Basement Jack (2009) — Triskaidekafiles

BASEMENT JACK

WRITER: Brian Patrick O’Toole

DIRECTOR: Michael Shelton

STARRING: Eric Peter-Kaiser as Jack Riley
Sam Skoryna as Chris Watts
Michelle Morrow as Karen Cook
Lynn Lowry as Mrs. Riley
Joel Brooks as Officer Geoff Wytynek
Billy Morrison as Detective Michael Beck
Noel G as Detective Gene Andrews
M. Steven Felty as Chief Raymond Pignataro
Tiffany Shepis as Officer Lucille Armando
Nathan Bexton as The Manager

QUICK CUT: A woman wanders into a new town and reconnects with someone she knew in her youth.

THE MORGUE

Karen - A young, tough as nails woman who had some serious tragedy in her past. She now is seeking revenge and woe to anyone who gets in her way. Speaking of…

Chris - A rookie cop whose dad was also a cop and he is constantly living in the shadow of. He bends the rules more than he should to get the job done, and has good instincts.

Chief Pignataro - Chris’s boss, who gives him just enough rope to hang himself, but reigns him in when he goes too far. Abrasive and focused, running a tight ship as his city falls to chaos.

Jack Riley - A guy who’s mother abused him and subjected him to electroshock therapy to fix the problems she caused (or to take the blame for her own crimes) all of which damaged him and made him into a serial killer intent on slaughtering happy families. He was tried for his crimes years ago, but got off on reasons of insanity, and after a stay at an asylum, he was recently set free to resume his brand of chaos.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! This week, we are taking a look at the second movie in the Shoestring Slashers set, Basement Jack. Not much more to pitch this one, it's our usual lesser known odd little movie from the late 2000s, right in our wheelhouse. So let's get to this.

The movie opens up 11 years ago, which is almost 30 years ago, where Karen is busy getting screwed by her boyfriend in the backseat of his car. There's a news report on the radio about a serial killer who is going around murdering whole families, and his latest victims have just been found nearby.

Karen can see a pattern that the killer is getting closer to her hometown, and the mood is kinda busted. But for the boyfriend, he keeps trying and making inappropriate jokes. As one does when they are a horny teenager.

After a large tree branch jumpscares onto the roof of the car, they decide to head inside and do whatever.

When they get inside, the house is dark, no one is answering, and the boytoy assumes they've all just gone to bed.

But no, they're all just sitting in the dining room, in the dark, not moving or saying anything. The guy slips and when he gets up, he's soaked. In blood. I'm sure this is fine.

The killer, our titular Basement Jack, is lurking in the shadows, and we flashback briefly to see his mom tormenting him with a nine volt battery on his tongue. Do you want serial killers? Because this is how you get serial killers!

Before anyone realises he's there, Jack marks the boyfriend in a pretty visceral stabbing. Karen makes a run for it, and ends up in the basement, with Jack not far behind.

They get into a fight, and Karen holds her own, so that's a nice change of pace. She swings an axe right into an overhead tube filled with wiring, and sparks go flying. It's hard to tell exactly what happens, but somehow Jack is getting electrocuted, so I guess his abuse has an upside.

Fortunately, the police show up, but not before Jack gets in a good stab on Karen, and then he ends up getting shot for his naughtiness. Oh well, time to go home everyone!

We jump to the present day of 2009, where a young cop is out for his morning jog, and coming back 'round to the apartment complex he's staying at. He's greeted by the building manager and HOLY SHIT.

Yes, that is right, Basement Jack is actually a *sequel* to the movie I reviewed last year about the zombie rage hive mind space virus, Evilution. And it is once again set largely in the Necropolitan, and the Manager returns for another go at it as well. I was aware of this fact, because I actually saw this FIRST and then discovered Evilution existed, so naturally had to do that one too.

Chris heads to work, and gets immediately chewed out by the chief, because he didn't read a suspect their rights, and he's now going free. To which the chief follows up with "You're a good cop". We just established he's not one for rules! ...You know what, take that as you will.

Anyways, he gets a slap on the wrist, and told to from now on follow the letter of the law.

Meanwhile, Karen is strolling into town, having gone all Sarah Connor in T2 over the last decade, as she is hunting down Jack. Because of course he survived. She finds a van, hoping to get a ride, but the driver is dead with half his face ripped off.

Not one to look a gift car in the mouth, she drags the body off into the desert, and starts driving the rest of the way into town.

