Jackhammer (2004)

Director:

Joe Castro

Writers:

Daniel Benton (writer)
Joe Castro (writer)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Self destruction is only the beginning

Plot Keywords:

Nudity | Death | Punk | Drugs | Methamphetamine

Cast

Aaron Gaffey	...	Jack
Kyle Yaskin	...	Mike
Nadia Angelini	...	Sam
Trudy Kofahl	...	Tori
Jill Moore	...	Bobbie
Bart Burson	...	Zach
Evan Owen	...	Brian
Desi O'Brian	...	Nelson
Christopher Michaels	...	Roger
John Sarley	...	Darren
Joe Haggerty	...	Borris
Scott St. James	...	Taylor
Staas Yudenko	...	Vic
Rob Rotten	...	Max
Rachel Rotten	...	Veronica

Also Known As:

The Jackhammer Massacre (USA) (alternative title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence/gore, drug use, language and sexual content.

Runtime:

USA:89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

USA:R | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (Ontario) | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Slaughterhouse Cinema

Goofy spectacle that is worth a look

"The Jackhammer Massacre"

Jack is a yuppie with a secure job and a penchant for occasional heavy drugfests with his best buddy. When his friend overdoses, Jack flees the scene and leaves him to die, not wanting to get caught with illegal substances. Unable to live with the guilt, Jack becomes a full-time junkie. He loses his professional job, garbage picks for food, and starts sporting a nasty infection (read: gigantic puss-filled growth) on his arm. As he downward spirals, he begins to hear the voice of his dead best friend, telling him to...well...murder people with a jackhammer!

This B-grade movie is pretty bad and starts out really slow. After the first few sequences, it starts showing an offbeat charm and the rest proves to be entertaining. The gore is more amusing than realistic, and it is nasty to watch Jack poke at his "infection" with a cotton swab and watch it ooze grossness. The hallucination scenes are twisted. If you have a fear of needles, or a fear of someone lurching at you and stabbing you with a syringe filled with an unknown substance, then that is the only real scare factor in "The Jackhammer Massacre."

The acting is below average but you can't help but laugh at the curious casting choices. All the members of the male cast look like gay porn stars and at some point all (10 or so) of them find it appropriate to take their shirts off and show their waxed, ripped torsos. It is hilarious and rather bizarre, as this movie is marketed as a straightforward slasher. A guy ODs, he takes his shirt off. A guy gets drenched in blood, he removes several layers until his chest is bare. Every single male cast member has his moment where he gets to remove his shirt. I found these inexplicable topless scenes highly amusing, as they reminded me how ridiculous it is when female characters randomly strip for no reason in genre movies. Jack also seems to have a fondness for stripping his male victims down to their undies for no apparent reason. And it is hard to ignore the sexual innuendo of Jack's Hammer--often murdering his victims by forcing his tool through their mouths. Is Jack repressing his sexuality? Does the voice of his dead (shirtless) friend represent more than what it seems? If the director is intending homoerotic undertones, he doesn't bother to clarify why, and it doesn't really matter because this movie is just a goofy spectacle.

For a movie that is basically saying "drugs are bad and will ruin your life," this doesn't take itself too seriously, so it is easy to laugh at its ridiculousness and be grossed out. And isn't that what B-horror movies are supposed to be about? Bonus points for featuring two characters that just so happen to be lesbians.

My Rating: 5.5/10