Jackals (I) (2017) User Reviews

A Manson Family Nightmare

[vacantskies00 · 6/10 · 23 November 2017]

Imagine your child has decided to identify with a cult. Not just any hippy, love is the answer, group of petal pushers. This one is calculated, large in numbers, and not prone to losing members.

The history of Jackals screenplay was written early in the torture porn industry created by Saw, Hostel, and Wolf Creek. Years later, the script was finally realized, ironically, by Saw editor and director Kevin Greutart. Let the games begin.

First of all, the Halloween influenced opening is solid and grabs you from the get go. Silent, yet violent and revealing. Soon after, an off-road kidnapping takes place; all the while mirroring a small family unit taking solace in a cabin.

Colliding head on, the plot takes shape. The kidnapping is that of said families estranged son/boyfriend/brother in an attempt to deprogram him from the cult he fell in to. Credit to Stephen Dorff as the military deprogrammer, getting lean and mean while still staying sympathetic to the family.

Soon, as expected, the cult come knocking at the door; wanting a sheep from their flock back home. Enter the home invasion aspect of the film. Outside, the cult wants their member back. Inside, the family refuses to give up their own.

Had this film been made when it was meant to be, it would have been released theatrically along side Saw IV and Hostel 2. Jackals does feel a bit dated, however, there is a lot of heart injected into each of the characters. Good and bad. So much so, that a sequel wouldn't be out of line. It's rare to find a DTV film that asks you: How far will you go to save a member of your family; even if it costs you the remainder of the rest of them.

I watched it for this?

[Patient444 · 4/10 · 3 September 2017]

I'm really sorry about Jackals but man what a letdown it turned out to be. I was hoping for something more like You're Next or The Void, but far from it. Typical The Strangers kind of movie, when you hope to see something good, some action, some natural decisions, instead, bore fest.

Can't believe it ended just like that, a conclusion that made the run time of the movie completely useless, with nothing to show whatsoever. Really little to offer and even less to make you feel about it, you get no sympathy for the characters, no desire to see what happens next, who's next, you're just in for the ride cause you pressed Play.

All in all, Jackals is definitely a No. Pass!

Cheers!

not scary at all but worth seeing for the effects here and there

[trashgang · 6/10 · 10 October 2017]

Kevin Greutert, the editor behind Saw (2004) and later directed two entries of that particular franchise is back with a new horror. Immediately you think this would or could be the next Saw but it isn't.

It stands on it's own, no open ending at all. The story is simple, save your child from a cult only to be terrorised from that cult to get the son back. Is it that bad as some might say. Well, it takes a while before things go wrong, to be exactly 38 minutes before the terror comes in and that's almost half the flick (10 minutes credits). Once the cult is back the attacks shown aren't that bad done anyway. There are even a few gory shots here and there but for me there wasn't anything scary at all or the cult even didn't frighten me. They do wear masks but they are just standing there and some do attack and kill or being killed and that's it.

I found Don't Breathe (2017) more scary and a pure horror for example. here it's also about home invasion but somehow it didn't work out to make it creepy at all. Still, for those who like torture and brutality it's worth picking up to see the nastiness of the torture or killings.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

Not terrible, but not at all memorable either

[horrorgasm · 2 September 2017]

Just another knockoff of The Strangers. In fact, this director worked on that movie, so I guess that's where he got the idea. The bad guys here have slightly more motive than in The Strangers, they're attacking this house to get one of their members back, but beyond that we know absolutely nothing about them or their motives, only that they're another group of mysterious masked people who like to arbitrarily torture and murder anyone in their way.

It's not a terrible movie, but it doesn't really do anything new or interesting either. It's watchable, but completely unmemorable. Don't expect any form of satisfaction from the ending either.

