Oh, Jacob's Ladder. Will your plot twist never stop being copied by half-witted and low-budget assbasket movies? I suppose it won't.
I mean, Jacob's Ladder was nothing special. It was interesting, though not intensely enjoyable, and the ending was intriguing, but I don't think that twist is worthy of being mimicked by so many films, particularly Soul Survivors, which went so far as to be packed with Jacob's Ladder in a DVD two-pack. That's balls right there.
In less balls-related fare, there's Reeker, an exceptionally badly-named and fairly incoherent low-budget horror film cut from that same old cloth, though with a decent production value for what it is. This is no Z-grade schlock. This is good old B-grade horror stuff, featuring a few name actors, like "My So-Called Life" alumnus Devon Gummersall and Eric Mabius.
The film often tries attempts at humor, but much like the film's attempts at horror, it falls flat. Oh, sure, it's got cute girls, snarky guys, and a creepy unseen thing that turns out to be rather odd-looking, but it's really a big shrug, as if the script was improvised throughout the film's making.
Writer/director Dave Payne, of the hit Addams Family Reunion fame, churns out muck in this tale of teens on the way to some stupid outdoor rave, passing through the desert with stolen drugs, and crossing into a zone without communication or life and facing the ghostly apparitions of lost beings. Of course, things go badly and they are hunted by a garbage disposal-bladed gas-masked cowboy that emits a hazy stench that causes people to pass out. There is much running, much hiding, and the slow careen toward the idiotic reveal that they've been dead the whole time and that the escape from Dusty McSmellBlade was actually their escape from death, the survivors barely remembering their harrowing journey, leaving them much luckier than the poor bastards forced to watch this.
Did I mention "spoilers"? Did you even care?
Payne's writing and direction is on par with your average Sci-Fi Channel-made films and is as mediocre as it comes. The effects are often inventive, but nothing tremendous. The acting is better than the film often deserves and I'm left feeling bad for the poor kids making this movie, as they could all do better. My only hope is that this experience leads them all to finding more and better work. And, hey, it's a check, I guess.
For a film at three in the morning, one could do worse than Reeker, though the same could be said of picking up a crackhead prostitute and no one would see it as a compliment.