She eventually pulls off to the side of the road to sleep, which is when Officer Watts comes along, wanting to know if anything's wrong. She makes up a story, he's still suspicious, so he's got good instincts, but there's a problem down at the station, so he just lets her go for now.

Well, so much for "following the letter of the law" I guess. But what's the worst that could happen?

The issue back at the station is, they found the corpse Karen left behind, and since people in this movie aren't completely stupid, the chief suspects it's Basement Jack, following a string of murders. The cops get their marching orders, and everyone goes along their way.

Jack is already in town though, and has murdered his next family of victims. He's busily setting up his latest Norman Rockwell scene, when one of the neighbourhood kids come by. He sees what's going on, and runs upstairs to hide.

He tries to hide in the bathroom, but there's already a corpse taking up space. Jack busts in, and finishes off the intruder, then gets back to work.

That's when the father comes home, and we learn this is actually the family of one of the cops. If you're paying attention, it's hinted at earlier, but it's made perfectly clear as Jack kills the cop too.

Meanwhile, Karen has run into Watts again, and mentioned she's interested in Basement Jack's killing spree. She infodumps on him, mostly off camera, and we resume her story filling in some of the last ten or so years.

The call comes over the radio about the new murders, and Karen offers to drive the rookie to the crime scene. He doesn't WANT to, but she does make a strong case, what with her stolen car being right there. Again, so much for following the book to the letter.

Unfortunately, Karen is nosey and determined to get her revenge, so butts heads with the detectives on scene. Oh, and they realise her car is stolen, and she has a gun, so she's now suspect number one.

Back at the station, Watts is writing this up, and Karen is trying to convince him of her innocence. Of course, it all sounds coocoo bananas. Chris tosses out the idea that hey, if Jack wants her, why not tie her to a tree as bait. Well, joke's on you, because she's into that plan.

The chief realises she's better use to them than sitting in jail, so gives Chris the money to pay her bail, and to keep an eye on her while all hands are on deck for Jack.

Elsewhere, Jack is lurking in another basement, getting ready to kill another family, and then it's back to Chris's place at the Necropolitan. And we even get a callback to keeping the door locked.

The movie slows down a bit while everyone waits for a break in the case, and we get a few trauma flashbacks fleshing out Jack's backstory of abuse and electroshock therapy.

Watts takes Karen back to his place, and we get a reference to the smell of chlorine again, and a mention of there being "some big mess". Is that what we're calling the events of last year??

It’s actually kinda nice to see this place again?

It's not long before Watts gets the call about Jack's next pile of bodies, and Karen tries to tag along. But this time, he insists she stays put, and he'll fill her in later.

Surprise, she's about as good at following instructions as Chris is. These two were made for each other, I tell ya. She breaks out of Watts apartment, and heads to the crime scene alone.

Jack's hiding in yet another of his namesakes, and this time he comes across a gnarly looking knife that defies explanation for anyone to own.

Karen shows up, and being the Jack expert she is, picks the exact house he's hiding in, giving us a reprise of their opening fight.

She actually beats him down this time, and runs outside right into the waiting arms of the cops. While carrying a bloody weapon. I mean, I can't blame the cops for constantly arresting her. At least Chris reads the suspect her rights this time.

And of course, when they go inside, they find no body, as Jack has run off while they were busy outside. Before he left though, he took a broken doll face with him to craft a mask, because why not?

Everyone heads back to the police station with Karen in tow, and they hold her in interrogation. It's not long before Jack shows up to wreak some vengeance. Huh, tying her up and using her as bait WAS a good plan, after all. I mean, not for the cops, but in a general lure him in way.

Jack just...absolutely tears through the station, slicing heads off, stabbing any and everyone in his way. It's a spiritual predecessor to the police station slaughter in Malignant, but with no budget. And I mean that absolutely complimentary.

See, this is why we don't keep absolutely weird and inexplicable weapons in our basements.

Popping their heads off like dandelions.

Fortunately, the slaughter gets Chris to free Karen, and they run off to try and reach his apartment. But Jack gets in the way, and Karen runs off, at Chris's insistence, to get help back at his apartment.

Jack knocks out the cop, which is weird, since he's literally murdered every single other person to even slightly inconvenience him up to this point, but who am I to argue with plot armour?

Anyways, Jack swipes the guy's wallet to learn where he lives, and makes his way to the Necropolitan. Once there, he is confronted by the Manager, who gets stabbed in the gut. Well, that trick never works with him.

