Basement Jack (2008) Starring Eric Peter-Kaiser, Michele Morrow, Sam Skoryna Directed by Michael Shelton Written by Brian Patrick O'Toole

All I knew about the film before seeing it was that it was about a serial killer who went on rampages during lightening storms. What I found when watching it was a well crafted, artfully filmed descent into the depraved mind of a monster.

There are many varieties of horror movies. Teenage slasher, mutant family rampage, vampire family reunion, haunted house from hell… Basically if you can have a nightmare about it, you can see it in a movie.

But there is one category that has not seen extensive playtime. The serial killer. Don’t even offer me the suggestion that Jason or Freddie count because while they certainly rack up the body, they fall more along the lines of horror fantasy than anything resembling reality.

Basement Jack could and very well might exist in our world today. While he still maintains a degree of the superhuman, he bleeds, he hurts and hopefully he can die.

We’ve seen suspense movies with that theme and certainly mystery but horror movies tend to focus on the uniquely insane and outrageous, aka Jason who can defy nuclear powered missiles and still live to tell.

Basement Jack is about a serial killer whose art and craft consists of carving up human flesh like Play-Doh. The film becomes an unrelenting stare down with his madness. You could say the star of the movie, rather than the plucky almost left for dead heroine or rookie cop out to prove his worth, is Basement Jack himself. Jack Riley, the boy who was turned from golden haired child to black hearted monster.

The opening scene of the movie is beautifully filmed in the dark of night, where two teenagers do the naked boogie in a parked car while searing flashes of white hot lightening provide an eerie backdrop. They are interrupted, ala urban mythology, by a radio report of the gruesome discovery of several mutilated bodies in a nearby town. I could not help but feel that this scene, along with several others, is subtle homage’s to recurring themes in horror movies. Including one related to Psycho, and the Shining. It’s clear that the writer is a long time fan and devotee to the horror film.

Karen Cook (Michele Morrow) insists her boyfriend take her to her front door which lies just a few yards distant. When the two enter her home they find the lights don’t work and the entire family is sitting in the dark, in the living room. Needless to say, the cut throats and severed limbs are a dead giveaway that something is amiss.

The killer, Jack Riley (Eric Peter-Kaiser) lurks in the background while Karen attempts to revive her one still barely alive relative but his frantic eye movements towards the looming killer fail to save her boyfriend who is immediately stabbed. Karen manages to make it to the basement where she hides while Jack hunts for her. At last till they face off and for once, we have a non-shrieking-fall-to-the-floor-I-sprained-my-ankle-heroine who actually gets a few good whacks in on Jack. She manages to escape from jack into the waiting safety of the police who have finally arrived.

When next we meet Karen, she is a drifter, traveling the road and taking what she needs, including the vehicle of a murdered man who is most likely another hapless victim of Basement Jack. I liked the grittiness and pragmatism of her character, a far cry from the usual weak, helpless gore-queens of most horror movies. When she reaches the small mid-western town where Officer Chris Watts (Sam Skoryna) is struggling to overcome his rookie bumbling and where Basement Jack has already made his first appearance, she faces the demon she has come so far to find. She must convince Watts just who has arrived in his town and how they have to stop him. His initial skepticism over the revelation that Jack is a serial killer that follows the weather, lightening storms are his trigger to kill, and that he lives in the homes of his victims for weeks(hence his moniker of “Basement” Jack) before slashing them to pieces then posing the bodies like mannequins is quickly overcome as more bodies turn up. The two race to stop Jack even as he sinks deeper into the bloodlust that is conjured up with every stroke of lightening that splits the sky open.

What made this movie stand out from amongst the pile of standard horror films were the layers of creativity and craft that went into it. The colors of the film are slightly washed out almost like a documentary lending an air of grittiness. The soundtrack is minimal and supplemented effectively with commonplace noises. A coffee pot dripping, the squeak of a chair, even the drip of water off pipes all serve to heighten tension and move a scene to a terrifying conclusion. Ever present throughout the movie there is lightening, but never rain. Rain brings salvation, like tears for grief or fear but lightening only increases fear, and enhances tension. We are all waiting for the rain like Jack waits for his mothers love. A salvation that will never come.

When I said that Basement Jack is the real star I meant it. Jack is the storm at the end of the lightening, his rage the thunder that rains down death and destruction on families that have a happiness he has never known. It is his flashbacks to a psychotic mother, played brilliantly by Lynn Lowry, who tortured him with various forms of electricity, that we see the depth of a soul depraved beyond recognition. I will never hear the phrase “Mama loves you with a cuddle and a kiss” again without shuddering.

The protagonists are important and we certainly root for their triumph, but Jack is the more compelling character. It’s not that you feel sympathy for him in his present state, but the writing moves you to understand what turned him from an innocent child pleading for his mothers love to the twisted madman who slaughters without remorse.

What was also impressive is how many people die without screaming. No histrionics and in several cases, you don’t even see the murder, simply the aftermath. There is blood aplenty though, displayed in pools, streams and plenty of spurting blood vessels but the real gore is saved for the last scene, which was a nice change. We are usually inundated with hyper gore from start to finish and that just doesn’t work for me in a movie that has a story to tell, even if it’s a villain’s tale.

There are some shots in this movie that were downright chilling, including one with Jack in a china dolls mask that will haunt me for a long time. I also loved the character of the apartment manager, played so well by Nathan Bexton, who is just a bizarre addition and since I have not seen the rest of the trilogy, I can’t comment further on. Let’s just say, he provides some colorful background along with some great lines, in addition to inexplicably surviving a gut slashing by Basement Jack. I’m still wondering about him answering the door covered in blood and talking to what looked like a bloody ear but since this was never explained, I will have to wait for the answer whenever I get to see the rest of the trilogy.

I confess I wasn’t half as interested in the heroine or hero of this flick as much as seeing what lay within the darkness of Jacks’ soul but I suspect that was the whole point. There are standard suspensions of disbelief that slightly scarred the veneer of edginess but they were no more or less than any other horror film necessity. The shots, especially of the murders, are artfully framed and if the dialogue is a bit weak in places, it is more than made up for with the great photography, monstrously well-played killer and unique story. This is a film that’s vivid and disturbing images remain in my head and most likely, my nightmares.

I can still see the lightening and wonder what that noise was in the basement. Fortunately for me, I think I will get my 9mm and forget about donning the long white dress, stiletto heels and stupid curiosity. Oh yeah, and he’s not dead till I’ve put more than one bullet in his head.