Basement Jack (2009 Video) User Reviews

Mediocre at best.

[FrightMeter · 5/10 · 30 August 2010]

A serial killer, nicknamed Basement Jack because of his penchant for hiding out in his victim's basements before killing them, is released and returns to the small town of Downer's Grove to continue his massacre and finish off the one victim who was able to escape is slaughter years before.

This film desperately tries to be a throwback to 80's slasher films, but it is too slow-paced and padded with the killer's backstory that it commits the worst crime a slasher film can: it becomes boring. The pace does pick up in the end and there are some ambitious attempts at heavy gore; however, it is extremely fake looking and some is obviously CGI. However, the director is able to create some nice atmosphere is spots and, despite the fake looking gore, the film looks great. In the end, though, this is nothing you haven't seen before and it has been done much, much better.

FrightMeter Grade: D+

Another boring faceless teen slasher.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 8 February 2010]

Basement Jack starts eleven years ago as tormented teenager John Reily (producer Eric Peter-Kaiser) goes nuts & kills several families including the boyfriend, mother, father & brother of Karen Cook (Michele Morrow) who manages to survive the brutal attack. Reily is caught but since he was underage he only spent ten years in prison & now he is free, free to hunt Karen down across the US & see to unfinished business from ten years previous by finally killing her. However Karen survived Reily's attempts to kill her once & she is determined to do so again & teams up with small town rookie cop Chris Watts (Sam Skoryna) to put an end to Reily's killing & finally lay some ghost's to rest...

Co-produced & directed by Michael Shelton this is pretty much your average teen slasher that is slightly more competently made than usual but otherwise does nothing to distinguish itself from an over-crowed & limited sub-genre that the likes of Halloween & Friday the 13th (original's or remakes) & their numerous sequels & rip-offs have all sewn up already. There's nothing new or original here, a child who is abused by his mother grow's up & starts killing families (if he only killed entire families why did he kill those cops at the station?) for no apparent reason other than that & for some reason he has to do it during a thunder storm which is mentioned a few times but seems utterly pointless. The pace is slow, that character's are stupid (if you opened the door to a serial killer who had been on the telly would you just stand there waiting for him to kill you?) & forgettable (yet another teen with a troubled past, the clichéd good hearted cop who has a craggy old boss) while the kills are the one area where Basement Jack should stand-out but it doesn't as just about every one is the same as Basement Jack kills everyone with his big knife, if your making a slasher film & can't even put any effort or creativity into the kills then you know your making films in the wrong genre. The killer himself was a missed opportunity, he is very bland & in fact doesn't say a single word during the entire film as he just walks around looking like a goth reject with hair hanging down over his face.

There's a bit of gore here but the kills are very samey with various stabbings, an arm is cut off & the tops of two cops heads are clichéd off too complete with bad CGI computer effects. As one would expect there's the obligatory final confrontation between Karen & the killer with expected results & a really bad ending which uses the old 'he wasn't dead even though he was' trick to leave things open for a sequel. There are a lot of thunder storms in Basement Jack but there's never any rain (probably due to budgetary reasons), now I don't know if in reality it's possible to have a thunder storm without rain & maybe it is but it just looks strange, it doesn't feel as atmospheric & is just odd (also why is the thunder always as loud inside as it is outside?).

With a supposed budget of about $1,000,000 this is quite well made but is as forgettable a teen slasher as you will ever likely see. The cast are OK but no-one stands out particularly.

Basement Jack is a standard teen slasher made to cash in on the other countless teen slashers out there but with a dull bad guy, forgettable kills & an instantly forgettable plot there are definitely better examples of the genre out there.

Eh

[dbborroughs · 4/10 · 24 November 2009]

Killer nicknamed Basement Jack gets out after 11 years in the psych ward and is hunted by a girl looking for revenge for what he did to her family.

Or something.

Well made but confused and confusing slasher film that is technically great to look at but didn't seem to make a great deal sense in the story department. The upshot was that after a short while I ended up letting the film run and began to do other things around it. Not horrible, but nothing I'd really bother with, especially with so many other better films floating around out there.

between 3 and 4 out of 10

I could have been gazing at a wall, and still get the same amount of entertainment.