One more thing. Why did they bother to make this set in the early 80's? It seemed to have no bearing at all on the plot or characters and if it wasn't for the old style TV and picture of Ronald Reagan on a mantle that they show for a few seconds in the beginning, you'd never know this was supposed to be happening in the 80's. There's no 80's feel to anything in the movie. Somehow I suspect that they did this for the sole purpose of creating an excuse for no one to have a phone...

Jack all...

[bushtony · 3/10 · 6 September 2017]

Admittedly my expectations were low from the outset. Therefore, I was initially (the operative word here, alas) pleasantly surprised as the film capably and intriguingly set up its premise. Wayward son rescued from creepy mask-wearing death cult and taken to isolated family cabin in the woods for deprogramming by tough-talking ex-marine, divorced mum and dad, resentful older brother and girlfriend and baby daughter.

Carpenters "Assault On Precinct 13" springs to mind as the cultists lay siege to the homestead and the motley troupe prepare to fight back with limited resources. I mean, if you want a classy blueprint, they don't come much classier than the classics (Rio Bravo, Night of The Living Dead, Assault on Precinct 13, Straw Dogs, etc).

The set-up is a good one, the characters are portrayed by mediocre but to some extent competent actors, the script is a bit tawdry and clichéd, but what the hell, in the short term it looked primed to entertain. Until about twenty minutes in. Then it fell apart. It soon became transparently obvious where it was headed by signposting the foregone conclusion that our intrepid good guys were not going to win or put up much of a convincing fight. Why? Because there was no point, they were going to lose.

The ex-marine was mind-bendingly dumb and useless, walking straight into an obvious trap that stopped his clock, making him the first to fall. What a delight he must have been in a war-zone. The brainwashed son is portrayed as almost completely beyond redemption from the outset, a fact confirmed when he bites his brainless mother in the cranium, coming away with a snarling mouthful of wig. Everyone bickers and argues about what to do next, what course of action to take. This process burns up most of the running time and provides with only a sense that here is a bunch of delusional idiots who are doomed. The result is the nullification of any suspense or any feeling there may be a smart twist to the proceedings at some point.

Pop quiz. You're inside and a gang of homicidal cultists are outside wanting to get inside and slaughter you. Do you:

A. Run around outside in the dark woodland, blunder about looking for help that isn't there, try (and fail) to take them on single handed with a knife on a broom handle, wander up to them unarmed and snivelling just to make it easy for them, or B. All stay inside, batten down the hatches, arm your group as best as possible and get ready to kill the living bejeezus out of anyone who tries to get in

The hapless bunch make something of a half-hearted stab at plan B, but soon reach the conclusion that plan A is the way to go. And as the audience can see the train-track trajectory after the first twenty minutes – especially if they have the most meagre familiarity with the modern horror flick - what could have been a taut and chilling little repel-the-borders home invasion thriller disintegrates hopelessly into a by-the-numbers plod to an inevitable "evil triumphs" conclusion.

Some might argue that because I didn't get to see what I would have liked to see in the film I therefore didn't like the film. To some extent that is true. But it wasn't that the good guys lost as much as how they lost. They lost because the poorly conceived script made the characters dumb, mindless and irrational. If they'd gone down swinging and thinking, or thinking and swinging, then at least the outcome might have landed with some impact. As it is, what we got in the end, was jack all. Wasted potential is always a shame. This is no exception.

Unwatchable

[Garp53 · 2/10 · 1 September 2017]

I tuned into this movie well aware that it was a derivative, done-to-death "people under siege in a remote cabin" story, so my expectations were certainly not high at all, but jeez... There was not an original moment in the whole movie, the characters behaved as irrationally as a group of lobotomy patients and nothing about the plot makes even a wit of sense...You have been warned...

Pointless drivel. Spectacularly bad

[imdb2-5 · 2/10 · 3 September 2017]

It's difficult to make movies this terrible. This is one where you wonder how on earth this was made and does someone have pictures of Steven Dorff doing something very embarrassing? In short, the audience isn't told much about what is really going on because that would ruin any sense of understanding what is going on and why. There is a cult that wears masks when they want to feel scary and they are using knives to slice up people in an awkward "we're in a movie" sort of way. After an opening of senseless violence, you are taken to the cabin in the woods where you learn that a father has grabbed his son and his friend who apparently are now a part of a cult. Dorff plays the deprogrammer.

