Jack in the Box (IV) User Reviews

It's your special day

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 18 January 2018]

This is a simple low budget "10 Little Indian" type film...actually 7 Indians. A group of people go to a basement where they are locked in and play musical chairs to the tune of "Pop Goes The Weasel." And the loser "goes away." I believe you get a quick glimpse of the person on the cover. The person conducting the game is introduced in the beginning with no further explanation. The film has a "twist" or the mystery of Nathaniel, which you should be able to pick up once the first clue is dropped.

This isn't the best film in the genre. Special effects consist of turning out the lights. The acting was decent. The dialogue was passing, but not exceptional. A movie you can watch once and enjoy, but wouldn't watch again...i.e. rental.

Parental Guide: No sex or nudity. I don't recall an F-bombs.

Failure in study of mental breakdown

[dental_care · 3/10 · 7 March 2011]

It's OK to not afford experienced actors when working minimal budgets. However, it's not OK to skip the effort in producing a script which takes a story beyond the cafeteria-napkin-brainstorming stage.

The story focus seems to be centered around watching the mental breakdown of these poor folks just waiting around to be brought to slaughter. That's not a particular good focus if you don't have the acting resources or the script to make it believable.

No unveiling of the antagonist, no message, no moral, no background to the motives, not even sexually explicit (which some flicks of this type uses to cover up the script). Not even a good old twist, even though an attempt is made.

In some sense there's a simple purity to it which not necessarily is a bad thing if carried out right. This is not it.

3/10 purely for the ending shot. 10 seconds which actually creeped me out.

A New Twist on an Old Game

[caligari12 · 8/10 · 2 January 2012]

Saw this movie via an online film festival (where it later won top prize) came to IMDb to learn more and was surprised to read the previous review.

While I agree "Jack in the Box" was likely shot on a very thin budget, I disagree with most everything else. I may be old-school when it comes to horror, but I actually appreciated the simplicity of the concept and its clever execution. No unveiling, no message, no moral? Fine with me. Given the setup (to say more would spoil it) I preferred not having all the answers wrapped with a tidy bow. And what true horror buff goes looking for messages and morals anyway? It's worth noting that if you're a fan of splatter, this is not the film for you-- its interest trends toward the psychological rather than blood and gore.

I've seen lots of horror flicks over the years and while "Jack in the Box" may not make the list of the truly great ones, I certainly can appreciate what these filmmakers and actors attempted, and for-the-most-part accomplished, in one small space in a very short time.

this was a waste of time

[trashgang · 1/10 · 9 January 2012]

I found this flick under the file, Horror Collection, one that won a lot of prices on horror fests. Can someone explain me why this is classified under horror? There is nothing in this flick, just a scary clock on the wall. The killings are all off screen, you even doesn't see the victims. There isn't even some red stuff in it. And come on, when one of the guys is asking to take shirts of to see if anyone is wired one of the girls doesn't were a bra and takes of her shirt but nothing is shown. If you tease us with nudity then show it.

It is also easily to see that it was a low budget, only a few actors and one place were it was filmed. I would rather call it a psychological suspense flick in stead of horror. Everything you can see coming from miles away. I haven't seen any flicks by this director/writer Frank Kerr but I never will again. Even the characters I couldn't care about. And the end you think, well now it all be revealed, although you know from the first minute what's going on, it isn't. The end was so predictable.

I will give credit to the actors because for some it was there first time but this isn't horror at all. And don't get me wrong, I have said it a thousand times and will say it again, Halloween and Texas Chainsaw didn't had one drip of blood but they worked, you know what I mean? But at the end of the day, pop goes the weasel, nah, pop goes this DVD straight in the box, never to rise again.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Story 1/5 Effects 0/5 Comedy 0/5

Mediocre

[utamas · 4/10 · 30 July 2017]

The film is about 6 young adults, who find themselves in a concrete room deep underground with a shady looking fellow who tells them that they have to play a game of musical chairs in order to stay alive for "the next day".

My first big problem with the movie is that it does basically nothing with its plot. With that first paragraph right there I pretty much said all you have to know to know what this film is gonna be. After the first 20 minutes I said that this movie might be even good. But after that, when basically nothing happens other than some of the people get killed, who you can't really care about because they have no character at all, you start to feel a little bored.

The killings are pretty mild, you see pretty much nothing at all, they basically just walk out of a door or disappear in the darkness, which wouldn't be a problem if this movie had any atmosphere, but it doesn't.

At no point in the movie do they try to explain why the people we see were chosen, who is the killer and why does he kill. Or, excuse me, they try, but fail miserably. The no bra girl (yes, that's how dull the characters are, you don't even remember their name) tries to find some connection between themselves, but it doesn't really make any sense. We see a scene in the beginning of the movie where a malformed child receives a jack in the box from his mother (which is pretty much the only connection with the title), but that part is left unexplained as well. I suppose that the kid was the killer, there are some clues in the movie that suggest that, but they never make it clear.

**********************This is where the BIG SPOILERS are****************

The ending is probably the worst part. The bra girl comes up with a plan to lure out the killer when the next round ends and the other girl knocks him out with a shovel they had found. But then when the killer comes she can't light the matches so the other one gets killed which results her getting some sort of a "mental breakdown". It is obvious that the writers intended this part to be dramatic and sad, but it ends up being funny in a not very good way.

In the end, in a very dramatic scene the silent guy "sacrifices" himself for the bra girl so she could live. Again, not very moving, but it gets brownie points for trying.

And then the last scene of the film, one year later, another six people are in the chamber, and what do you know, the girl is the seventh. Never would have guessed that.

So, as final thoughts, if you wanna see a B horror film with a semi- decent idea and very poor execution, watch this. Otherwise watch something else. It isn't horrible though, you can watch it once and get some enjoyment out of it, it is just that its so mediocrely bad, that it is just not worth your time.

Decent idea, poor execution

[arfdawg-1 · 3/10 · 24 January 2014]

Find a chair and you can stay, But if you don't you'll go away.

The last survives another day... Pop Goes the Weasel.

Welcome to Junior's world where six invited guests, trapped in a room, play a deadly game of musical chairs for their lives.

Every ten minutes "Pop Goes the Weasel" signals the start of another round, and the horrific end of another player. Sit you live, stand you die- this is Junior's simple, twisted rule.

Seven begin the game, only one will end it. Who will it be? Grab a chair and find out. Very poorly acted movie that is very derivative and implausible. Think about it: there's a guy in the room with you killing people. Why not attack him? There are more of you than he. And if he got in, there must be a way out.

It's very slow moving as well and talkie which is a problem when the acting is so bad. In better hands, this could have been a good movie, but it needed someone who could think it through better.