See Jane Run (2007)

Expected more

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Taking its title from the popular children's basils "Dick and Jane" is a clever little idea; the only problem is we never actually see Jane run. In fact, we don't see Jane do much of anything except whine, look mopey, and, overall, be a real party pooper.The plot of this film is about as clichéd as it gets in the slasher genre: a group of friends are traveling through the country, decide it is a good idea to pick up a hitchhiker, get lured into going to a barbecue restaurant (which is actually a house) and begin to get killed off one by one by the madman living there. Yes, sounds almost exactly like "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," doesn't it? Only one problem...this film isn't nowhere near as effective.First, Jane is supposed to be our heroine, yet she is extremely annoying, whining about anything and everything and is obviously suffering from some sort of social anxiety disorder that is never really explained. This makes it impossible to root for her or to really care what happens to her. Secondly, the friends are assured that the place they are being sent to is the "best barbecue restaurant in the state of Texas," yet when they pull up IT'S A FRICKIN HOUSE!! I mean, a real house in the middle of a suburban neighborhood! I don't know about you, but that would be my first clue that something is not right. I certainly wouldn't go to the door expecting to be served barbecue, but that is exactly what the four of them do. Even worse, it's actually a really nice house, taking away any hope of the setting providing creepy atmosphere. Run down crappy house in middle of nowhere=scary. Nice, new suburban house with awesome landscaping, cool backyard patio, and nice looking neighbors close by=not scary. Even worse yet, the killer is completely not intimidating or scary in the least. Think of Jerry Seinfeld as a serial killer. Nothing remotely scary about it, is there? He wears no mask, is not huge and stocky, and acts pretty normal (you know, despite the killing part). Again, like so many of these films, the ending is completely predictable once we establish that Jane is our heroine (as lousy of one as she is), though the last 20 minutes of the film consist of her being tied to a chair. Oh...she almost gets rescued by a jogger (yeah, when a passing jogger can here your victim tied to a chair in your garage, you know you haven't selected your location wisely).The positive thing about this film is that it is gorier than what I thought it would be. Not that I am a huge gorehound, but when pretty much everything else about the film sucks, it's a nice surprise. The blood flows here in gallons, and for being such a wussy looking killer, the guy actually is pretty brutal with his weapons.Overall, this film is a lame rip-off of "TCM" and countless other films that COULD have been creepy and effective, but the filmmakers seem hellbent on doing everything they could to make it NOT creepy and effective. Even "The Butcher," another recent DTV slasher film with a very similar plot was able to get the setting/atmosphere right. This was just a real let down.My Grade: D- (the death scenes keep it from being a complete failure)

...was that somehow this low-fi bit of exploitation made its way into my local library's system. Strictly a vanity project that only the movie makers' friends could ever love, "See Jane Run" is yet another example of why many young actors shouldn't get carried away with themselves, and how Joe "I've been in more movies than my brother, but he's done more TV" Estevez will take a paycheck any ol' day of the week.Yr humble writer is tempted to hyperbolic excess, but will do his best to refrain. "See Jane Run" begs for it, though, begs for it on hands and knees with its head stuck through a kitty door. You'll see what I mean if you actually make the mistake of killing 86 minutes and uncountable brain cells watching it. Like I said, vanity project."See Jane Run" is yet another one of those tyro efforts that springs half-twisted from a single scene (in this case, one between the lead nutjob and his prime victim), and proceeds to build its crippled self around that scene. Note to the producers/writer/director/actors: that's NOT how you make a worthwhile movie! "See Jane Run" is rife with sophomoric dialog, a half-baked, old-hat premise (suburban cannibalism), a plethora of "oh, c'mons!" and more unconvincing acting, photography, and direction than you can disguise with mediocre cgi fx, derivative gore set pieces, and poorly-mixed music. I'll grant that the thing looks somewhat better than its obviously minuscule budget allowed, but that's just damning with faint praise. You folks can do better, I'm sure of it, but first things first: WRITE A DECENT SCRIPT!! The rest of you reading this have been duly warned. Meanwhile, I'll be berating my local library for wasting public monies on this junk.

Hell no... I wonder what drives amateur film makers to make such senseless movies. Take it for granted... this movie is not gory, it has no suspense, it has one of the most boring main actors EVER and the plot seems written in 5 Minutes. What do you get.... 4 Kids are on a trip, 1 couple, 1 loser and 1 strange girl named Jane who seems to be on sleeping pills. At first the strange acting of her and the loser drives your attention to whats behind it... but there is nothing. After picking up a cool dude they end up in the house of a strange religious barbecue-freak who invites them... and come on, you know whats coming. 5 kids... strangers house, barbecue?!?!Until anything happens you have to sit through 50 minutes of nearly nothing happening, just to get some lame kills and a 15 Minute torture sequence. Even here Jane doesn't change her facial expression and her whole character and actions are neither explained nor make any sense in the end. And to give you the biggest letdown, Jane doesn't even run. The plot is ridiculous, making barely any sense in fusing loosely touching threads together to a big mess and the acting is awkward in the beginning and plain ridiculous in the torture sequences. Now if you watch movies for hot irons to the face, good ole cannibalism and a computer generated decapitation... watch this and fast forward in between the 3 "highlights". It really drives me nuts to see so much time being wasted by those involved and those watching on a script that could have been written by a retard with more logic to it. BAD! Especially because its trash that tries to be more and falls flat on its face. Introducing a main character like Jane without any hint of resolving makes me wants to slap those responsible for 90 minutes of my life being wasted.

This especially if you are an avid renter/buyer of independent horror films as I am. I'm in the production of said films so I am very much interested in what others are doing and as such, this film in no way is worth less than good marks on many levels. One person asked if some one could point out redeeming qualities on this film, to please do so, so I will do just that. It has what most people want in horror, a story, gory death scenes, good acting and misdirection. Not only that but great direction, photography and if I do say so myself, special effects. If you want to know about films with no redeeming quality whatsoever, email me and I'll point you in the right/wrong direction. If you like a horror film that was not thought out, doesn't require you to pay much attention to get what is going on or that doesn't show any graphic horror scenes(which is the case with about 99% of all independent horror films), then this one probably isn't for you. If you like being drawn into what you are watching and can comprehend a little more than a simple thought(which I think is about 99% of you out there:), you will enjoy this film.