After their bus crashes while on a field trip, a group of high school students—blonde bike Sommer (Hope Jaymes) and her deaf cousin Maya (Amber Zion), insensitive jock Steve (Tyler Wolfe), his brother Shawn (Jay Gillespie), token black guy Andre (Richardson Chery), token black guy number two Tyler (Jemal Draco), token tubby Harold (Christopher Raff), token Asian girl Trudy Yoo (Grace Jiyoung Park), token albino Brian (Andrew Olson), and tasty but troubled brunette Jesse (Alexandra Holder)—wander into a nearby carnival where they are hunted by an eyeless killer brandishing a pick-axe.Jack the Reaper definitely won't win any awards for originality: the whole film is extremely derivative, a supernatural teen slasher that culminates with an entirely predictable 'they were dead all along' plot-twist (which is blatantly signposted along the way: the teens are from Charon High School, their football team are The Ferriers, and the name of the road on which our characters meet their fate is Death's Door). The film is also unlikely to find much love from gore-hounds, the majority of its death scenes occurring off-screen.But as highly unoriginal and as bloodless as The Reaper undoubtedly is, I was rather surprised to find myself reasonably entertained for much of the time, thanks to its varied collection of well-developed teen characters (in the case of likable school slut Sommer, very well-developed!), a pointless but fun cameo from horror regular Tony Todd (who gets star billing), a suitably macabre setting, and a genuinely freaky killer. If only they had added some gore, some nudity, and found a less clichéd way to wrap matters up

I had wanted to see this since I first heard of it and was actually pleasantly surprised. I rented it, thinking it would be a terrible film that I could enjoy making fun of. And I was only partially correct. The acting was fantastic, but I was not impressed by the writing or directing. It wasn't really that bad, but there's something about it that I just couldn't stand. The ending was quite awful as well (I think that it should have just been a regular slasher, not some weird ending film where they were all dead to begin with). All in all, if you're looking for a way to kill a night with a killer-chasing-teens slasher movie, it's worth a watch.

It's interesting that this movie has such generally low numerical ratings here, but also several rave reviews. OK, given what a little-seen, low-budget effort it is, the rave reviews COULD have come from friends and family of the production itself (which was my initial suspicion), but having seen the movie, this phenomenon makes a little more sense now.There is indeed nothing particularly new here. I won't give the "surprise" ending away, but it's one horror-movie fans have seen A LOT of, from ever since a certain low-budget film was made in Kansas in the early 1960's. The story involves a group of disparate students who have to go on a bus tour of a railroad town with their teacher after they failed to turn in a paper (OK. . .). The students are the usual types--the obnoxious jock, the black best friend, the outcast, the slutty girl, the homely girl, the overweight kid--but right away there are some off-beat elements. The fat kid has a hilariously profane grandmother (a cameo by Sally Kirkland, who also produced the film), who tells him to take no sh*t from the popular kids as she drops him off. The homely girls seems to have a strange, perhaps incestuous, relationship with her father. The girlfriend of one of the jocks tells him she's pregnant right before he leaves. The slutty girl rather than being the stereotypical "high-school slut" is actually kind of a sweet, troubled girl who has been taken advantage of by the jocks at her school (maybe some shades of reality there). There are also TWO black guys, and, rounding out their numbers, a deaf girl.They stop at a visitor's center and meet curator Tony Todd who does his usual thing in an extended cameo and warns them of the legend of "Railroad Jack". Soon after they're involved in a bus crash and their teacher disappears. They take refuge in this this strange deserted carnival sideshow that is out in the middle of the desert for some reason where they are stalked by the creepy, eyeless "Railroad Jack". This is the other strength of the movie (besides the more interesting than usual teen characters),the deserted carnival is genuinely creepy. This is the rare modern-day horror film that actually relies on ATMOSPHERE as opposed to CGI gore and silicone breasts. True, some of the acting is awful (the performance of the actor playing the overweight kid is especially egregious). I never miss CGI effects, but a lack of female nudity can't really be considered an asset to a horror film either. But given there is only one particularly attractive girl here (Hope Jaymes, who plays the vulnerable slut) and she obviously has real breasts (only women with silicone breasts ever seem to do nude scenes in modern-day horror movies) the movie at least doesn't tease you with the promise there will be any.There is some ill-conceived narration at the beginning and the end, and the end doesn't entirely work. Still, I found this to be refreshingly old-fashioned and off-beat and interesting in places. It's much better than the numerical reviews would suggest if not quite deserving perhaps of some of the more hyperbolic raves. It's worth seeing anyway.

Jack the Reaper (2011) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1552423/?ref_=sr_1This low budget indie is about a group of teens that get stranded in the desert after a bus accident. As they all come to, they look out and see a carnival out in the middle of the desert. Once they start exploring the carnival, they come to find they are not alone. There were many creepy aspects to the film. I really liked the initial idea of being stranded and finding an empty, brightly lit, carnival. And the killer was actually really creepy looking, really awesome makeup. But there was really nothing new that you haven't already seen if you watch horror movies regularly. But it's not too shabby. It starts off slow, but it eventually gets going. There are a lot of silly parts that are in no way meant to be funny, for example, the black guy, Andre. When Andre is running from the killer, he acts like a spaz and its pretty hilarious. There is also a lot of unnecessary story detail regarding the characters that really should have been left out. At the end of the day, this movie isn't great, but its decent. Take it or leave it.Side Note: Characters who wear sunglasses in the night that aren't blind, should be killed first… ALWAYS!Please like me on Facebook! We love getting suggestions and warnings on everything horror: http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Heart-Horror/338327476286206