The acting is terrible. Dorff can't save the film and it's clear that they couldn't pay for him to be on screen very long. But not only is the acting terrible but the dialogue is laughably stilted and awkward. The longer it goes on the more you wonder why on earth you're watching because every character acts about as dumb as you'd expect in a bad B-horror movie.

And as was asked by the forgettable girl, why didn't this gang just break the windows and bull rush the cabin and kill all of them. Wouldn't be too difficult. But if they did, you would have all this scary imagery going on to prolong the movie for an interminable hour to create something that resembles The Void. "We must have all our cult people stand motionless in the dark with masks on to create a semblance of something scary that could only be explained by a movie director choreographing this charade." Even the scared family is trying to figure out what on earth the father is trying to do since even stupid people wouldn't act the way he is.

I actually haven't provided any spoilers. I'll just say that the movie deliberately doesn't provide you what you should know because it needs something to get you to watch until the end. Why? Who cares? This is not just bad. It's spectacularly bad.

If only it was made in 2006......People who r comparing it to The Strangers aint aware of the far superior French film Them aka Ils.

[Fella_shibby · 7/10 · 20 May 2018]

Saw this recently on a blu-ray. Had seen the trailer n the concept of cult group n the theme of home invasion piqued my interest. Of course Kevin Greutert's name was the other good factor. The guy being an editor himself knows how to control his film's pacing and how to build suspense. Most people r comparing it to The Strangers (2008) but if u read the trivia section, the script of this film was written in 2006. The other thing is Greutert was the editor for The Strangers but the real fact is The Strangers itself was a copy of the far superior French film Them aka Ils (2006). Coming back to this film, the director managed to start the film well with the initial home invasion murders a la Halloween style n then cut back to the van kidnapping scene n the cabin in the middle of nowhere. The settings n era were good too. The 80's era was obviously to show the lack of mobile phones n a reference to the Charles Manson cult group. The mask-wearing villains were creepy, Stephen Dorff's role was very small. I really wanted some showdown between him n the villains. Some viewers may complain that it would hav been better for the family to leave the cultist son but if u notice the start scene, the cultist person do come back to slaughter his family.

A disappointment after solid hype.

[jrervin-04054 · 3/10 · 4 September 2017]

Watched this after the movie was hyped a bit on a few online horror forums and ended up being fairly disappointed.

Admittedly, I'm not big on home invasion flicks as it is so take that into consideration.

There doesn't seem to be any reason for the 80s setting outside of an excuse not to have cellphones. The home, clothing and style could easily be modern. The only 80s style with the filming is the grain, and the story seems more late 90s-early 00s than anything.

The acting is pretty solid but the cult member brother goes a bit too far into the crazy scale and ends up coming off a bit silly.

The cult members that attack look cool, but seem a bit to similar to the You're Next and Strangers villains, and it was a little frustrating to not get any detail about the cult at all, making the story seem a bit, useless maybe? They're also given little to no personality. But that seems fine with the huge personalities of the family members.

The camera work on the beginning is really dark and shoddy, but the rest of the film is shot very well. The editing is good, but was this cut down significantly? With the lack of a good ending (the one present is really abrupt and does nothing for the story) and the weird edition of Matteo that's never really properly explained it seems like maybe this was chopped up a bit too much.

The effects were good, of simple and not super unique. I did like the burning hands.

Stephen Dorff was a nice surprise and I liked his character above the others, which turned out to be unfortunate. Props on getting him though.

All in all, it certainly isn't terrible it's just not really my speed, as it's more of an action over substance home invasion which isn't really my thing, as I said before.

