The Jackhammer Massacre (a.k.a. Jackhammer 2004) C-89 min. D: Joe Castro. Aaron Gaffey, Kyle Yaskin, Bart Burson, Nadia Angelini, Evan Owen, Rob Rotten, Rachel Rotten, Desi O'Brian. A direct-to-DVD revenge/slasher movie details a successful businessman's fall into insanity and growing love for his jackhammer, thanks to drugs. The first slasher movie in memory to blame its killer's antics on drugs...for a while, it even works too (with some nasty & gory special effects). It's nice to see a direct-to-DVD slasher gorefest. Unfortunately, the film's horrendous acting (worse than anything the 80s slasher films had to offer, which is really sad) and laughable last 20 minutes lead to its downfall. There is no excuse for the filmmakers to have been satisfied with the amount of bad acting in this movie (though the lead, Aaron Gaffey, isn't half bad). RATING: 3 out of 10. Rated R for graphic violence and gore, grisly images, drug use, sexuality, adult themes, and profanity.
20 Reviews
Lame
willywants29 June 2005
Warning: Spoilers
After getting involved with lots of drugs, poor Jack goes absolutely nuts and begins killing all who enter the warehouse where he works. A friend of mine suggested this film to me, saying; "Jackhammer Massacre is the scariest, goriest film I've ever seen." Those are his words exactly. From the title alone I knew this wouldn't be the epic horror picture my friend described, but WOW, this movie really, really
sucked. Every cliché in the book has been rolled up into ninety minutes of pure torture. It seems every 5 minutes or so some miscellaneous character, always jackhammer fodder, enters the warehouse, just to meet up with Jack and die a gruesome death. There's a very generous amount of gore, though the make-up effects themselves vary in quality from pretty decent to chintzy. The acting is flat and the characters; uninteresting, but that's to be expected. Director/Co-writer Joe CastroOne of the effects artists at SOTA effects, a company who's work in the past has usually been less-than-stellarwould have been much better off handling the gore rather than writing/directing, because he shows no sense of pacing. Maybe that, combined with the film's predictability, is what made in so hard to sit through.
Tiny spoiler ahead!
"Jackhammer Massacre" has good gore but nothing else going for it. Skip it unless you're desperate for entertainment, or if you think a character being killed off via a jackhammer up the anus is funny (I'll admit the scene was pretty funny).
And no, I didn't kill the friend who recommended this to me, he redeemed himself by showing me "Shaun of the Dead". 2/10.
Tiny spoiler ahead!
"Jackhammer Massacre" has good gore but nothing else going for it. Skip it unless you're desperate for entertainment, or if you think a character being killed off via a jackhammer up the anus is funny (I'll admit the scene was pretty funny).
And no, I didn't kill the friend who recommended this to me, he redeemed himself by showing me "Shaun of the Dead". 2/10.
A whole lot of liquids in this one
MBunge5 July 2011
Warning: Spoilers
This honestly disgusting piece of tripe does have one interesting visual effect and one nice piece of gory makeup. It also has a cast that couldn't act their way out of a wet paper bag, a plot that's built entirely around the fact that the killer is limited by the length of his extension cord, dialog that sounds like the instructions for a TV remote after they've been translated from Japanese to French to English, a main character defined by as assload of drool and a weird homoerotic vibe in the 2nd half of the film where muscular guys keep taking off their shirts for no real reason.
Jack (Aaron Gaffey) used to be a successful office worker, the big dog of the cubicles. Then he and his old high school buddy Mike (Kyle Yaskin) went to a punked out drug dealer to get high and Mike ended up dying of an overdose, shaking and foaming in a dirty alley while Jack was afraid to call for help. Unable to deal with that, Jack ends up a homeless addict with a weirdly infected growth on his left arm, spending his nights on a mattress as the watchman for an abandoned machine shop in the worst part of town.
One night, a drug dealer that Jack owes money to busts in on him and gives him a drug cocktail of PCP, heroin and speed to try and kill Jack. Instead, it turns him into a paranoid murderer who grabs and electric jackhammer and starts killing everyone who comes into the machine shop. Egged on by a belligerent hallucination of his old friend Mike, Jack slaughters his drug dealer, the drug dealer's right hand thug, the guy who owns the machine shop, a guy who's buying the machine shop, the Eurotrash assistant of the guy who's buying the machine shop, the girlfriend of Jack's lesbian sister and most of a cleaning crew hired to clear out the machine shop for sale.
This cheaply made splatterfest is oozing over with various bodily fluids, jam packed with people who just stand there and scream while a jackhammer is inserted into various parts of their anatomy and filled to the brim with Jack's drug-fueled delusions about the evil forces out to get him. The camera work and visual look of the thing is much more advanced than you'd expect, given the extremely low standards of the rest of the production. It's so poorly written and poorly performed, however, that this 89 minute movie feels like it lasts longer than a Presidential election season.
With this sort of low budget, low brow, low rent cinema, you could spend hours making snarky comments about its multitude of deficiencies. I'd like to focus on the most obvious bad writing on display here. Only two of the characters Jack ends up killing appear in the first half hour of the film and when the rest are introduced, they might as well be wearing name tags that say "Hello. My name is Victim #whatever". The film spends far too much time telling us about Jack, especially when all we need to know is that he's a crazed druggie, and far too little time on everyone else in the story. The result is that The Jackhammer Massacre is like watching cows being herded through a slaughterhouse, getting killed one after the other as they move down the line. That's not an entertaining way to spend your time.
This movie is legitimately violent and sopping in blood, saliva and other watery substances, so if that's what you like, you can find it here. Even if that's what you're into, though, you really ought to find it in better films than this. The Jackhammer Massacre is something you can only enjoy if you're drunk, stoned or dumb and watching enough garbage like this will make you so dumb, the only things you can do are get drunk or stoned.
Jack (Aaron Gaffey) used to be a successful office worker, the big dog of the cubicles. Then he and his old high school buddy Mike (Kyle Yaskin) went to a punked out drug dealer to get high and Mike ended up dying of an overdose, shaking and foaming in a dirty alley while Jack was afraid to call for help. Unable to deal with that, Jack ends up a homeless addict with a weirdly infected growth on his left arm, spending his nights on a mattress as the watchman for an abandoned machine shop in the worst part of town.
One night, a drug dealer that Jack owes money to busts in on him and gives him a drug cocktail of PCP, heroin and speed to try and kill Jack. Instead, it turns him into a paranoid murderer who grabs and electric jackhammer and starts killing everyone who comes into the machine shop. Egged on by a belligerent hallucination of his old friend Mike, Jack slaughters his drug dealer, the drug dealer's right hand thug, the guy who owns the machine shop, a guy who's buying the machine shop, the Eurotrash assistant of the guy who's buying the machine shop, the girlfriend of Jack's lesbian sister and most of a cleaning crew hired to clear out the machine shop for sale.
This cheaply made splatterfest is oozing over with various bodily fluids, jam packed with people who just stand there and scream while a jackhammer is inserted into various parts of their anatomy and filled to the brim with Jack's drug-fueled delusions about the evil forces out to get him. The camera work and visual look of the thing is much more advanced than you'd expect, given the extremely low standards of the rest of the production. It's so poorly written and poorly performed, however, that this 89 minute movie feels like it lasts longer than a Presidential election season.
