Hazard Jack is one of the horror films I received for Christmas. It was originally released in May 2014, but seeing how a review for it hasn’t been posted as of today, I figured I’d give it a shot!
Hazard Jack is written and directed by David Worth (Shark Attack II & III) with Doug Vandegrift. Cast members include Amanda Maddox, Alison Lani, Kevin James Sporman, Macauley Gray, Jason O’neil Hudson, Aimee Bello, Shaun Hart, Josh Jacques, and Quincy Taylor as Hazard Jack.
In the film, “A group of college kids get together for a weekend of booze and war games at an abandoned hospital. The hospital has become the haven for a PTSD stricken war vet coping and acting upon his delusions. Who will survive the game?”
The ratings for Hazard Jack haven’t exactly been stellar, most that I’ve seen put it somewhere in the 3-5 out of 10 range. That, coupled with a lackluster trailer, had me somewhat convinced that this title was going to be just that…lackluster. Still, it was a Christmas gift, so even if it did suck it was still free! I am happy to say, however, that the film does have a decent amount of quality to it. I’m talking specifically about the production value right now. Despite Hazard Jack being an independent horror movie, it was shot well and didn’t look like a throw away project. I could tell that some amount of effort was put into making this title and the people on board behind the scenes really knew what they were doing. Basically, my expectations were proved wrong here, which is a good thing!
The other great thing about Hazard Jack is that the writers, directors, producers – everyone involved with the decision making process – knew what kind of film they had on their hands. It’s fun. It’s dark. It’s campy. It’s a little weird at times. Luckily, the heads of production understood they couldn’t go super serious with filming and showed that they knew what was best for this product and that shows, too. Marketing was a lot easier this way, I’m sure. You get what you expect with Hazard Jack. There isn’t a hidden agenda, or a movie that is trying to knock your socks off, or a movie that takes itself too seriously and becomes laughable. This is just a movie that wants to entertain you for an hour and twenty minutes and does so with a lot of throw away characters, lots of blood, and tons of attractive women in various forms of undress. It’s a typical slasher film and I know I had fun watching it.
The two biggest things I didn’t like about Hazard Jack are: his method of killing and the special effects. Hazard Jack is played by Quincy Taylor and he is one intimidating man! He’s tall, broody, and ripped with thick muscle. The perfect killer…if he used his brutality. I understand that his motive and presentation were molded to be an evil construction worker, but there was still room for more opportunity. He used a variety of construction and household tools to kill his victims, but I was hoping for something more along the lines of Friday the 13th or See No Evil brute strength to just smash the shit out of people. Very cool character otherwise. And the special effects, well, I’m trying to learn them myself so I don’t want to criticize them too bad…but the blood looked like red paint. And that’s no bueno.
Having worked on a couple b-movies and working for a website that specializes in independent horror, I’ve learned to rate a movie based on what I saw and not what I should have seen. Hazard Jack will not be anyone’s favorite movie anytime soon, but I do think it is deserving of at least one viewing. I think men between the ages of 18 and 28 will enjoy it the most based on the violence and never ending shots of boobs. This movie was pretty solid, although it lacked some elements, and I’m going to give it a 6.5 out of 10.
