A plumber with serious anger management issues fighting monsters -- with Robert Englund thrown in for good measure. That sounds like a pretty good formula for success. Unfortunately, Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer pretty much lays an egg. It's a movie without any soul and very little identity.

I hate to call it a horror comedy because it fails on both counts. Sure, there's gore aplenty, but it's all so over the top as to be more pitiful than anything else. On top of that, it sort of annoyed this devoted horror fan to hear the filmmakers say they chose this genre for their first feature film basically because there would be a ready market in place no matter how badly they might screw the whole thing up. In other words, they thought a horror film was much easier to make than, say, a drama. Oh, they also thought it would be a lot of fun to play around with all the special effects and makeup. Obviously, I have to question their commitment and level of respect for the genre I love most in the world. In fact, I would argue that the film actually ends up making a mockery of the entire horror genre. And comedy? Please. I don't remember even one remotely funny scene in the entire film. The whole thing's laughable, but it's not funny.

So just who is Jack Brooks? Well, he's a plumber, and he's taking a night school science class because his incredibly annoying girlfriend somehow talked him into it. Jack (Trevor Matthews) has some issues -- having watched his family slaughtered by a troll (yeah, you read that right: a troll) back when he was still a kid, he is prone to intense outbursts of anger (borne of his guilt over running for his life while his parents and sister were brutally killed). He's seeing a therapist, but let's just say that no personal breakthrough seems likely any time soon. As luck would have it, Jack's professor (Englund) is having some serious plumbing problems at his new home (a dilapidated old house he bought for a song because it's supposedly cursed). Jack accidentally awakens something evil there, and the next thing you know Professor Crowley begins turning into an evil, viciously aggressive Jabba the Hut. It looks like Jack is finally going to get a second chance to test the old flight or fight response.

I applaud the filmmakers for eschewing CGI for more traditional methods of monster creation, but I think they went way overboard with all the special effects. In the end, the monsters just look increasingly foolish. Heck, the whole movie looks increasingly foolish. Without the safety net of a decent, original script and/or a genuinely comedic presence, thing whole thing falls hard and fast right into the ground.

The DVD does at least come with some decent bonus material. There's a commentary featuring the filmmakers, a fairly lengthy "Behind the Scenes" feature, some 16 minutes of deleted scenes and several other goodies. To tell you the truth, I didn't care enough about the film to watch all of the special features, but those who actually enjoy this movie may well be interested in them.