With this sort of low budget, low brow, low rent cinema, you could spend hours making snarky comments about its multitude of deficiencies. I'd like to focus on the most obvious bad writing on display here. Only two of the characters Jack ends up killing appear in the first half hour of the film and when the rest are introduced, they might as well be wearing name tags that say "Hello. My name is Victim #whatever". The film spends far too much time telling us about Jack, especially when all we need to know is that he's a crazed druggie, and far too little time on everyone else in the story. The result is that The Jackhammer Massacre is like watching cows being herded through a slaughterhouse, getting killed one after the other as they move down the line. That's not an entertaining way to spend your time.
This movie is legitimately violent and sopping in blood, saliva and other watery substances, so if that's what you like, you can find it here. Even if that's what you're into, though, you really ought to find it in better films than this. The Jackhammer Massacre is something you can only enjoy if you're drunk, stoned or dumb and watching enough garbage like this will make you so dumb, the only things you can do are get drunk or stoned.
Jackhammer for me - Jackhammer for you - I'll have some Jackhammer -You have some too
Dr. Gore17 January 2005
Warning: Spoilers
*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*
When one rents a movie called "The Jackhammer Massacre", it is not unfair to expect certain things. You certainly should expect a Jackhammer and hopefully a Massacre to go with it. I'm pleased to tell you that both of these things are to be found in the B-movie gorefest that is "The Jackhammer Massacre".
A guy becomes addicted to drugs and jackhammers. He ends up in an abandoned building. Victims just keep marching inside the slaughterhouse. That's a good thing for him because his extension cord isn't long enough to reach the street. Soon many people will be jackhammered. Jackhammered mouths. Jackhammered arms. Jackhammered backs. Jackhammered heads. That's a lot of Jackhammer.
So if you're dying to see a buffet of carnage via Jackhammer, rent this movie immediately for pure jackhammer satisfaction. Anyone else who is thinking of renting this and is not a drooling B-movie fan like myself, I advise you to step away from this video and run far, far away.
When one rents a movie called "The Jackhammer Massacre", it is not unfair to expect certain things. You certainly should expect a Jackhammer and hopefully a Massacre to go with it. I'm pleased to tell you that both of these things are to be found in the B-movie gorefest that is "The Jackhammer Massacre".
A guy becomes addicted to drugs and jackhammers. He ends up in an abandoned building. Victims just keep marching inside the slaughterhouse. That's a good thing for him because his extension cord isn't long enough to reach the street. Soon many people will be jackhammered. Jackhammered mouths. Jackhammered arms. Jackhammered backs. Jackhammered heads. That's a lot of Jackhammer.
So if you're dying to see a buffet of carnage via Jackhammer, rent this movie immediately for pure jackhammer satisfaction. Anyone else who is thinking of renting this and is not a drooling B-movie fan like myself, I advise you to step away from this video and run far, far away.
Goofy spectacle that is worth a look
ThrownMuse6 March 2005
"The Jackhammer Massacre"
Jack is a yuppie with a secure job and a penchant for occasional heavy drugfests with his best buddy. When his friend overdoses, Jack flees the scene and leaves him to die, not wanting to get caught with illegal substances. Unable to live with the guilt, Jack becomes a full-time junkie. He loses his professional job, garbage picks for food, and starts sporting a nasty infection (read: gigantic puss-filled growth) on his arm. As he downward spirals, he begins to hear the voice of his dead best friend, telling him to...well...murder people with a jackhammer!
This B-grade movie is pretty bad and starts out really slow. After the first few sequences, it starts showing an offbeat charm and the rest proves to be entertaining. The gore is more amusing than realistic, and it is nasty to watch Jack poke at his "infection" with a cotton swab and watch it ooze grossness. The hallucination scenes are twisted. If you have a fear of needles, or a fear of someone lurching at you and stabbing you with a syringe filled with an unknown substance, then that is the only real scare factor in "The Jackhammer Massacre."
The acting is below average but you can't help but laugh at the curious casting choices. All the members of the male cast look like gay porn stars and at some point all (10 or so) of them find it appropriate to take their shirts off and show their waxed, ripped torsos. It is hilarious and rather bizarre, as this movie is marketed as a straightforward slasher. A guy ODs, he takes his shirt off. A guy gets drenched in blood, he removes several layers until his chest is bare. Every single male cast member has his moment where he gets to remove his shirt. I found these inexplicable topless scenes highly amusing, as they reminded me how ridiculous it is when female characters randomly strip for no reason in genre movies. Jack also seems to have a fondness for stripping his male victims down to their undies for no apparent reason. And it is hard to ignore the sexual innuendo of Jack's Hammer--often murdering his victims by forcing his tool through their mouths. Is Jack repressing his sexuality? Does the voice of his dead (shirtless) friend represent more than what it seems? If the director is intending homoerotic undertones, he doesn't bother to clarify why, and it doesn't really matter because this movie is just a goofy spectacle.
For a movie that is basically saying "drugs are bad and will ruin your life," this doesn't take itself too seriously, so it is easy to laugh at its ridiculousness and be grossed out. And isn't that what B-horror movies are supposed to be about? Bonus points for featuring two characters that just so happen to be lesbians.
My Rating: 5.5/10
Jack is a yuppie with a secure job and a penchant for occasional heavy drugfests with his best buddy. When his friend overdoses, Jack flees the scene and leaves him to die, not wanting to get caught with illegal substances. Unable to live with the guilt, Jack becomes a full-time junkie. He loses his professional job, garbage picks for food, and starts sporting a nasty infection (read: gigantic puss-filled growth) on his arm. As he downward spirals, he begins to hear the voice of his dead best friend, telling him to...well...murder people with a jackhammer!
This B-grade movie is pretty bad and starts out really slow. After the first few sequences, it starts showing an offbeat charm and the rest proves to be entertaining. The gore is more amusing than realistic, and it is nasty to watch Jack poke at his "infection" with a cotton swab and watch it ooze grossness. The hallucination scenes are twisted. If you have a fear of needles, or a fear of someone lurching at you and stabbing you with a syringe filled with an unknown substance, then that is the only real scare factor in "The Jackhammer Massacre."
The acting is below average but you can't help but laugh at the curious casting choices. All the members of the male cast look like gay porn stars and at some point all (10 or so) of them find it appropriate to take their shirts off and show their waxed, ripped torsos. It is hilarious and rather bizarre, as this movie is marketed as a straightforward slasher. A guy ODs, he takes his shirt off. A guy gets drenched in blood, he removes several layers until his chest is bare. Every single male cast member has his moment where he gets to remove his shirt. I found these inexplicable topless scenes highly amusing, as they reminded me how ridiculous it is when female characters randomly strip for no reason in genre movies. Jack also seems to have a fondness for stripping his male victims down to their undies for no apparent reason. And it is hard to ignore the sexual innuendo of Jack's Hammer--often murdering his victims by forcing his tool through their mouths. Is Jack repressing his sexuality? Does the voice of his dead (shirtless) friend represent more than what it seems? If the director is intending homoerotic undertones, he doesn't bother to clarify why, and it doesn't really matter because this movie is just a goofy spectacle.
For a movie that is basically saying "drugs are bad and will ruin your life," this doesn't take itself too seriously, so it is easy to laugh at its ridiculousness and be grossed out. And isn't that what B-horror movies are supposed to be about? Bonus points for featuring two characters that just so happen to be lesbians.
