The lightweight horror flick "Jackals" wears its references on its sleeve. Red lettering on a black background announces the date as "March 24th, 1983," as the viewer is taken through a masked intruder's point-of-view shot as they enter a home to slash and strangle the family inside. Michael Myers, is that you? Nope, in a mirror shot we see that this masked killer wears a menacing long-eared bunny mask. But the allusion to John Carpenter's "Halloween" has been firmly imprinted on this fright fest, written by Jared Rivet, directed by "Saw VI" director Kevin Gruetert.
Though Carpenter's "Halloween" demonstrated brilliance in spare, yet scary storytelling, "Jackals" doesn't quite pull this tricky feat off. It feels skimpy and insufficient rather than taut and efficient. Though Gruetert lines up an interesting cast of '90s stars, and elicits some striking images, it's just not enough to sustain tension throughout.
The main plot is only loosely connected to the bloody opening salvo. A young man, Justin (Ben Sullivan), and a pal, are driving around town when they're suddenly beset by a van of violent kidnappers who trundle Justin off to a remote cabin. The kidnapper, Jimmy (Stephen Dorff), has been hired by Justin's father, Andrew (Johnathon Schaech), and Justin's family has assembled at the cabin for one dark intervention.
Jimmy is a cult deprogrammer and Justin happens to be a member of the bloodthirsty bunnies, the weapon-wielding masked force known as the Jackals. Andrew has brought his wife Kathy (Deborah Kara Unger), son Campbell (Nick Roux), and Justin's ex-girlfriend Samantha (Chelsea Ricketts) and new baby in the hopes of deprogramming all the murder stuff out of Justin's head.
Violence thuddingly, predictably ensues, during the psychological cat and mouse _ is Justin just playing them or is he in there? As the Jackals encroach on the cabin, the group starts to fall apart at the seams and become easy prey for the masked intruders. This cult's main belief tenants seem to be: cool masks, standing in formation, axes, and dismemberment.
There's so little put into the actual cult aspect of the murder cult, like: who, why and how? All we know is that Justin is raring to rejoin his friends, and his family would rather die than let him. Without any real emotional stakes or motivation, it's hard to hook into this story, which relies on violence and gore to push the envelope _ and there's not even enough of that to go around.
The performances err on the side of B-movie amateurishness and the writing is negligible. "Jackals" is a bit of style, almost no substance, and so scanty on the scares it's not worth the price of admission.
