rain & the two men carry on unknown to them that a strike of lightning hits a dormant Jabberwock egg & it hatches. A large winged mythical monster the Jabberwock feeds on flesh as it kills & devours anything it can catch, the huge beast swoops down & attacks the two men killing one & Cid only just escaping with his life by hiding behind some rocks. A few days later & Cid reaches a small village & tells his story where no-one believes him, that is until the Jabberwock appears & attacks the village killing several people. Brother's Francis (Tahmoh Penikett) & Alec (Michael Worth) seem to take it upon themselves to decide what to do for the rest of the village & eventually come to the conclusion that they need to trap & kill the Jabberwock before it wipes them all out...
This American & Canadian co-production was directed by Steven R. Monroe who had previously made the I Spit on Your Grave (2010) remake between other crap SyFy Channel creature features like this, based on the nonsense poem by Lewis Caroll the makers here decided to drop the 'Y' from the actual title Jabberwocky probably for legal reasons & rights issues. I have never read the poem but I have seen the Monthy Python comedy Jabberwocky (1977) although I can't remember anything about it but I am willing put to a large sum of money on the fact that it's better than this lame attempt. The script is straight forward, some monster terrorises a village who then decide to fight back & kill the monster before it kills them, that's it really. Throw in some tepid romance, some tragedy as one of the brother's gets killed which then leads to revenge motivation & a bit of annoying comedy relief in the form of the bumbling Cid. Also why doesn't the Jabberwock kill Jocelyn or Alec? Can't it kill important character's? It just has to fly away with them & store them away for later? There are a few nods to the original poem, the village philosopher recites passages from the poem & claims that it's a story to scare children so at least the makers reference Lewis Caroll & his original poem. At just over 80 minutes Jabberwock feels longer, there's no depth here, the character's & dialogue are all forgettable & underwhelming while it's very predictable too. No surprises, no excitement & lots of annoying plotting & decision making means that Jabberwock carries on the SyFy Channel's long tradition of producing really crap creature features with aplomb. Good job all round then, well if you like crap monster films anyway.
Made for telly this low budget affair is a mess, the start of the film features a huge rain storm one second & then it's completely dry only a few feet away. Why would a lightning bolt hatch an egg? How could the Jabberwock grow to full size in about ten seconds? Where do the other eggs come from? If there's only one Jabberwock how could it mate & produce eggs? The original hunt for the Jabberwock is hilarious as out brave heroes decide clinging to the side of a cliff would be a good place to fight the Jabberwock, we aren't dealing with genius's here are we? Then the villagers make a huge mouse trap to capture the Jabberwock in another funny scene, then when Francis is first seen in his stupid looking suit of armour I did actually have to laugh. The CGI computer effects won't convince anyone, there's the usual SyFy Channel gore with a few bite wounds & a bit of blood splatter. All of the attack scenes look awkward as the poor CGI monster & actor's fumble through their scenes as people wave swords at thin air & the monster just sort of sits there & roars a bit.
Filmed in Bulgaria the usual woods & rocky mountains are used throughout, the village only seems to consist of one blacksmith & generally the whole production looks cheap. The acting is nothing special, not bad but not great.
Jabberwock is another production line SyFy Channel creature feature that has the distinction of being based on a Lewis Caroll poem, other than that there's nothing here to get excited about. Why do I carry on watching these films? Maybe because they are free to watch or maybe because I am a masochist. You decide.
This American & Canadian co-production was directed by Steven R. Monroe who had previously made the I Spit on Your Grave (2010) remake between other crap SyFy Channel creature features like this, based on the nonsense poem by Lewis Caroll the makers here decided to drop the 'Y' from the actual title Jabberwocky probably for legal reasons & rights issues. I have never read the poem but I have seen the Monthy Python comedy Jabberwocky (1977) although I can't remember anything about it but I am willing put to a large sum of money on the fact that it's better than this lame attempt. The script is straight forward, some monster terrorises a village who then decide to fight back & kill the monster before it kills them, that's it really. Throw in some tepid romance, some tragedy as one of the brother's gets killed which then leads to revenge motivation & a bit of annoying comedy relief in the form of the bumbling Cid. Also why doesn't the Jabberwock kill Jocelyn or Alec? Can't it kill important character's? It just has to fly away with them & store them away for later? There are a few nods to the original poem, the village philosopher recites passages from the poem & claims that it's a story to scare children so at least the makers reference Lewis Caroll & his original poem. At just over 80 minutes Jabberwock feels longer, there's no depth here, the character's & dialogue are all forgettable & underwhelming while it's very predictable too. No surprises, no excitement & lots of annoying plotting & decision making means that Jabberwock carries on the SyFy Channel's long tradition of producing really crap creature features with aplomb. Good job all round then, well if you like crap monster films anyway.
Made for telly this low budget affair is a mess, the start of the film features a huge rain storm one second & then it's completely dry only a few feet away. Why would a lightning bolt hatch an egg? How could the Jabberwock grow to full size in about ten seconds? Where do the other eggs come from? If there's only one Jabberwock how could it mate & produce eggs? The original hunt for the Jabberwock is hilarious as out brave heroes decide clinging to the side of a cliff would be a good place to fight the Jabberwock, we aren't dealing with genius's here are we? Then the villagers make a huge mouse trap to capture the Jabberwock in another funny scene, then when Francis is first seen in his stupid looking suit of armour I did actually have to laugh. The CGI computer effects won't convince anyone, there's the usual SyFy Channel gore with a few bite wounds & a bit of blood splatter. All of the attack scenes look awkward as the poor CGI monster & actor's fumble through their scenes as people wave swords at thin air & the monster just sort of sits there & roars a bit.
Filmed in Bulgaria the usual woods & rocky mountains are used throughout, the village only seems to consist of one blacksmith & generally the whole production looks cheap. The acting is nothing special, not bad but not great.
Jabberwock is another production line SyFy Channel creature feature that has the distinction of being based on a Lewis Caroll poem, other than that there's nothing here to get excited about. Why do I carry on watching these films? Maybe because they are free to watch or maybe because I am a masochist. You decide.