My Rating: 5.5/10
Don't you just love movies with NO redeeming characters?
reptilicus7 September 2005
When the credits of a movie contain listings like "naked junkie girl" you know this is going to be about as far removed from art as you can get. Okay, maybe I am being a little too hard on this movie. On second thought . . . no I'm not. This starts out as a straightforward drama about a yuppie who tosses his career into the dumper because of his addiction to drugs. Actually this all happens rather fast and I was hoping for a little more character development but heck, the director was in a hurry to get to the gore and that's what the people who went to see this movie were waiting for.
So then . . . Jack, our anti-hero, has a job as night watchman for a warehouse and he is usually too stoned to even do that. His supplier is after him for money, his boss fires him, his only pal dies in his arms of an overdose; what's left of his world is crashing down and what's a drug addled loser to do? He goes nuts of course and grabs the nearest power tool he can get . . . in this case a jackhammer.
Now then here's the stuff you were waiting for. Anyone who ventures into that warehouse for the rest of the movie is fodder for Jack's hammer. There is ample gore but you have to wonder when one of the potential victims is going to figure out the obvious; just run far enough that Jack runs out of extension cord! Does that ever happen? Maybe I should tell you and save you from having to suffer through this movie like I did. Hmmmmmm . . . no! Ain't I mean?
The acting is okay, the effects are pretty good, the plot is cabbage. This is the sort of things that would have played in grindhouses back in the heyday of 42nd St and the Combat Zone. Now you can rent it on DVD and turn your own living room into a grindhouse. Hey, it's much safer that way.
So then . . . Jack, our anti-hero, has a job as night watchman for a warehouse and he is usually too stoned to even do that. His supplier is after him for money, his boss fires him, his only pal dies in his arms of an overdose; what's left of his world is crashing down and what's a drug addled loser to do? He goes nuts of course and grabs the nearest power tool he can get . . . in this case a jackhammer.
Now then here's the stuff you were waiting for. Anyone who ventures into that warehouse for the rest of the movie is fodder for Jack's hammer. There is ample gore but you have to wonder when one of the potential victims is going to figure out the obvious; just run far enough that Jack runs out of extension cord! Does that ever happen? Maybe I should tell you and save you from having to suffer through this movie like I did. Hmmmmmm . . . no! Ain't I mean?
The acting is okay, the effects are pretty good, the plot is cabbage. This is the sort of things that would have played in grindhouses back in the heyday of 42nd St and the Combat Zone. Now you can rent it on DVD and turn your own living room into a grindhouse. Hey, it's much safer that way.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the theatre
jmbwithcats28 September 2004
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the theatre, there's Jack Hammer.
A movie about a Jack, whose drug addiction leads to homelessness, weakness, and murder.
He lives as a security guard in a abandoned machine shop after losing his cushy day job to drugs, when his best friend OD's and dies on the street in a bad part of town.
He had it all, nice car, a yellow Viper, I wouldn't have gone with yellow, but okay - the great job, but he lacked self esteem, his ego being a little too big for his britches syndrome if you will. He had no real direction. So far it seems a pretty realistic approach, but soon the movie flails like a fish out of water - to become a cliché, and unredeemable display of stupidity so profound, I am ashamed for the actor who had to play Jack.
I'm just gonna get real nitpicky here a second and say - JackHammer was one of the worse movies I have ever seen in my entire life.
A movie about a Jack, whose drug addiction leads to homelessness, weakness, and murder.
He lives as a security guard in a abandoned machine shop after losing his cushy day job to drugs, when his best friend OD's and dies on the street in a bad part of town.
He had it all, nice car, a yellow Viper, I wouldn't have gone with yellow, but okay - the great job, but he lacked self esteem, his ego being a little too big for his britches syndrome if you will. He had no real direction. So far it seems a pretty realistic approach, but soon the movie flails like a fish out of water - to become a cliché, and unredeemable display of stupidity so profound, I am ashamed for the actor who had to play Jack.
I'm just gonna get real nitpicky here a second and say - JackHammer was one of the worse movies I have ever seen in my entire life.
Don't waste your money or time with this steaming load.
MakoSucks13 February 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I rented Jackhammer Massacre, after hearing the first half was good. I would give it a chance since i heard there were a few good gore scenes, and Rachel Rotten and Her only other partner in a sex scene, Rob Rotten were in this. I figured well if this movie is a total waste of time at least there's going to be a sex scene with a hot girl in this movie. God was I wrong. It starts in the middle of the story for some reason,In some kind of construction company warehouse, with Jack the junkie, the "Jason" of this "movie," getting pushed around by some pushers, and injected with some PCP/crack hypodermic in an attempt to kill Jack but instead its suggested that it makes him insanely stronger and insanely insane. Well Jack wakes up and kills one of them with.....A JACKHAMMER! Woah didn't see that coming.
Now this first gore scene was possibly the third best effect in the movie. They pull this Jackhammering off with a fake jackhammer being jiggled around in the pushers mouth, while he spits out some blood, a cut to Jacks smiling face, back to the Jackhammer which is being shaken by Jack into a fake smashed head. That was pretty cheesy. It is so ridiculous it was funny. But after that its all downhill from there.
The story goes back 3 years or so which shows how Jack becomes a junkie, where you see a topless Rachel Rotten, and thats it. I was sadly disappointed at this point, as the deciding factor for me renting this move, of a sex scene was non existent. I saw pics of her topless in this movie around the net, so I figured sex scene, but they just added in the boob shot, just so they can have a boob shot. they could of saved money and used an extra instead of a porn-star, and used that money for better effects, better actors, or a better script. Forward 1 year and then back to the jackhammer to the face scene. The rest of the movie, Id say 3 quarters of it takes place in that construction company building. Its more of a shack than a building. Anyways, Jack gets delusional and sees his friends ghost. he overdosed and Jack lets him die in the flashback scenes, so he wont get in trouble with the law. I read that this ghost pats Jack on the back every time he kills someone, which I thought was genius, but he just complains and commands Jack to kill. near the end of the movie some characters are introduced that you don't know crap about. They just come to the construction warehouse and they get killed. You are supposed to care about these people, but how can you when they just pop out of nowhere? So basically everyone gets killed except the girl of the group, and Jacks lesbian sister, who came to help jack, but got locked up in a closet after the ghost told Jack she was really "one of them". So during the "climax of the movie" Jack is about to kill the girl, his extension cord gets pulled out of the Jackhammer by somebody. Jack decides to "Choke the the bitch." his sister pops out and stabs jack in the back with the drill bit of the jackhammer. She then slaps him with the drill bit, and he falls of the building top, where the scene was taking place. The ghost tells Jack to get up after falling off a 3 story building. The 2 girls walk out of the building, and they see that jacks body is missing! OH NOS! camera does a close up of the girls faces, they scream. credits roll. That is an original, and unexpected ending.
This movie is terrible in every aspect. The acting is terrible, the lines are read as if off from a cue card. The plot and story, are too broad that you have to use your imagination to fill in certain plot holes. The only slightly OK parts from this movie are the first jackhammer smash, a scene that suggests that Jack shoves his weapon up his lesbian sister's girlfriend's crack, which had no visual shot of this, but the idea was funny as hell. and a scene where Jack slams a guys face with the side of the jackhammer, and his brains pop out, but the way its pulled off is terrible. This movie has an OK concept which if elaborated upon, could of been a great movie. But it gets pulled off like a train wreck. Ignore this movie at all costs. You and your friends could get more entertainment out of making your own no budget movie than watching this load, which looks like it was make by a group of friends making a low budget movie.