Haunting *** Jackals Could Have Been a 10+

[littlebrownclown · 7/10 · 27 September 2018]

I love 80's movies. I like how the stories unfold, the characters are developed, and the endings are complete. Since Jackals was set in the 80's and had a great plotline, I wish they would have done a better job of filling in some of those blanks. I've seen movie quality decline so much over the years that it's a genuine shame to me when something could have been so very good with more storyline or character development. All the right ingredients are there, but there are too many chefs in the kitchen or the wrong one at the stove. Nowadays, plots that sound promising so often take wrong turns or hit dead ends...movies based on books are dumbed down to the lowest common audience denominator...and scenes are abruptly shortened that once would have been fully explored.

I get it. Time has moved on and people and their attention spans have changed. Just look at TV show theme songs, for example. There were some great theme songs for TV shows for years. The theme song was considered an important part of the show because it was recognizable, memorable, and created a sensory/auditory bond (similar to an aroma associated with a particular favorite food item). Theme songs were a little too long at times and they tended to be shortened across the life of a series, but they were also subconsciously comforting and engaging because you were readied for what came next. Now, you usually see the title of a show flashed on the screen with a couple of notes of music (if that). It's comical for the most part. Everybody's too busy to sit around waiting for theme songs to play and TV time costs too much and viewers might flip the channel during a song, of course. I say all this to sort of explain why Jackals both haunts and frustrates me.

I rented Jackals from Redbox and it sounded very interesting, not to mention the cover art was fascinatingly chilling. The movie has been described by many others here, so I don't need to dissect a play-by-play. I'll just say that the situations were believable, but the depths left unexplored left me longing for more. Maybe it was designed to do so, but I want a movie dinner, not a movie appetizer, when a movie has such promise.

It would have been so much more chilling and fulfilling to see some of the demise of the son after he joined the cult and pledged his allegiance to their sinister leader. HOW does someone go from being rebellious and miserable in life, but having a decent family, to joining forces with a murderous cult that personally slaughters their own loved ones? Imagination is a great device, but not if it's an unnecessary substitute for rich character or plot development.

Some have criticized the behavior of the family and, especially, the Marine deprogrammer because they were apparently not prepared for the savagery and lengths the cult would go to to retrieve their member, but who would have been back in the 80's?

I can even understand how the son was rabidly devoted to the cult for most of the movie because he'd have to be to stomach what they do. I think he cracked a bit when his parents went to save his brother one by one and he knew what his cult would do to them. I think he cracked after he saw the body of a cult member fall to the floor dead before him. I wish the cracking had included more emotion, instead of mostly words, excess blinking, and non-violent interaction, but that was probably a realistic version of how a person would act in real life. Telling his ex to take their daughter and run out the back during his few moments of clarity before he returned to the cult was about all he could do, short of running with them if he wasn't going to fight the cult or kill them as the cult would expect him to do. But, I still don't know WHY he made the choice he did. Did he want to flee with them in that moment, but he knew they would all be killed so he returned to the cult as a sacrifice hoping they wouldn't find his ex and daughter? Did he simply say a final goodbye to them hoping they would get away before returning to the cult? I don't think he set a trap for them, as some have said, because he wouldn't have let them get away to begin with.

And that is why the ending sucks. We knew there were cult members everywhere, so they would have been guarding the back. We knew it'd be iffy if his ex and daughter made it, but the Jackals might have been called off once he walked out of the cabin. When the Jackal shows up in the headlights behind her, is one of their own vehicles coming down the road? Or, do the headlights signal salvation in the form of a good Samaritan? Is the Jackal frozen because he's going to kill the driver and take the girl and her daughter in the next few moments or is the Jackal frozen because he's a few moments too late? Knowing what we do about the ferocity and relentlessness of the Jackals, though, there is not much hope that she and her daughter survived. Evil took everything with no remorse in the end. The son kissed the hand of and bowed down to the leader who authorized the torturous slaughter of his parents and brother...and, we realize there will never again be anyone on the face of the earth who loves him enough to try to save him. His fate is essentially sealed.