There's also a moment where the Manager recognises Jack, and as far as the movie is concerned, it's because he's all over the news. But it's also a nice nod, since Jack is played by the same actor who was Darren Hall in Evilution.

Of course, once Karen gets to Chris's apartment to call the chief, the phone is dead, and this was all a long walk to get us all back to the Necropolitan. It's a bit contrived, but hey, uses your star location.

This is made all the more frustrating as the chief finds Chris on the floor where we left him, and the chief was on his way anyways.

Karen makes her way to the roof, finds some electrical wires, and I am amused their fights have evolved from basements to the roof.

Are all these movies contractually obligated to end on the roof of the Necropolitan?

He of course isn't dead yet though, and he keeps chasing Karen. Fortunately, the cops have shown up, with tasers, and force him back against the electrified fence around the building's transformer.

Jack's vaunted high tolerance to high voltage only goes so far though, as the Manager reveals he's not really dead, and turns the power up to maximum. He’s kinda pissy about being stabbed, and that’s fair.

The EMTs show up and wheel Jack's corpse off, but as the movie ends, Karen and Chris come upon the ambulance with no Jack in sight, and another dead body or two.

Before the movie ends, we see the Manager collecting another trophy, Jack's badass weapon, and he hangs it on the wall as we ride off into the credits.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: This looks really good, but it should, being a fairly recent movie.

Audio: Sounds pretty good, and while the soundtrack is a bit repetitive, it works, and they make good use of thunder crashes.

Sound Bite: “Every town has an Oak Street." I don’t think that’s quite how that quote goes?

Body Count: Much like the other movie, this movie definitely delivers the dead bodies. I’m sure I missed a couple, especially with several scenes of bodies piled up and displayed.

1 - About four minutes in, and we find our first victims already dead, with Karen’s mom, dad, and brother. And her little dog, too.
2 - And then her boyfriend joins them when he gets stabbed in the back.
3 - Karen finds a dead body in a truck
4 - We see Jack setting up another body, that is revealed to be the cop's wife.
5 - Jack sets up the cop's youngest son with him next to a tv.
6 - A dead body is found in the shower
7 - And then a neighbour's kid is added to the corpse in the shower with a shower rod through the gut.
8 - And finally Officer Wytynek himself takes a knife to the face.
9 - Jack kills another woman
10 - And her boyfriend
11 - An electrician gets gutted by Jack
12 - Then he knifes the husband when he gets home
13 - Jack then guts the wife too.
14 - Jack's mother is dead in a flashback
15 and 16 - Jack slices through two cops' heads
17 - Another cop is sliced open
18 - Detective Andrews gets sliced up by Jack
19 - Beck gets run through by Jack
20 - Officer Armando gets sliced up next by Jack
21 - Jack makes his way to the Necropolitan and guts the Manager
22 - Jack gets electrocuted
23 - And yet he lives and kills an EMT

Best Corpse: I am spoiled for choice here, and give the award to that double slice through the cops heads. Holy potatoes.

Blood Type - B+: Lots of bodies, lots of blood, solid effects. I only take away a few points because a lot of the movie is in the dark, and you don’t quite see the blood as much as I’d like.

Sex Appeal: A few sex scenes that end badly, but I don’t think any actual nipples make the screen.

Drink Up! Every time someone breaks the law.

Movie Review: A lot of what I said about Evilution applies here. The movie has a lot of energy to it, and I love the creativity. There’s some similarities here to stuff like Shocker, but this is really its own thing, and there’s nothing quite like it. It is very well shot, and that massacre through the police station sticks with me. I liked revisiting this world, although again like my first review, I am still left with none of my questions raised by the first movie, answered. The Necropolitan just is, the Manager just is, and it feels like there is once again this larger story begging to be told. But I love this setting, and both movies set here have been very interesting, if low budget and kinda cheesy. I'd love to see more, and learn more about this world, or just see it again. However, it’s been almost 20 years since this movie was made, and that ship has probably long since sailed. If there is another chapter of the Necropolitan Chronicles, I am so there. Four out of five incredibly sharp arm blades.

Entertainment Value: The Manager is once again a delight. He always knows more than he’s letting on, he’s got his own dark story going on off camera, and the acting nails the charming, yet unsettling vibe he should have. There’s noone quite as bombastic as the first movie, but the cops an detectives constantly giving Watts a hard time is fun. I love Karen’s dogged determination, and having zero fucks to give, and even less patience for the local law enforcement. Three out of five doll masks.