Now this first gore scene was possibly the third best effect in the movie. They pull this Jackhammering off with a fake jackhammer being jiggled around in the pushers mouth, while he spits out some blood, a cut to Jacks smiling face, back to the Jackhammer which is being shaken by Jack into a fake smashed head. That was pretty cheesy. It is so ridiculous it was funny. But after that its all downhill from there.
The story goes back 3 years or so which shows how Jack becomes a junkie, where you see a topless Rachel Rotten, and thats it. I was sadly disappointed at this point, as the deciding factor for me renting this move, of a sex scene was non existent. I saw pics of her topless in this movie around the net, so I figured sex scene, but they just added in the boob shot, just so they can have a boob shot. they could of saved money and used an extra instead of a porn-star, and used that money for better effects, better actors, or a better script. Forward 1 year and then back to the jackhammer to the face scene. The rest of the movie, Id say 3 quarters of it takes place in that construction company building. Its more of a shack than a building. Anyways, Jack gets delusional and sees his friends ghost. he overdosed and Jack lets him die in the flashback scenes, so he wont get in trouble with the law. I read that this ghost pats Jack on the back every time he kills someone, which I thought was genius, but he just complains and commands Jack to kill. near the end of the movie some characters are introduced that you don't know crap about. They just come to the construction warehouse and they get killed. You are supposed to care about these people, but how can you when they just pop out of nowhere? So basically everyone gets killed except the girl of the group, and Jacks lesbian sister, who came to help jack, but got locked up in a closet after the ghost told Jack she was really "one of them". So during the "climax of the movie" Jack is about to kill the girl, his extension cord gets pulled out of the Jackhammer by somebody. Jack decides to "Choke the the bitch." his sister pops out and stabs jack in the back with the drill bit of the jackhammer. She then slaps him with the drill bit, and he falls of the building top, where the scene was taking place. The ghost tells Jack to get up after falling off a 3 story building. The 2 girls walk out of the building, and they see that jacks body is missing! OH NOS! camera does a close up of the girls faces, they scream. credits roll. That is an original, and unexpected ending.
This movie is terrible in every aspect. The acting is terrible, the lines are read as if off from a cue card. The plot and story, are too broad that you have to use your imagination to fill in certain plot holes. The only slightly OK parts from this movie are the first jackhammer smash, a scene that suggests that Jack shoves his weapon up his lesbian sister's girlfriend's crack, which had no visual shot of this, but the idea was funny as hell. and a scene where Jack slams a guys face with the side of the jackhammer, and his brains pop out, but the way its pulled off is terrible. This movie has an OK concept which if elaborated upon, could of been a great movie. But it gets pulled off like a train wreck. Ignore this movie at all costs. You and your friends could get more entertainment out of making your own no budget movie than watching this load, which looks like it was make by a group of friends making a low budget movie.
I smell an Oscar! Oh wait, that's the stench of crap coming from this movie....
Lando_Hass6 October 2005
Yes, people, the summary above is true. If you took a crap and it came out disc shaped and you put it in your DVD player, you'd have The Jackhammer Massacre. I'm not kidding in the least, bruh. This movie is one of the worst pieces of crap I've ever seen, and I like a lot of crap movies. I don't like to bash movies because it makes me look like an idiot who probably couldn't make a better movie if my life depended on it, but I could film myself sleeping for two hours and it'd be more entertaining (and plausible) than this turd.
Let me start off by commenting on the acting by giving a witty analogy: If someone told you to eat a burger filled with cat turds and then act as if you enjoy it, you'd eat it, and try to act like you enjoy it. Of course, you're acting would be horrible, but in comparison to this, it'd be more believable than anything you'd see in here. The movie is about a junkie, so naturally, the guy should be able to look like a junkie. Instead, it looks like the director messed up his clothes and told him to act like he drank about a dozen cups of coffee. Because that's what it looks like, it looks like the main actor is perked on coffee.
The story. Let me tell you something witty and funny. The writer of this movie probably wrote this movie on a typewriter. If he did, which I like to believe, I commonly refer to the typewriters which bad movies are written from to be TRIPEwriters, HA-HA! Okay, back to the story. The story is about a man, named Jack (I smell irony and witty writing with that name!), who has a good job, a cool car, and lots of money. But, underneath the high paying job and cool car, Jack has an addiction an addiction to DRUGS! One day, he and his buddy go to a rundown part of town to get high (this also happens literally five minutes into the movie; I guess these movie makers never heard of CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!). They do get high, but Jack's friend overdoses and dies. Jack, being a narcissistic idiot, lets him die on the road. Then suddenly, from that one bad experience, he loses everything. Mind you, we never see him lose everything, we just assume that he has because again, he's wearing dirty clothes. But whatever. Now, after his downfall, he works as a security guard in a garage, and is still a junkie. He owes some bad people some money, so here's what they do: They go to him, kick the ever loving s*** out of him, and pull out a syringe of some kind of drug that's supposed to kill him. Now, even though this stuff if supposed to kill him (and was probably supposed to kill everyone they shot it into), one of the thugs says that he's heard some 'bad' stuff about the drug, that it can make you really strong. Yes, this makes sense. A drug that's been made to kill people has supposedly made people strong, even though it's made to kill them. How did the people who were injected even alive to exhibit these super powers if the drug's made to kill them? Exactly. Because this movie sucks. Jack is injected, he gets ridiculously powerful, and starts to kill everyone with a jackhammer. I smell an Oscar! Oh, wait, no, I smell a crap story, my bad.
Someone who likes this movie can argue, "Well, this movie is supposed to show the horror of drugs, are you stupid, LOL(!)" I would have to agree with this statement. As much as I hate this movie, I do agree that it shows what comes from drug use. It's obvious that the people who made this were on some kind of drugs, and made this piece of misery. Now kids, if you're reading, when you do drugs, you make stupid movies like this, so don't do drugs!
That's my two awesome cents on this movie. This movie's stupid, boring, and stupid. For a movie that's supposed to discourage drug use, it sure does make you wanna take something afterwards to forget that you ever saw it.
Score: 1 out of 10.
Wait, I take that back.
0 out of 10.
Let me start off by commenting on the acting by giving a witty analogy: If someone told you to eat a burger filled with cat turds and then act as if you enjoy it, you'd eat it, and try to act like you enjoy it. Of course, you're acting would be horrible, but in comparison to this, it'd be more believable than anything you'd see in here. The movie is about a junkie, so naturally, the guy should be able to look like a junkie. Instead, it looks like the director messed up his clothes and told him to act like he drank about a dozen cups of coffee. Because that's what it looks like, it looks like the main actor is perked on coffee.
