Basement Jack (2009) (USA)

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

A young serial killer has a thing for attacking families during lightning storms. Instead of just randomly popping up when the weather is right, he hides out in the family’s basement until everything is to his liking, brutally slaughtering and then placing the corpses in common family tableaus. In the many years he’s been succumbing to his sick mania, only one person has ever gotten away. That was eleven years ago and that person is Karen Cook. Jack was tried as a juvenile and eventually released thanks to a psychiatric defense. She is trying to do what she can to stop the mad man who was released a year ago. She’s been having difficulty getting anyone to listen. While Jack has been trying to catch up with the lovely lady that managed to escape his clutches and has been leaving a trail of dead families in every town she’s been passing through. Of course, with both of the folks looking to find each other, you’d think it would have happened by now. The old predator and prey will reunite amongst a fresh batch of victims as Jack makes his move and Karen finds help in the form of an incompetent police officer while his fellow officers think Karen may be the killer. One of those cops is Tiffany Shepis so she gets an automatic pass due to her being Tiffany Shepis. Another one of those law officers is Noel Gugliemi and it’s nice seeing him with hair. Flashbacks of his momma (Lynn fuckin’ Lowry) being an awful human with a penchant for electrical torture (Lightning is God’s way of exposing evil, don’t ya know) fill us in on how the monster was created. Its budget and amateur origins shine through but the cast is more than cannon fodder and the aspirations are admirable. It definitely wants to be something more than your standard stalk and slash and even pulls off some striking images and macabre bits without succumbing to that audience winking so many horror (especially slasher flicks) movies of the time resorted to. Jack makes for a somewhat imposing boogeyman who unfortunately resembles a disheveled Jared Leto in many scenes. Heavy handed messaging, an inability to excise some unnecessary bits and shaky performances cause some problems but that’s no surprise here, it’s still a refreshingly high-effort stab at a slasher film.