[joker-101 · 1/10 · 22 November 2009]

Being a slasher movie fan, I was thinking, well, it can't be all that bad. I mean, even the worst films have some good thing about them.

Let me tell you right now.

THIS ONE HAS NONE!

The movie is just terrible, and the worst part is that they took it seriously. Acting is truly bad. Even for a slasher movie... At most points the stabbing scenes are made badly and you can see how they miss the person. Even at a moment when a person is stabbed through, falls to the floor and then... No blood on their back when the knife just came out.

If you are thinking about watching this movie, I can only tell you one thing: DON'T!

There is a whole list of things you can do instead that are much more entertaining: - Starring a white wall for a couple of hours - Counting Flakes in you cornflake box - Going to sleep

and much much more.

Carry On Screaming was more frightening than this.

[thehop69 · 1/10 · 24 October 2009]

I'm beginning to wonder if I've been watching the same films as some of the other contributers on IMDb.I enjoy good horror films and I have been taking the ratings from this site into account when deciding which films to watch ( I've learnt my lesson now ).Unfotunately most of the recommendations and reviews I have read have not been very helpful( Babysitter wanted,poor and predictable,Staunton Hill again poor,I Sell The Dead comedy horror,fell short on both counts,All The Boys Love Mandy Lane rubbish,Albino Farm was funny although not meant to be ) .This being the latest one,Basement Jack isn't remotely frightening,the acting was poor almost laughable,the film was so bad,I switched off before the end,my 8 year old nephew probably wouldn't be scared by this.Abbott and Costello made scarier films than the above.

Where's the money?

[artpf · 2/10 · 22 December 2011]

Young man is tortured with a 9 volt battery by mother as a kid and turns into a killer only during thunderstorms.

If you buy into that premise, you might also like the bad acting, horrible script, the dead victims whose eyes are literally blinking and moving on screen, and storms without rain.

I didn't.

Characters actions simply don't make sense. Not sure if you've ever licked a 9 volt battery. I have. It doesn't hurt in the slightest. You feel a dull tingle. That's how we'd test to see if they were good as kids. None of us turned into serial killers.

And why do so many of the corpses move when they're supposed to be dead?

Didn't anyone see this during the editing?

IMDD says this movie had a million dollar budget.

Where did the money go?

Lynn Lowry was the best thing about this very mediocre slasher

[Stevieboy666 · 4/10 · 12 May 2019]

A boy is abused by his cruel mother (well played by Scream Queen Lynn Lowry). 11 years on, released from a mental institution, he becomes known as Basement Jack, slaughtering families during thunderstorms! Yeap! Thunderstorms. And there are a lot of them throughout this movie, to the point where the rolling sound of thunder and flashes of lightning becomes rather tedious. This is the directional debut of Michael Shelton and so when reviewing this movie has to be taken into account. He's not directed another movie since. The film makers are obviously horror fans and have tried to make a slasher movie with all of the ingredients that we know and love (sex, gore, brutality, creepy killer, atmosphere, jump shocks, etc), so I give them credit for that. However the end product is really rather mediocre at best. But trust me, there are MUCH worse slasher movies out there. We do get two Scream Queens here, Lynn Lowry and Tiffany Shepsis, so credit for that also, Sadly the bad outweighs the good: plenty of gore, but the CGI is very cheap and fake looking; during one of the kills the knife clearly misses its victim; the police are very inept, despite many of their number getting killed there is a lack of seriousness amongst the survivors; acting varies from acceptable to wooden; dull script; the film was a bit of a drag at 94 minutes. And then there's Jack, looks more like a Goth on heroin than a serious mass murderer. If you love slasher movies, or you are a fan of Scream Queens, then Basement Jack does have a little something to offer. But I for one will not be giving it a repeat viewing.

Tired and derivative slasher

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 9 October 2016]

BASEMENT JACK is another cheap slasher movie, an independent straight-to-DVD effort that looks and feels exactly the same as at least a dozen others. It has the old greyed-out colour palette look going on, alongside a non-threatening villain, lots of cheap gore effects, and a strictly pedestrian narrative.

The titular character is a psychotic who choses bad weather as a time to go around menacing innocent families. There are a lot of scenes shot in rooms filled with blood sprayed over the walls and the like, but the emphasis is on graphic kill sequences as Jack goes around slaughtering all in his path.