The story. Let me tell you something witty and funny. The writer of this movie probably wrote this movie on a typewriter. If he did, which I like to believe, I commonly refer to the typewriters which bad movies are written from to be TRIPEwriters, HA-HA! Okay, back to the story. The story is about a man, named Jack (I smell irony and witty writing with that name!), who has a good job, a cool car, and lots of money. But, underneath the high paying job and cool car, Jack has an addiction an addiction to DRUGS! One day, he and his buddy go to a rundown part of town to get high (this also happens literally five minutes into the movie; I guess these movie makers never heard of CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!). They do get high, but Jack's friend overdoses and dies. Jack, being a narcissistic idiot, lets him die on the road. Then suddenly, from that one bad experience, he loses everything. Mind you, we never see him lose everything, we just assume that he has because again, he's wearing dirty clothes. But whatever. Now, after his downfall, he works as a security guard in a garage, and is still a junkie. He owes some bad people some money, so here's what they do: They go to him, kick the ever loving s*** out of him, and pull out a syringe of some kind of drug that's supposed to kill him. Now, even though this stuff if supposed to kill him (and was probably supposed to kill everyone they shot it into), one of the thugs says that he's heard some 'bad' stuff about the drug, that it can make you really strong. Yes, this makes sense. A drug that's been made to kill people has supposedly made people strong, even though it's made to kill them. How did the people who were injected even alive to exhibit these super powers if the drug's made to kill them? Exactly. Because this movie sucks. Jack is injected, he gets ridiculously powerful, and starts to kill everyone with a jackhammer. I smell an Oscar! Oh, wait, no, I smell a crap story, my bad.
Someone who likes this movie can argue, "Well, this movie is supposed to show the horror of drugs, are you stupid, LOL(!)" I would have to agree with this statement. As much as I hate this movie, I do agree that it shows what comes from drug use. It's obvious that the people who made this were on some kind of drugs, and made this piece of misery. Now kids, if you're reading, when you do drugs, you make stupid movies like this, so don't do drugs!
That's my two awesome cents on this movie. This movie's stupid, boring, and stupid. For a movie that's supposed to discourage drug use, it sure does make you wanna take something afterwards to forget that you ever saw it.
Score: 1 out of 10.
Wait, I take that back.
0 out of 10.
Requiem For a Dream meets Friday the 13th meets Brokeback Mountain
3-D2 March 2006
Warning: Spoilers
There is not one thing about this movie that is good.
The first half of the movie focuses on this guy shooting up, and hanging out with half-naked men. The guy's friend overdoses and dies, causing him to continue his downward spiral into street drugs which completely turns him into a junkie.
Suddenly, the junkie starts to hallucinate, and see his dead friend (who is still half-naked, even as a mirage) who tells him to kill people. The junkie obliges, and starts to murder random people who come into the business (that looks more like an abandoned warehouse) where he is working, since everybody in town somehow has a key to the front door.
Despite the jackhammer being attached to an extension cord, the junkie is still able to chase people and kill them, easily. And, for some reason, when he is injected with what looks like radioactive waste, it actually gives him superpowers, and he regains all his stamina and is able to jump onto rooftops from the ground (after falling off of them).
The acting is atrocious, the story is incredibly boring, the make-up was crappy, the dialogue was terrible, etc. basically, just everything about this movie was complete garbage.
And, seriously, what was up with all of the half-naked men? I think every male character stripped for absolutely no reason at all. I'm glad they all got killed by a super-powered, jackhammer-wielding drug addict.
The first half of the movie focuses on this guy shooting up, and hanging out with half-naked men. The guy's friend overdoses and dies, causing him to continue his downward spiral into street drugs which completely turns him into a junkie.
Suddenly, the junkie starts to hallucinate, and see his dead friend (who is still half-naked, even as a mirage) who tells him to kill people. The junkie obliges, and starts to murder random people who come into the business (that looks more like an abandoned warehouse) where he is working, since everybody in town somehow has a key to the front door.
Despite the jackhammer being attached to an extension cord, the junkie is still able to chase people and kill them, easily. And, for some reason, when he is injected with what looks like radioactive waste, it actually gives him superpowers, and he regains all his stamina and is able to jump onto rooftops from the ground (after falling off of them).
The acting is atrocious, the story is incredibly boring, the make-up was crappy, the dialogue was terrible, etc. basically, just everything about this movie was complete garbage.
And, seriously, what was up with all of the half-naked men? I think every male character stripped for absolutely no reason at all. I'm glad they all got killed by a super-powered, jackhammer-wielding drug addict.
wow... just wow - possible spoiler
Philosophuh5 November 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I hope the actors in this film kept their day jobs before going into acting because they put forth the worst effort I've ever seen. The screenplay made little to no sense from the beginning to the very end. The dialogue was confusing in that most of the time what one person was saying had nothing to do with what another was saying.
The director should be shot. You can blame the actors for sucking, but you can also blame the director for not doing anything about it. You can also blame the producers for not realizing that toilet paper is worth more than that script.
The story begins with two strong men looking through a warehouse for Jack, who owes them money. The warehouse is filled with empty boxes and plastic wrap. The guys find Jack asleep. They hit him a few times, then inject what one can only guess is speed into his neck in an attempt to kill him. The movie would've been a lot better had he died and the ending credits rolled. Instead, he awoke, picked up a jackhammer and drilled the first's face in. In the process, accidentally showing that at least one person involved on this film knows what he's doing. And that's the props guy. The blood and gore, although unrealistically excessive and unnecessary, looks realistic. Now, don't get me wrong the death scenes are unimaginable, and the amount of blood was impossibly copious from certain wounds. And the lack of bones raised a question mark.
The death scenes are indeed questionable, and tend to be laughable. There's one where Jack takes the jackhammer to a guy's shoulder, and that kills him. How? We'll never know.
After the first scene, we go back in time to sort of show how Jack got to that point. Jack's friend overdoses, and Jack flees. Then Jack loses his job and becomes a junkie, and he can't pay for his fixes. That's it. Then it goes to the first scene, and we watch that again. Then we watch Jack kill more people. The best part of the movie is the ending credits.
Just so you know, almost every character takes off his or her shirt at least once in the film. Don't get too excited: there are only three girls, and one of them stays clothed, but the female nudity is within the first twenty minutes, so there's time to watch it and shut it off, which is probably your best bet if you're looking for a nipple shot.
Watch for parts that don't make sense if you do in fact take the lesser chosen path, and watch the film. Notice that in a series of death scenes in the same room all take place in a curiously clean space, even though someone died brutally in the same spot not five minutes before.
The ending was far from surprising, and the only part not expected was that it does not in fact end. It's around ninety minutes, but it feels like a lifetime. The ending leaves hints of a sequel, and that's the scariest part of the movie realizing that the idiots who made this just might make another and another and turn it into a franchise.
Final grade 0.5/10
The director should be shot. You can blame the actors for sucking, but you can also blame the director for not doing anything about it. You can also blame the producers for not realizing that toilet paper is worth more than that script.
The story begins with two strong men looking through a warehouse for Jack, who owes them money. The warehouse is filled with empty boxes and plastic wrap. The guys find Jack asleep. They hit him a few times, then inject what one can only guess is speed into his neck in an attempt to kill him. The movie would've been a lot better had he died and the ending credits rolled. Instead, he awoke, picked up a jackhammer and drilled the first's face in. In the process, accidentally showing that at least one person involved on this film knows what he's doing. And that's the props guy. The blood and gore, although unrealistically excessive and unnecessary, looks realistic. Now, don't get me wrong the death scenes are unimaginable, and the amount of blood was impossibly copious from certain wounds. And the lack of bones raised a question mark.