He cared enough not to kill his ex and their daughter, but not enough to save them or himself. She should have gotten away and lived to fight another day because the horrible implication (when you think it through based on the footage at the beginning) is that she and her daughter will be brought back to the son to be murdered by him. It will be his responsibility to seal his allegiance to the cult forever, as others had to seemingly do. The leader will demand that he has no safe haven to return to and no one else to care about in this world but them, especially after being taken.

With such a disturbing and horrific ending imagined to come, I NEEDED more development of the son. He was fascinating based on his convincing performance and the potential inherent in his character. Someone making the life choices he did before being put in such extreme circumstances and forced to choose between two universes would be very complex and fractured. I would have loved to see/understand more of that...which takes me back to wanting more development of his character pre-kidnapping. Was the only redeeming moment in all the horror his family experienced just the few minutes when he said goodbye to his ex and their daughter? Did everything in his heart and mind before and after those moments belong to the cult and everyone sacrificed themselves just for THAT? Would he really be able to live with that? Or, will he just sink back into the darkness with no regrets? Yes, this is a horror movie, but when you have great material, use it. People are not made of paper and images on a screen. People who join murderous cults, yet have families who love them, are fighting a battle of good vs. evil. This storyline was too real and too easy to try on for size for it to have such an abrupt and shockingly dark ending.

This gotta be some money laundry scheme... what else?

[tomasnovoselic · 1/10 · 4 September 2017]

I just saw this movie and I'm so upset about it that I had to create account just so I can write review. It is simple: "Do not watch". I can't remember that I ever saw movie so pointless, without any common sense. Characters are so lame that it makes you cheer for almost equally lame enemies. Movie tries to give you some kind of disturbing atmosphere, but only it does is that it annoys you. I don't blame actors, not even scenarist or director. I just blame producers. Whoever said "Let's film it" is either doing some kind of money laundry scheme or is just... well...I'll stop here, I don't have words polite enough.

Reading the negative and hateful reviews makes me wonder...

[keyshoust · 8/10 · 22 January 2019]

What kind of world we are living in. Are there that many stupid people? People with no sense of entertainment, or no real basic intelligence?

This was clearly an entertaining movie that captures you right from the beginning and holds on, throughout. It came on t.v. the other day and I sat and watched the whole thing, again (rented it on redbox the first time).

My only question is will they make a sequel, because I hope they do.

Who are these people who give such negative and misleading reviews to a good and entertaining movie. Are they just pure pseudo-intellectuals who have no common sense? Are they upside down people who don't even know who they are? lol. Seems like we are getting fuller and fuller of these kinds of people, and it's a real shame.

It's not perfect, but it is at least effective and a quick sit.

[johnplocar · 7/10 · 24 September 2017]

I've dig movies like this; a small group of people stuck in a location that fight for their lives against a cult/gang in order to make it through the night. It's a sub genre of thrillers and horror films that we don't get that often and it's a real shame; movies such as "Straw Dogs", "Assault on Precinct 13", and last year's "Green Room" are phenomenal examples of that specific type of movie I'm referring to. While this I wouldn't say is quite on par with the ones I just mentioned, I still found this to be a very intense ride.

Going into this movie, I had no idea as to where it was going or even what it was about. I knew the title and that it was some sort of horror film judging from its box cover. And truth be told, that is probably the best way to go into this movie, so if you are curious to check this out if you are in the mood for a terrifically suspenseful and somewhat gory thriller then skip this review now and go straight to it. I believe it is worth the watch, but if you'd like to hear some of my thoughts well...you're in luck because I don't feel like shutting up just yet.