He's an irredeemable villain, but the kills have zero impact because there's no characterisation here whatsoever. There is some talk in an attempt to build a proper story, but none of it is very interesting. The best cast member they could come up with is Tiffany Shepis, who started out as a Troma starlet. I found BASEMENT JACK tired and distasteful, and I couldn't help wondering why I was bothering to watch it.

Cinematography? Great! ** Michele Morrow? Great! Does not deserve a Horror listing

[JoeSkoal · 1/10 · 1 November 2010]

Let me first say that Michele Morrow shows her quality as an actor in this film. She is an A-list potential actor among obscure C-list talent,throughout the firm. Unfortunately she will not earn any points on the Ulmer Scale with this film as it will pass in years unnoticed. Cinematography? 8 stars. Mathew Rudenberg's cinematography keeps this film alive and not looking like a B cult film, that explains why I waited for something to happen. I did have to skip forward in the last quarter of the film.Does not deserve a Horror listing. Nothing frightening in this movie, believe me when I say the quality of fear factor, gore, suspense, shock and awe ...is missing. I can not find a single positive comment to give other than... I highly recommend you spend your time doing anything but watching this movie. Laying on your back in your back yard, trying to look at the stars, on a cloudy night would be more fun than watching this movie.

Well Done Slasher Film

[VegaValo · 10/10 · 21 November 2009]

Saw this film at Fangoria and I must say it is very well done. It doesn't try to be anything it's not. That said, for a low budget film it delivers and it's definitely worth watching. I've seen too many large budget horror's that don't compare to this film. Basement Jack provides all the elements of gore and the high scare factor that you would expect from a slasher movie.

I particularly liked the performances of Michele Morrow (Karen Cook), Lynn Lowry (Mrs. Riley) and Nathan Bexton (the manager). Morrow was definitely the star of this film delivering a strong performance and giving her character a natural hot factor.

I would definitely recommend watching this film!

I don't know why it got such bad ratings.

[brunke0091 · 7/10 · 23 November 2009]

I picked up this movie at Blockbuster a while ago and I wrote it on a list to come home and look up on IMDb. Reading the reviews and ratings, I was a little put off, because it only had a 3.4 star rating. After much deliberation in the movie aisle, I decided to pick it up, and I am glad I did.

Not only did I get an excellent stalk and slash film, but the characters were played with an excellent degree of scare. The character of Basement Jack is one of the creepiest horror movie psycho's out there. I think what drew me to him the most is that he wasn't some half-brained zombie stalking after people like most horror movies are nowadays. Basement Jack was just a child that was horrendously abused as a child in sick, sick ways, so he was just mentally unstable, but not stupid. There was a certain level of elegance in his stalk and slash, not just stalk, stalk, stalk, kill.

On the negative side, some of the characters were a little lacking in the acting department, but at the same time, it made them seem like actual people and not actors trying to portray people. Also there are a few small plot holes that don't really ever get summed up.

But overall, I really enjoyed this film and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys to cuddle up with their most jumpy friends and watch someone slash up a bunch of towns people.

I rate this: Definite Watch.

This movie will end up in the basement

[d-graaf12 · 3/10 · 22 February 2010]

When i saw some preview's of this movie i thought it could be fun nothing big but a OK movie to watch on a late rainy night,but its a major disappointment.I know that if you don't have the budget you cant do the things that you see in big blockbuster movie's and thats OK,but then you need a good story and thats the problem with this flick it has none.It never gets clever or scary and there are some strange things in this movie that just don't add up,there seems to be a very different day cycle in the town that the movie is shot,for instance in a scene where the lead female role is locked up in the room of the cop thats like in the middle of the day,she looks five minutes on a computer and breaks out of the room and in the next scene its the middle of the night and this happens a few times in the movie where the time line doesn't add up.And the fight between the killer and the lead female role is just as bad,she get stabbed with a giant dagger or something and when the dagger comes out of here there is hardly blood and she starts fighting like jackie Chan and then all of a sudden during this fight she bleeds like hell and cant hardly walk anymore,for me personal these kinda things ruin a movie.But thats my opinion as i am a critical movie watcher,but if you wanna spend some time with a movie rent something else.

Massive LOL fest!

[davidward8668 · 2/10 · 11 December 2009]

I realise it isn't supposed to be a comedy but I pretty much did laugh all the way through this!