The death scenes are indeed questionable, and tend to be laughable. There's one where Jack takes the jackhammer to a guy's shoulder, and that kills him. How? We'll never know.
After the first scene, we go back in time to sort of show how Jack got to that point. Jack's friend overdoses, and Jack flees. Then Jack loses his job and becomes a junkie, and he can't pay for his fixes. That's it. Then it goes to the first scene, and we watch that again. Then we watch Jack kill more people. The best part of the movie is the ending credits.
Just so you know, almost every character takes off his or her shirt at least once in the film. Don't get too excited: there are only three girls, and one of them stays clothed, but the female nudity is within the first twenty minutes, so there's time to watch it and shut it off, which is probably your best bet if you're looking for a nipple shot.
Watch for parts that don't make sense if you do in fact take the lesser chosen path, and watch the film. Notice that in a series of death scenes in the same room all take place in a curiously clean space, even though someone died brutally in the same spot not five minutes before.
The ending was far from surprising, and the only part not expected was that it does not in fact end. It's around ninety minutes, but it feels like a lifetime. The ending leaves hints of a sequel, and that's the scariest part of the movie realizing that the idiots who made this just might make another and another and turn it into a franchise.
Final grade 0.5/10
Horror?......more like dramatic gold!!
threetattwo15 August 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Walking, with my friends, through our local video rental store, we happened upon the 2-for-1 special rack. Most of these movies were old releases of good movies, but than there were some we had never heard of. Looking through the alphabetical arrangement of the movies we happened upon the J section. We had been here before, joking about all these cheesy movies, but one movie we had always mentioned was Jackhammer Massacre.
We'd always joke this was the perfect movie. First of all it had jackhammers. What is more manly than a pneumatic jackhammer? Just imagining the scenes that were capable with a jack hammer. And the word after Jackhammer...? Massacre. Do I even need to explain? OK I will. This implies many people will die. Together with jackhammer means that many people will die involving a jackhammer. Can it be this simple? The answer is, abso-freaking-lutley! The grisly death scenes combined with the super special FX make for a morbid gore fest. If that doesn't make you want to rent or buy now, let me mention it has a wonderful plot. I don't want to spoil this movie so i'll give a simple explanation.
Our main character, aptly named, Jack, has fallen into the world of drugs. The movie starts out with Jack, a successful man with an expensive car. His problem, drugs. Jack can't get enough. His addiction turns him in to a mindless drug fiend, hanging with lower tier of the social pyramid. Eventually he loses his job, his car is repossessed, and now he lives with his social deviants in a cheap, run-down apartment in a bad neighborhood. When his friend dies he must leave the apartment. The scenes where he is homeless are very moving. We see how he tries to live, and feed his addiction. Eventually he finds a job as a warehouse security guard. His boss lets him live there, in a little sideroom. Jack tries to quench his thirst for his addiction, but being a security guard doesn't allow enough drugs for his appetite. Unbeknowst to him, a local dealer is hiding drugs in the warehouse. When Jack comes upon the drugs he has a feast. I'll stop here because the ensuing massacre with everyone who comes into the warehouse is too good to be spoiled.
In conclusion this movie shows the life of squalor addicts live with. I felt compassion, fear, and pity for Jack. This movie is not about some cheesy death scenes. It is about a man's fall from grace. A man with nowhere to go, a man who succumbs to his abuse, and becomes mentally unstable. This movie will change the light at which you look at life.
Rent this movie!
We'd always joke this was the perfect movie. First of all it had jackhammers. What is more manly than a pneumatic jackhammer? Just imagining the scenes that were capable with a jack hammer. And the word after Jackhammer...? Massacre. Do I even need to explain? OK I will. This implies many people will die. Together with jackhammer means that many people will die involving a jackhammer. Can it be this simple? The answer is, abso-freaking-lutley! The grisly death scenes combined with the super special FX make for a morbid gore fest. If that doesn't make you want to rent or buy now, let me mention it has a wonderful plot. I don't want to spoil this movie so i'll give a simple explanation.
Our main character, aptly named, Jack, has fallen into the world of drugs. The movie starts out with Jack, a successful man with an expensive car. His problem, drugs. Jack can't get enough. His addiction turns him in to a mindless drug fiend, hanging with lower tier of the social pyramid. Eventually he loses his job, his car is repossessed, and now he lives with his social deviants in a cheap, run-down apartment in a bad neighborhood. When his friend dies he must leave the apartment. The scenes where he is homeless are very moving. We see how he tries to live, and feed his addiction. Eventually he finds a job as a warehouse security guard. His boss lets him live there, in a little sideroom. Jack tries to quench his thirst for his addiction, but being a security guard doesn't allow enough drugs for his appetite. Unbeknowst to him, a local dealer is hiding drugs in the warehouse. When Jack comes upon the drugs he has a feast. I'll stop here because the ensuing massacre with everyone who comes into the warehouse is too good to be spoiled.
In conclusion this movie shows the life of squalor addicts live with. I felt compassion, fear, and pity for Jack. This movie is not about some cheesy death scenes. It is about a man's fall from grace. A man with nowhere to go, a man who succumbs to his abuse, and becomes mentally unstable. This movie will change the light at which you look at life.
Rent this movie!
S10 Reviews: The Jackhammer Massacre (2004)
suspiria106 March 2005
The Jackhammer Massacre (aka Jackhammer) follows the exploits of Jack the Junkie. Always high and looking to score Jack takes a leap off the deep end when a friend OD's. The first thirty minutes are basically him conning to get a score, boring. Back and forth he sways with the ethereal wind until one of his suppliers comes calling g for his cash. Oddly enough even as a full-time junkie Jack can find a job as a security guard at a warehouse with construction weapons, err tools. It seems Jack's paranoia really kicks in with a little help from his OD'd friend's ghost. Well hey this is where that jackhammer of the title rears its head and Jack goes to town thinking everyone's DEA.
The first 30 are slow and boring, who wants to see someone continuously shooting up. I don't at least. An interesting arm infection is a highlight of the first reel, not even bare chests and breasts can help that. But when the slaughter begins you can at least start cracking the power cord jokes (a la MST3K) and giggle and snicker at the bad dialogue and horrible delivery.
The first 30 are slow and boring, who wants to see someone continuously shooting up. I don't at least. An interesting arm infection is a highlight of the first reel, not even bare chests and breasts can help that. But when the slaughter begins you can at least start cracking the power cord jokes (a la MST3K) and giggle and snicker at the bad dialogue and horrible delivery.
I Can't Decide If Film Is Warning You Not To Do Drugs..Or Not To Play With Your Parent's Power Tools
tia_bowens20 October 2005
Warning: Spoilers
This movie was awful. But..amazing, at the same time.
Okay, what the hell was that thing on his arm? It looked like a scrotum to me. And he had to like drain it and feed it? Was that why he was crazy? Or what? So confused.
And his jackhammer's extension cord went on FOREVER FOREVER and FOREVER! Hell, he even chased a girl up onto the roof with it! How does that work? Oh my...he freakin' sodomized a lesbian with his jackhammer! Now, if that doesn't defy everything,I don't know what else does.
Oh well.
I am in love with some of things in this film though. Like in the beginning when he kills his first victim, and his face gets smashed in with the jackhammer...oh my.