A movie like this can run into major problems with the characters, particularly that they're just flat out unlikable. Fortunately the writer and director seem to know what they're doing and make sure that even when the characters are being assholes, they're still believable as to why they're doing what they're doing. Every character's motivation is clear and works well in order to create a tense atmosphere for their situation. The score and direction reminded somewhat of John Carpenter's early filmography, especially with its opening scene paying homage to Carpenter's "Halloween" and once the cult shows up in the film it is reminiscent of his film "Assault on Precinct 13" with how they're shot. Speaking of the cult, I did like that this movie captured them as an extremely imposing and intimidating force to be reckoned with. Also, because of this being the kind of movie that it is, it is relatively unpredictable as to how things are going to end, which I also liked about it.

I have issues, honestly some major ones at that. Such as some characters doing some really stupid things occasionally, yet at the same time I had to think about what I would do in the situation and if push came to shove I may have done similar things. Plus this is supposedly based on a true story, so for all I know all of this is completely accurate as to what actually happened. Although with how it ends, which is ridiculously abrupt, it makes me question as to how much of this is factual. Another problem I have with the last act is that a certain character is made out to have a "change of heart" about something that didn't make much sense, granted it turned out to have been a trick, but still the film seemed to be under the impression that I was suppose to buy into this notion. Yet nothing up to this point ever led me to believe that this character would have actually changed like that, which only resulted in making the remaining moments of the movie predictable and I had to wait for it to catch up with me. One last little tidbit, while I did like the opening sequence of the film, it was also pretty pointless; not connecting to really much of anything with the actual story. As though it were inserted at the beginning because the filmmakers needed something in order to get the audience on edge early, but had very little to bridge the gap to do so. Still a neat opening and does introduce the viewer to what they're in for, I just would have liked it to have been better connected to the main plot is all.

One last nitpick was that I had to constantly remind myself that this was taking place in the 1980s. Something about how a large sum of this film is shot and edited, how the characters look, how they're speaking for some reason never felt like I was watching something that was set in 1983. I can't quite put my finger on it. Even the locations that the movie used I sat and thought to myself, "Well I guess this could be taking place in the 80s, or the present". There wasn't anything that stood out to me as, "Yes, this is obviously in the 80s" and because of that I kept wondering "why aren't they just using their phones to call the cops or something?" but then I have to think about it for a moment and remember that this is supposed to be 1983. I don't know exactly what it was about this movie, but that was a problem I kept coming across throughout the run time. Granted, it is a really stupid nitpick that is only the result of the film's probable low budget, but it was still a slight distraction that I thought was worth mentioning.

Regardless of all the negatives listed, I still found this to be an intense slasher that is serviceable for a few scares if that's what you're looking for. It's nice to get a movie like this as apposed to the countless ghost/demon possession we seem to get all the time now. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty modern ghost/demon/possession films that are just fine if not truly great. But I just miss having a little more variety. As much as I love "The Conjuring", I wouldn't mind getting more like this one here. Especially in the theater, which is almost practically an extinct option currently. Anyways, give this a watch. I think it's worth your time if what I have said sounds appealing.

I actually liked this film.

[petecaster · 5/10 · 11 January 2019]

Everyone writing here calls this movie predictable. I on the other was convinced that rescue was imminent however the cavalry never came. Creepy, gore filled and all in all totally entertaining!

Family rescue son from PSYCHO CULT, Family were doomed from outset!!

[whitegandalf · 3/10 · 8 September 2017]

Starts off with some plausible story telling then goes down ill rather quickly.

The family hire a marine to rescue their boy from murderous cult. We are lead to believe from the marines tattoos that he may have has some prior affiliation with the cult, however he must have been a marine in teletubby LA LA LAND.. because the MARINE seems to have forgot all his basic combat training!

Dad and marine take CULT FOLLOWER to the cabin in the woods for de programming with the help of his family. With no plans for the future at all.

I'm no trained marine but even I know if you rescue a person from a cult they will try to get that person back.

Whilst Marine is rescuing the boy from the cult I'd have been back home making sure the cabin was fortified and there were weapons hidden around the outside ready to help later.