I won't bore you with the storyline or lack of... just point out the random things that made me chuckle!

The acting, especially the cop characters, all of them! The blatant ripping off of several horror films...Friday 13th-machete, Halloween-doll/clown mask and near end scene where Jack falls down and looks dead? Psycho- OK a bit stretched but the shower scene!

I as left with more than a few questions as well... why did the fence become electrified at the end? it isn't part of a transformer.

Why did the weird apartment owner not die, and was covered in something that looked like blood?

Why were all the cops called into the morgue and then shown photos from previous murders?

Why in the name of God do people insist on casting really bad Cockney actors with dodgy mullets in anything?!?

Basement dud!

[mdnobles19 · 1/10 · 8 December 2009]

An moody but ultimately lousy slasher flick that had no story we've haven't seen before, very bad acting that will make you laugh and is one of the film's biggest problem and it also had a lame, pathetic killer that bored me to tears. This is kind of similar to the other direct to DVD slasher Frayed but no where near as entertaining and suspenseful as it and is very uninspired. I thought this had poor production values by the cheap effects and the unbelievable lightening and thunder storms and it wasn't smooth or solid about anything and to me it was a waste of money to make in the first place because at least Frayed had some terror in it and was fast paced, this one will slash you to sleep. Overall this is a waste of shelf space and is a not so bright slasher that wasn't slick, scary, suspenseful, entertaining or bloody inventive enough to be worth your time. Not Recommended!

Dismal

[pyrokenisis · 17 November 2009]

Let me start off by saying this movie is not the best movie out there by any means.

Its story is interesting at best and it really tries to make the killer have a personage and back story, so that you do not just see him as another murderer. On the other hand the actor playing Jack does a horrible job. To illustrate how horrible I thought his performance was, I will describe it this way: Every time I saw him on screen I wanted to gouge out my eyes with a spoon and jam chopsticks into my ears to pierce my brain so I would no longer have to see or hear anything he does ever again.If it were up to me I would run him out of town and never let him work again. Over the top? Maybe. You be the judge. It seems the only godsend of this movie was Michelle Morrow the actress playing Karen Cook. In my opinion, in these types of movies the killer should outperform the others in the sense of acting skills, but the exact opposite was the case. She was the star of the film hands down and the others are forgettable.

The only reason to see this movie is to get a chuckle out of the acting. It is a rent at best.

Basement Jack scared the daylights out of me

[intoflicks · 8/10 · 5 May 2008]

I caught the premiere of this film at the Fangoria Convention in Los Angeles and I'm glad I did. It was interesting how they got into the thoughts of the serial killer. This just wasn't a guy with a knife killing teens in the woods. Technically this indie movie was as good as any Hollywood film. The acting was okay. The actress that played the mother was really scary. There are some nice kills in the movie. The story had great twists on the usual slasher stuff and my friend kept quoting one line from the movie "Stabbing a person is just rude!" Basement Jack is definitely as cool as Jason, Michael and Freddy. I stayed for the Q & A afterwards, which I never do, and found the filmmakers were very friendly and informative. I hope this comes to DVD soon. All true horror fans will like Basement Jack.

Revenge themed slasher with some very strong elements

[scenewolf-582-947194 · 7/10 · 16 November 2009]

I watched Basement Jack on a friends recommendation and it has some classic shots from a director who is clearly influenced by western flicks. Combined with Alan Howarth's score, you've got a low budget movie that frequently outshines it's funding. I see a few reviews here panning the movie, and while it's not Gone with the Wind, the shot selection, score, and strong performances from star Michele Morrow as well as several supporting cast give a flawed script it's fair share of very satisfying moments.

Michele Morrow (hottie alert) turns out a visceral performance as outlaw/hero Karen Cook, and while i understand the many "Sarah Connor" comparisons, i sense more of Sigourney Weaver's "Ripley" in her smoldering delivery. Lynn Lowry delivers another chillingly unhinged performance and Nathan Bexton as the manager is extremely fun to watch.

I was a little surprised to learn "Basement Jack" is director Michael Shelton's first turn at the helm, as he's delivered a solid film from start to finish - looking forward to seeing what he does next.

Basement Jack...Michele Marrow....impressive!