This movie just made me laugh hysterically.
Okay, what the hell was that thing on his arm? It looked like a scrotum to me. And he had to like drain it and feed it? Was that why he was crazy? Or what? So confused.
And his jackhammer's extension cord went on FOREVER FOREVER and FOREVER! Hell, he even chased a girl up onto the roof with it! How does that work? Oh my...he freakin' sodomized a lesbian with his jackhammer! Now, if that doesn't defy everything,I don't know what else does.
Oh well.
I am in love with some of things in this film though. Like in the beginning when he kills his first victim, and his face gets smashed in with the jackhammer...oh my.
This movie just made me laugh hysterically.
Show up and die
jaywolfenstien14 October 2005
A "making of" featurette for Jackhammer Massacre would look like an episode of MacGyver in how director Joe Castro and a few side-kicks made a movie with a stick of gum, a few boxes, and a door bell ringer. That in itself is quite an impressive feat, and the final production value quite honestly does not show the laughable budget and resources (laughable by Troma standards no less.) Don't get me wrong, this movie does obviously look and feel low budget (really low budget) it does not come across as a couple guys who borrowed the digital camcorder and shot at home using the props found in the glove-box, back seat, and trunk. And while praising the film, let me also add that the film has some good moments of gore (specifically, the gore not affiliated with the jackhammer.) Sadly, this praise does not mean this has yielded a good film.
Jackhammer Massacre presumes that we care about Jack and his tragedy while it flashes back to his formerly successful life as a prick businessman destined to screw himself over with bad choices and become the psychotic prick killer. Jackhammer presumes wrong.
While roughly a third of the running time is dedicated to the unsympathetic tragedy that is our killer Jack and his cartoony (not to mention comical) delusions, the victims show up just long enough to be killed. Or in other words Jack is treated as the main character, it develops him with a prepackaged uninteresting scenario of how his friend ODed and he became addicted . . . and the movie assumes we'll sympathize with everyone else because "they're walking into a death trap." Jackhammer assumes wrong.
Ever hear the overstated remark "The hero is only as good as the villain he faces"? Jackhammer built up their villain but forgot the hero entirely, resulting in a narratively unbalanced film. It's not the fact that Jack's development is screwed that hurts the film don't get me wrong, though, that alone cripples it the real nail in the coffin is the fact there's really no one with any cinematic weight and screen presence to metaphorically oppose him. The head of the salvage crew gets a heroic introduction shot, and that's the extent of her character development.
Jack's sister and her friend? The movie literally throws them away before the audience can gain any emotional investment in them. Jack's boss? We see his face long enough to memorize it before he bites the dust. The guy buying the shop and his assistant? They walk in, perform the horror gimmick of looking around and then die. The salvage crew? They live a little bit longer, but to say these characters are introduced would be a severe and misleading overstatement. A very precise tagline for the film would be "Show up and die." Outside, LA life goes on. Across the globe, the sun sets, and the world keeps on turning. And nobody cares about the handful of strangers we never met whom we'll never see again.
Slasher films need to kill characters to be effective. Jackhammer kills cameo appearances.
Then there was Jack's delusions, his dead buddy who returns from the grave to haunt him with phrases like "You let me die" spoken in a tone that sounds curiously similar to that smug and sarcastic Randal in Kevin Smith's Clerks. As a direct result, the scenes came across not as a delusion haunting a man to drive him insane, rather as a smart-ass ghost heckling the living for kicks. Granted a number of scenes in the film were intentionally comical (Jack's hallucination of running from the spotlight, for example), I don't sense Joe Castro intended the ghostly apparition to have that caliber of goofiness.
While speaking on the comedy element, it never quite hits its mark. The presentation of the horror/comedy blend feels eerily similar to those unintentionally lame 80s rip offs of Friday the 13th made by incompetent hacks who fail to realize how idiotic a situation they've presented. And only through the overwhelmingly ludicrous scenarios and cutting does it become apparent that the Jackhammer Massacre has its tongue in its cheek . . . in places. In other places, like with the previously discussed tragedy of Jack and the heckling ghost of Overdosed past, does the film realize how ineffective that is? I have my doubts.
With Jackhammer's various misfires, it's not surprising how tempting it becomes to target the things the film never cared about. For example, how impractical is it to kill with an 80lb jackhammer? Who is stupid enough to fall in a puddle of blood mixed with intestines and then peel off his soaked shirt as if he just had a coffee stain? How long is that extension cord? And of course, Jackhammer's obedience to the horror formula with a set of characters making out because they can.
Jackhammer is a slasher, and thank God it knows it's a slasher; however, it's still apparent that it doesn't know how to be a good slasher, which is okay. It has a ton of brothers and sisters on the rental shelf next to it to keep it company.
Jackhammer Massacre presumes that we care about Jack and his tragedy while it flashes back to his formerly successful life as a prick businessman destined to screw himself over with bad choices and become the psychotic prick killer. Jackhammer presumes wrong.
While roughly a third of the running time is dedicated to the unsympathetic tragedy that is our killer Jack and his cartoony (not to mention comical) delusions, the victims show up just long enough to be killed. Or in other words Jack is treated as the main character, it develops him with a prepackaged uninteresting scenario of how his friend ODed and he became addicted . . . and the movie assumes we'll sympathize with everyone else because "they're walking into a death trap." Jackhammer assumes wrong.
Ever hear the overstated remark "The hero is only as good as the villain he faces"? Jackhammer built up their villain but forgot the hero entirely, resulting in a narratively unbalanced film. It's not the fact that Jack's development is screwed that hurts the film don't get me wrong, though, that alone cripples it the real nail in the coffin is the fact there's really no one with any cinematic weight and screen presence to metaphorically oppose him. The head of the salvage crew gets a heroic introduction shot, and that's the extent of her character development.
Jack's sister and her friend? The movie literally throws them away before the audience can gain any emotional investment in them. Jack's boss? We see his face long enough to memorize it before he bites the dust. The guy buying the shop and his assistant? They walk in, perform the horror gimmick of looking around and then die. The salvage crew? They live a little bit longer, but to say these characters are introduced would be a severe and misleading overstatement. A very precise tagline for the film would be "Show up and die." Outside, LA life goes on. Across the globe, the sun sets, and the world keeps on turning. And nobody cares about the handful of strangers we never met whom we'll never see again.
Slasher films need to kill characters to be effective. Jackhammer kills cameo appearances.
Then there was Jack's delusions, his dead buddy who returns from the grave to haunt him with phrases like "You let me die" spoken in a tone that sounds curiously similar to that smug and sarcastic Randal in Kevin Smith's Clerks. As a direct result, the scenes came across not as a delusion haunting a man to drive him insane, rather as a smart-ass ghost heckling the living for kicks. Granted a number of scenes in the film were intentionally comical (Jack's hallucination of running from the spotlight, for example), I don't sense Joe Castro intended the ghostly apparition to have that caliber of goofiness.
While speaking on the comedy element, it never quite hits its mark. The presentation of the horror/comedy blend feels eerily similar to those unintentionally lame 80s rip offs of Friday the 13th made by incompetent hacks who fail to realize how idiotic a situation they've presented. And only through the overwhelmingly ludicrous scenarios and cutting does it become apparent that the Jackhammer Massacre has its tongue in its cheek . . . in places. In other places, like with the previously discussed tragedy of Jack and the heckling ghost of Overdosed past, does the film realize how ineffective that is? I have my doubts.
