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
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