[cotieagee · 9/10 · 21 November 2009]

I wasn't expecting much from a low-budget thriller but luckily I ignored my typical Hollywood brassiness and viewed the film with my husband.

I was jumped, laughed and gasped a few times (admittedly so at one of the topless scenes!) However, I was mostly interested in the lead character, which I later found out was Michele Marrow. I was really shocked I haven't seen her in more things and threw an elbow into my husbands ribs for that. Really looking forward to seeing this leading lady actually becoming a leading lady! Great film and refreshing to know that low-budget doesn't mean low-quality.

Acceptable teen slasher Horror Drama

[mrcibubur · 7/10 · 10 February 2010]

I saw this before GROWTH and enjoyed it infinitely more. There was much more of a story here and the horror was to a level that I was more or less expecting. it is not a great horror film but it is entertaining and works well and I like the ending, not disappointed at all.

Lots of blood and gore and you shouldn't have to wonder why this or that happened when it did, just enjoy the movie.

Again no star names and again it is a movie aimed at the teenage market. I am no teenager anymore but this is fine, though I am not sure what the bits are which were considered unsuitable for cinema release.

by comparison it is a poor mans WRONG TURN but don't worry about that.

When the girl was hitching a ride early on in the movie, I did wonder how the driver died (or was killed) by Basement Jack? Didn't figure that out.

Bound to be divided on this one but for a movie on a small budget it serves up well.

Better than average

[transcendingpictures · 7/10 · 26 April 2008]

"Basement Jack" does a commendable job in creating a stylistic and edgy look. This film was made on a very low-budget (less than the $500,000 stated) and it was shot on a very short shooting schedule. And it looks like it cost seven figures by exemplary work by the DP, director, editor and composer. They understand the genre and delivered strong elements to create suspense and gore. The script has its weaknesses and characters make classic cliché mistakes and deliver some weak dialogue but flaws aside, there's more to like than hate, I feel. There's competent and proficient work done in this picture, technically and cinematically. It will be a straight to DVD horror flick and that's what it intended to be. It's one of those movie where you get a sense it's made by a group of young, committed filmmakers who want to share their passion, have fun and make a decent piece of entertainment. I'd recommend you pick up the DVD if you like the horror genre. And this picture actually attempts to give their killer an empathetic backstory (which I think is a little heavy-handed and one-dimensional at times and it starts to slow the pace of the film) but it was a valiant effort to add dimension and theme to typically straight-forward storytelling on this level and in this genre.

Pedestrian slasher effort without too many surprises

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 7/10 · 20 August 2012]

When a serial killer starts up another murder spree after years of being inactive, a cop team ups with a woman who claims he's back to kill her after failing to do so during his first rampage to put an end to the new reign of terror.

A perfectly decent slasher, with a really unique set-up in which the killer targets a whole family during his rampage, then will pose them after death into mannequin-like displays allows for some extra carnage and gruesomeness, the kills are brutal and bloody, and the stalkings are really good, making it really serviceable in those areas as long as you ignore the killer's backstory, which nearly everyone of us will be able to guess in one or two tries, three at the most, as it pertains to the most utterly obvious scenario for creating a psycho and really just drags the film down with it's repetition and use, but it's still an above-average slasher anyway.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity and several sex scenes

Above Average Indie Film(light spoilers)

[julian-ferretti · 7/10 · 18 April 2012]

This movie is entertaining. It is not life changing or ground breaking by any means, but no slasher or horror movie has been since the original Halloween which set the mold for movies like this. The cast is decent. "Basement Jack", the villain is a standard slasher in that he is human with a tormented past but shows super human tolerance to attacks and of course death. Michele Morrow who plays main protagonist Karen Cook carries this film. She gives the most believable performance although the script and cast mates still make some scenes a bit rough around the edges. The ending that screams sequel is a little much considering this is an indie film with a very modest budget but it has become an industry standard so I give it a pass, every good monster/killer comes back. The use of CG in this movie makes a few moments in the film a little stale. One scene in particular where a blade goes through a wall that the protagonist is hiding behind is far too fake, even though Morrow sells the fear well. Overall, it is a well paced movie with a decent script, an above average cast, a great leading lady, but suffers from sub par effects which is to be expected from a low budget film. I give it a solid 7/10. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to any horror fan.