With Jackhammer's various misfires, it's not surprising how tempting it becomes to target the things the film never cared about. For example, how impractical is it to kill with an 80lb jackhammer? Who is stupid enough to fall in a puddle of blood mixed with intestines and then peel off his soaked shirt as if he just had a coffee stain? How long is that extension cord? And of course, Jackhammer's obedience to the horror formula with a set of characters making out because they can.
Jackhammer is a slasher, and thank God it knows it's a slasher; however, it's still apparent that it doesn't know how to be a good slasher, which is okay. It has a ton of brothers and sisters on the rental shelf next to it to keep it company.
I liked it.
A1nut28 April 2005
This movie brought to full and vivid life the powers of addiction. My girlfriend does not understand how strong addictions can be. My addiction is only to cigarettes, Thank God, but I still understand Jack's addiction. I have sold personal items and even looked in dumpsters to feed my addiction to cigarettes. That probably sounds pretty pathetic to you, but unless you know the power of an addiction, it would sound pathetic.
If the gore could be toned down some, I bet this film could be used in drug rehab clinics and in schools to show exactly what drugs and addictions can do to people. After all, who in their right mind would want to wind up like our friend Jack? It was a cheap, low budget gore fest with a message. How many films can do that?
If the gore could be toned down some, I bet this film could be used in drug rehab clinics and in schools to show exactly what drugs and addictions can do to people. After all, who in their right mind would want to wind up like our friend Jack? It was a cheap, low budget gore fest with a message. How many films can do that?
Say NO to Drugs !
hereatgraceland11 August 2006
From a horror stand-point...this movie was terrible. As a message on saying NO to Drugs, this movie hits the nail on the head. I remember being moved after watching Leonardo DiCaprio in "Basketball Diaries" and I can honestly say this movie did the same. It proves that nobody is out-of-reach from drugs. It started with a young man who had a very good job, was respected by his peers, nice car, lots of money and the drugs took everything away from him until the final outcome. I'm being honest saying the producers should remove all the garbage scenes involving the jack hammer, re-arrange a few things, cut some, add some and this would be an ideal movie to show in schools to teach kids drugs can totally destroy your life. I'm going to ignore some of the ridiculous garbage in this movie and from an anti-drug point of view...I'll give the movie a strong 7 !
Joe Castro could be Our Generation's CHARLES BAND !
guestar575 December 2006
JACKHAMMER aka Jackhammer Massacre , Director's Cut. Written and Directed by Joe Castro. Starring Aaron Gaffey, Rachel & Rob Rotten and Joe Haggerty. This is an amazing ride, It has stuff YOU have never seen in Horror, Before ! The acting was all believable, The story very unique. There were tributes to Laserblast, Leaving Las Vegas and American Werewolf in London. Special effects were something like Davids, Cronenberg and Lynch. Let's discuss the relationship of a man and his Jackhammer. The tool looks real and makes hamburger helper out of a lot of victim's body parts. While watching it,Got a weird sensation of Déjà vu and it's because of Charles Band handling of Laserblast. This movie showed you don't pick on someone with Issues or Aliens will make Him KICK UR ARSE ! Some scenes,should be spoiler warnings; The dueling Land Of The Giants hypodermic appendages/ screw driver brain surgery/ and never unplug your extension cord, Too funny. Joe Castro and Steven Escobar should be given more money to make the film there effects can imagine, But JACKHAMMER is a good start. Oh,yeah, Great Anti-Drug message too, In case the MPAA is reading this, LOL.
Glorious garbage, good for some laughs.
Hey_Sweden13 October 2014
Jack Magnus (Aaron Gaffey) is a successful businessman who periodically does drugs with his best friend Mike (Kyle Yaskin). When Mike takes some bad stuff, Jack panics and leaves him to die. His guilt eventually causes him to become a full fledged, utterly pathetic junkie. After being force fed a particularly nasty brew by a vindictive supplier, Jack seems to only grow stronger, surviving the ordeal and living on to become a crazed jackhammer killer. He's now utterly paranoid, believing that everybody is out to get him, with his paranoia manifested in visions of his dead friend.
This viewer won't deny that this mostly routine little movie is crap, but it's crap of a very amusing variety. Co-writer / director / special makeup effects creator Joe Castro knows he's making just about the furthest thing from high art, and is clearly having a ball creating sordid characters and grisly scenarios. Some horror fans may feel that the movie isn't quite gory *enough*, but it does deliver a respectable dose of tacky in-your-face splatter. The story works best when it comes to the visions of Mike, getting positively trippy and insane.
The acting may not be much good, but it serves its purpose in a tale of this variety. The exception is Gaffey as Jack. This guy really is pretty good. Once he's descended into 100% junkie mode, he's always completely dishevelled and constantly drooling. He looks like an absolute wreck, and his insanity is damn entertaining. It also doesn't hurt any that the ladies in the cast, such as Nadia Angelini as Sam and Trudy Kofahl as Tori, are easy on the eyes.
Fun stuff for very undemanding viewers.
Six out of 10.
This viewer won't deny that this mostly routine little movie is crap, but it's crap of a very amusing variety. Co-writer / director / special makeup effects creator Joe Castro knows he's making just about the furthest thing from high art, and is clearly having a ball creating sordid characters and grisly scenarios. Some horror fans may feel that the movie isn't quite gory *enough*, but it does deliver a respectable dose of tacky in-your-face splatter. The story works best when it comes to the visions of Mike, getting positively trippy and insane.
The acting may not be much good, but it serves its purpose in a tale of this variety. The exception is Gaffey as Jack. This guy really is pretty good. Once he's descended into 100% junkie mode, he's always completely dishevelled and constantly drooling. He looks like an absolute wreck, and his insanity is damn entertaining. It also doesn't hurt any that the ladies in the cast, such as Nadia Angelini as Sam and Trudy Kofahl as Tori, are easy on the eyes.
Fun stuff for very undemanding viewers.
Six out of 10.
Weird, Sick, Enjoyable
CruelDesolation2 December 2004
the movie is kinda weird with crappy acting and the basically the fist half hour is jack and some junkies shootin up or smoking. Then it gets interesting. Jack is a paranoid junkie who kills on drugs hes almost powered by drugs. He also uses his jack hammer to kill his victims. Some of his victims r friends and family. jack is basically trippin the whole movie, making up some crazy paranoid story and killing anyone in his way.
The Gore effects are pretty good ,some of the killings look great. Some other things to notice in the movie that catch out r, a scene where jack cleans out his shoot- up arm with poor equipment, a lesbo couple, Jacks dead Friend that talks to him and only Jack can see.
so if u like to see a movie about a tripped out homicidal confused junkie who kills people with a jackhammer, then its worth seeing.Overall i thought it was pretty good and original story. RATING: 6/10
The Gore effects are pretty good ,some of the killings look great. Some other things to notice in the movie that catch out r, a scene where jack cleans out his shoot- up arm with poor equipment, a lesbo couple, Jacks dead Friend that talks to him and only Jack can see.
so if u like to see a movie about a tripped out homicidal confused junkie who kills people with a jackhammer, then its worth seeing.Overall i thought it was pretty good and original story. RATING: 6/10
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