 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Jackals • Year: 2017 • Country: USA • Director: Kevin Greutert • Main cast: Stephen Dorff, Deborah Kara Unger, Johnathon Schaech • Runtime: 85 minutes • Production company: Tommy Alastra Productions (TAP) • TRAILER |
The first movie I saw at the 50th Edition of the Sitges Film Festival was already the kind of film that you expect to find in a festival of this matter. A short and effective, straight to the point, creepy film about a family trying to survive the attack of a horde of crazed sect members. The kind of satanic kind of biker kind of The Purge (2013) meets Donnie Darko (2001) masked sect members present an even more threatening presence with the fact that they always remain in the darkness and not a single word flows from any of those mysterious characters.
Because the director is well aware that a menacing mood and graphical darkness, together with a creepy soundtrack, are one of the keys to keeping the audience tense glued to their chair. That, together with a straightforward script penned by debutant Jared Rivet are some of the ingredients to add into the mixer if you want to develop an effective horror film. Aren’t they?
And the director Kevin Greutert knows that very well. He’s been in the horror business in several departments until he made the definitive step into direction. And he has been deeply involved in some of the most admired horror franchises of the new century, as is the Saw saga, being the editor for some of the films, starting with the first one Saw (2004) or even being director of the last 2 episodes to date Saw VI (2009) and Saw 3D: The Final Chapter (2010). He knows how to impress the audience, even if that audience has been sucking horror titles since our early age.
Perhaps there is nothing amazingly original in Jackals (2017). Perhaps the script is not the smartest of the season, and besides having two renamed actors like Stephen Dorff and Deborah Kara Unger, the acting performances are not the biggest hit of the movie. But everything works fine here. Because Jackals is a simple horror flick, with no huge pretensions, that only wants to entertain a bloodthirsty audience.and that is surely accomplished. It won’t be the best title of the festival, that is for sure, but a first-class festival like Sitges Film Festival needs to have titles like this in their lineup.
RATE: 6/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6104206