Also say let a family member know if you have not called an outside member of family by says 17:00hrs they automatically call police and tell them cult has invaded...

FILM LOST THE PLOT, how did they give the director money to make this......so may plot holes it GAPING GILL..

Rule one if you rescue some one from a cult don't take the said person to a cabin he new as a child.. you take him/her to some where neutral the person and family don't know that way the cult have no way of knowing from prior memories from the disciple where he would be going etc.

So why didn't the GI JOE have the cabin in the woods protected or have perimeter booby trapped for when the cult turned up. Not to mention wouldn't a GI JOE have other merc's/marines to watch his "SIX" to help him!

Then we have a family that have no form of common sense.. they kill cult intruders one by one and go out of their minds not knowing what to do and all they do is chat about giving the brother/son back to the cult.

Now if it was me they have three dead cult members/people in the house, work the maths out - they could have taken some clothes off the cult who were dead put their masks and walked out the front and back dressed as members of the cult.

Now I can guarantee that would not have only confused the CULT but would have got more people dead than the father going out to try and rescue his wife or son and resulting in father being stabbed to death.

other thing is they could have dressed one of the cult dead up in the lads clothing who they rescued. Then slashed the dead cults persons face slung him out side and burnt him in front of the cabin.

The cult for a few minutes would have thought the family had gone nuts and terminated the lad because the cult was hell bent on murder. That small window of opportunity might have been enough to have got to the FATHER of THE CULT/CULT LEADER and tried killing him before he worked his way through the family.

End out come with a murderous cult will always be all people DEAD no matter what so what do you do.. button down the hatches and wait for intrusion and kill the cluster one by one, or take things under control and work a plan that's just as gross and murderous as the cult would have done..

Like I said all a little lack lustre.... it loses depth and any thought of semblance as soon as they get to the cabin with a GI JOE Marine that has no back up plan when we all know Marines always have a back up.

I gave it 3 out of 10 and that was because I enjoyed the sound track which was the best part of the film.

I hope the director filled the lottery ticket in - he hoodwinked some one out of a lot of money to do this... lol

Jackassals

[smcastleton · 1/10 · 2 October 2017]

Ooooh scary... Unfortunately, this is the sort of juvenile tripe you get from certain indie film producers. Yes, you can say that it's just another fictional cult horror flick. But unlike most of it's genre, there is no justification in the end. It sends the message that evil can and will triumph. Which is disturbing and exactly what the producer wants to convey to bring in revenue from like-minded people. The fact that Kevin Greutert and his associates actually spent money to produce this horrid film, displays the kind of moral decay that is prevalent amongst some in todays society. And that is even more disturbing than the film itself.

So bad, I cant believe how BAD this is

[ljulien · 1/10 · 25 January 2018]

Long story short : -no scenario

• worst acting ever (you want to punch the face of the main character...)
• end is so bad that you want a payoff for wasting that much your time. Im serious, its just a bad climax of some home invasion, with no explanation at all...

The hunt is on

[zoiee · 7/10 · 21 August 2019]

Honestly I for one love cult / horror movies. Plots are usually similar but the execution and ending is key. Jackals ticked all the boxes for myself and my friends. We had a movie night and this was my contribution to the roll call. No one was disappointed. Our needs were met. The acting was great and the cinematography was well done. there were no black holes in the plot and it didn't leave you saying "was that it?". Not a cinema release, true. But on a dark night with the lights off this is one to enjoy. And to make it better...... Stephen Dorff. Enough said.

Lazy

[dwn-63584 · 4/10 · 12 January 2020]

Just pure and simple lazy writing. Movie had potential but it was obviously rushed in hopes that the creators would just hope that the movie watchers don't have a brain. And just go eww ahhh scaryyy.. lame!

