Michael Ledo
The film opens with narration about Jack the Reaper. Apparently RR accidents have their own special reaper. A group of high school kids on a field trip encounter a bus accident at a RR crossing. There is a nearby carnival where they go for help, but end up playing games as the carnival is deserted. Jack shows up and the carnage begins. The "twist" we already have figured out. Tony Todd has a minor role.This slasher doesn't bring anything new to the table. Harold's grandmother was a hoot, but outside of that, the character were simply okay with jocks, a fat kid, a picked on albino, an oriental girl, a blond floozy with her deaf-mute cousin, plus a girl with daddy issues. There are too many characters to develop them all, so we are given quick intros as they load the bus.It is a so-so slasher with the mute girl screaming when she gets hit with a pick.Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity. It appeared on TV as a Movie Channel extra.
Alejo Gonzalez
You know you're in for a cinematic marvel when the intro scene displaying the production company literally has a man crapping on the floor. That's how you know you're in for a treat! This movie is a mess of clichés and foreshadowing, all leading up to a twist ending that anyone could see coming from a mile away. We see all these bland characters introduce themselves and allude to their personal lives (which ultimately leads to nothing, so having these scenes is completely worthless) before getting on a bus and going to a railroad station. The bus crashes, and the students find themselves just outside of a carnival--how convenient.For a long while after the cast finds themselves in this abandoned carnival, nothing happens except dickheads being dickheads. The only thing remotely suspenseful was the first "death" that literally happens off screen, and it's only at around the 50 minute mark when the killer finally shows up, and it turns into a murder spree that leaves very little time between deaths to even build suspense. Either that, or you just don't care much at that point.I won't even bother spoiling the twist, as it can be inferred as soon as you piece what little you can together, and the ending leaves much to be desired and many questions that need to be answered.The only thing I can praise is Tony Todd, the same guy who played Candyman and the mortician from the Final Destination franchise. He delivers a decent performance, but he only has about 5 minutes of screen time, so you may as well flip to another movie as soon as his scene ends.
GL84
After getting involved in a bus crash on the way home from a field trip, a group of teens find themselves stuck at a haunted amusement park with a deranged, mystical killer killing them off one-by-one and forcing them to find an obscure method of survival.This turned out to be quite a fun and enjoyable slasher that features a lot of really exciting features. One of the better elements here is the fact that this one manages to get a lot of mileage out of the creepy amusement park setting with the nightmarish scenario of only being exposed to a few select parts of the park and no matter what continually returning to the same area over and over again, all of which just makes this seem more like a dream than anything but frankly adds to a chilling vibe that washes over this section of the film. That this is where the film pretty much starts offing the characters one-by-one in rather gruesome detail is where it starts getting really good, with a lot of rather fun and exciting elements coming into play due to that with a lot of pretty chilling stalking scenes, some decent escape attempts and a series of pretty violent deaths all brought upon due to the killer's use of a pick-axe as the weapon of choice here. It adds up, along with the rather demented killer and innate sense of hopelessness to turn into a rather fine slasher more often than not. While those are the good elements, it still suffers from some pretty big flaws, including the fact that this one tends to employ the exact same gimmick as several other films do right down to the very same mode of killing done here, which is a major plot-point but is nonetheless taken from another film series entirely and rather the back-story of the killer's identity is changed around. That tends to make it feel like a rip-off more so than as an original feature, which wouldn't be as bad if the low-budget origins weren't at play. Being so cheap means that the look of this is very cramped and confined, there's not a lot of big, extended sequences and the make-up effects don't always come off as good as they should. All-in-all, though, this one seems to have more going for it than not.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and hints of child abuse.
the_wolf_imdb
Jack the Reaper is very simple, almost minimalistic teenage horror / slasher. The exposition is somewhat long, but overall it is very good flick.Expect no complexity - just eery atmosphere of deserted carnival in the middle of the desert. The simple pure decadence of the place is definitely worth watching, especially if you do love ghost town stories or Wild West horror stories. The only lighted place in totally dark desert, scary, chilling, "behind the line". It was both beautiful and freaky. I loved the setting, seriously I loved that! Surprisingly enough there are even some lovely details that might be easily overlooked. Remember that little girl at the museum that looks at the photograph and said "I have seen that man"? Remember that they say "you are dead if the Jack has eyes on you"? And have you noticed that the policewoman told "This is the second crash this night?" Lovely, isn't it? The plot is not that revolutionary but it is acceptable and surprising enough as well - and the Jack is seriously scary. The special effects are very good for such minimalistic concept and the gore is enough to grab a beer and just enjoy the evening. I would definitely recommend that - it is not revolutionary, but very classic in the best sense of the word!