I'm sorry but I just dig the hell out of this movie

[killercharm · 6/10 · 20 April 2020]

A cult demands the return of their member after his family kidnaps him. My only problem is that about halfway through the family should have cut their losses. The returns diminish ridiculously after that. However, it is a given that people act stupidly in a horror movie. If you can't get behind that most fundamental of horror movie tropes then don't bother. And voila, we have the scenario where I can dig the hell out of this movie even with that big of a beef. I love the evil that flourishes throughout the cult, down to the kidnapped son. I love the high tension all the way through. I do hate the women, especially the young mother but I think the writer has a bias there.

WOW! Just. Predictable.

[samcro69 · 3/10 · 2 December 2018]

The premise is good. Adds onto The Strangers. But unfortunately that's about as far as this film gets. By no means is it slow, before you know it you're already an hour and 15 minutes in and it's almost over. Problem is you've predicted every move and then BAM! It's over. I wouldn't buy this film. I wouldn't rent this film. But, if you've got 90 minutes and it comes on one of your premium cable channels by all means check it out.

really great movie

[ayesha_lea · 9/10 · 8 September 2022]

Just well made, somewhat predictable but thats to be expected after 98276363 horror movies haha. I was really surprised how good this was amongst the trash on shudder. The acting was realistic, the story relevant and fully possible. The loss of aelf to a cult is clearly shown in this movie in a believable way. Thanatos is amazing, his family did everything one would expect, although i would have maybe handed him over earlier as campbell wanted but no dount the outcome would not have been altered. I do think the families decision to take him to a well known family spot was probably a bit foolish, and hence made the ensuing eventa too easy for his new family. I guess without some lame decisions it would make the story just not workable. Love to see jackals 2 with his girlfriend and zoey signing up to be part of the cult. That would be cool.

Unexpected slasher!

[umunir-36959 · 7/10 · 22 September 2019]

I wasn't expecting too much from this. I kinda just had to watch it because I was bored and I had no other movie available to watch. But it got my full interest just after few minutes. The movie is short but full of supense, tension, fear and action. I loved strangers (2008) but hands down this movie beats that in terms of almost everything. This is the best you could do in this genre. The movie is quite emotional at occasions and even depressing. But definitely keeps your intention till the end. It has every flavour needed to make a good horror movie. And I have to say it's too underrated.

Pointless

[ShamisSabri · 2/10 · 29 September 2017]

I deserve a pat on my back - watched the entire movie in one go. Having said that, this is a seriously dumb movie.

It is a low budget cabin in the woods kind of a flick, but instead of supernatural antagonists, what we have here are a group of men dressed as jackals - and they have absolutely no motive, no background, no character, no nothing - they are just as meaningless as the movie.

The acting in the movie is okay, for a change, nothing amazing since the movie doesn't require anything amazing, but, it does seem like the cast can easily do better -> should be signing better movies.

The background, cinematography are amateurish (or worse). Screenplay is non-existent. Storyline is intermittent, meaningless, flawed and boring. Character building seems to have been an absolutely no-no, since, even if every single person on screen died a horrible death, it would have absolutely zero effect on the viewer.

2/10

What the f$$$ did I just watch?

[MrSelfPaid · 1/10 · 3 January 2018]

Where do I start? Frankly, I'm angry at myself for not reading reviews first before paying my money to go see this abomination. Have you ever seen a movie so bad that you thought you're being punked and at any moment someone's going to step from behind the screen and say: gotcha!! Well multiply that feeling by ten.

Ohh man, this film sucks. Holy sh*t it sucks so bad my cousin dozed off during the first ten minutes. I was like: let him sleep to avoid the torture I was going through.

The characters - I don't think you can call them that - are so naive, so one dimensional, so stupid, you'd wanna throw up when they speak.

The plot - if ever there was one - is so faulty, so bad, so bland, so utterly dumb that your IQ score will drop dramatically after seeing this film.

If you value your money, do not pay to see this insult to your intelligence.

Midway through the movie, I woke my cousin up, gave a big middle finger to the cinema screen, and went the f$%k home.

My cousin asked me what the movie was like. I replied: TORTURE.