The film, Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer opens at the Laemmle Sunset 5 in Los Angeles on Friday, August 15. The premise of the campy, "Indiana Jones" meets "Van Helsing" film takes our angry hero back in time as a young boy, Jack Brooks, who witnesses his parents brutally murdered by monsters.
Robert Englund - Freddy VS. Jason Movie Premiere - Cineramadome at the Arclight Theatre - Hollywood, CA, USA © Lee Roth / RothStock / PR Photos
Now attending night school, Brooks, the prickly plumber by day has an annoying girlfriend and balances his life by attempting therapy sessions with a bemused therapist, which accomplishes absolutely nothing.
Beast who ate Jack Brooks' family
Enter professor Crowley, played by iconic horror actor Robert Englund, who snags a deal of a house.
Unfortunately his new run-down abode has spiritual baggage, the bad kind. He accidentally stumbles into a cursed black heart, becomes possessed, and begins to transform into a hideous monster.
Following its North American premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival, the film became an official selection at festivals as Montreal's Fantasia Film Fest, the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival, the Brussels Festival of Fantastic Film, the NatFilm Film Festival, the San Sebastian Horror Film Festival, the Kingston Canadian Film Festival and the Stockholm Film Festival.
Recently, the film was named winner of the Carnet Jove Jury Award ("Midnight X-Treme") at the prestigious Sitges-Catalonian International Film Festival, and a Gold Medal for Excellence in Film Music for composer Ryan Shore. It also won the Audience Award from the Calgary Underground Film Festival.
The film was a huge success at this year's Comic-Con International 2008.
If you loved the HBO series "Tales from the Crypt," you will dig "Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer," a deliberately cheesy homage to the swaggering masculine heroes of horror. The film is directed by Jon Knautz, a Canadian director who took a tiny budget and constructed a great cast headed by Trevor Matthews as our orphaned monster slayer, Jack Brooks.
Englund as Prof. Crowley
The movie's psychiatrist, played by Daniel Kash, arches his eyebrows and entertains the ranting patient Jack who he has to calm down, which of course never happens.
Robert Englund, (Freddy Krueger of the Nightmare on Elm Street series), plays Crowley, the mild-mannered affable professor who relishes his metamorphosis as he goes from swell academic to black-eyed beastie in the course of the film.
He steals the show.
Another older actor, David Fox, brilliantly plays the hardware store Howard, nodding off, then coming too at the register warning Jack to stay clear of the Crowley homestead, "You don't want to go messin' around up there, nossir."
Robert Englund in Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
Knautz and co-screenwriter John Ainslie give the script the right blend of effervescent comedy and horror in their affectionate subversion of the classic horror genre, fusing the scary and ridiculous effects that are clearly meant to shock with laughter than absolute gore realism that fills the "Hostels" and the "Hills Have Eyes" films of today.
Robert Englund unquestionably dominates this movie, and holds his own with a brilliant Border Collie and a cast of kids who star in a film that was a genuinely fun summer horror film.
Monsters and Critics had a moment with Robert Englund regarding his role in "Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer." They say never act with children or dogs, and you had many scenes with that precocious Border Collie. How did that go? R. Englund: I've had experience acting with animals and children before. I worked with a dog on my short-lived TV series "Downtown" and with children in "Nightmares 5 and 7." Also an albino python in "Nightmare 7."
I think my border collie behaved so well in "Jack Brooks" because he knew if he didn't I would eat him.Your character Professor Crowley took quite a beating in scenes, you were slammed into doors, dragged across floors, smashed into chalkboards and tripping on tool boxes, did any of these stunts you performed leave a mark? R. Englund: I'm still nursing bruises from "Freddy vs. Jason."This film hearkens the spirit of the original "Tales from the Crypt" HBO series. Did that blend of light and dark that allowed you to really show off your comedic timing skills appeal to you when you got the script? R. Englund: Yes. The script had a great, retro home-made "Evil Dead" sensibility that inspired me.
Robert Englund as Freddy in Freddy vs. Jason. 29 June 2003 Photo by James Dittiger - © 2003 New Line Productions.
People have no idea how grueling prosthetic makeup is for an actor - and you had your share during the possession of the poor Professor. Talk about the process, how long it took, how you may have wanted to throttle makeup effects master Allan Cooke and Kevin Carter, who stuck those black contact lenses into your eyes. R. Englund: Truth be told the make-up for "Jack Brooks" was a cake walk. After the make-ups for Stephen King's "Mangler" and "Phantom of the Opera", as well as countless FX make-ups as Freddy Krueger; Professor Crowley's goat bladders and contact lenses were relatively easy.
Let's talk about the burping and bodily gas noises for a second. How much of that did you do in ADR, and how much of the belching was you making the noises yourself on cue? R. Englund: I think I laid down a burp and fart reel in Toronto. Available soon on eBay.
Your character taught chemistry, was that a subject you enjoyed yourself in school, assuming you might have taken it? R. Englund: I transferred from Chemistry to Physiology in my junior year of high school.The trend of extreme gore and ultra-realistic maiming and torture scenes in horror these days has a lot of people worried it is killing the genre. What are your feelings about this, given your performances were scary but always done with a touch of humor to ease the worst of it?
Humor in horror has been around since early Sam Raimi and Wes Craven films. Laughs relieve accumulating tension thereby setting the audience up to be scared again.
Robert Englund with Roxy Saint in Zombie Strippers! Photo date: 4 April 2008
What was your favorite scene in Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer ?R. Englund: One that didn't make the final cut. It took place on the porch of Professor Crowley's house with Jack and the Professor after Jack fixes his plumbing. I was fatherly towards Jack.
I feel the downbeat scene helped set up the chaos to come.What are your top five favorite horror genre films of all time? R. Englund: George Pal's "The Time Machine," "The Innocents", "Rosemary's Baby," John Carpenter's "The Thing", Guillermo del Toro's "The Devil's Backbone."
What are your favorite top five comedies of all time?
R. Englund: "His Girl Friday", "Young Frankenstein", "Annie Hall", "Groundhog Day" and "Planes, Trains and Automobiles."
Robert Englund in Masters of Horror episode "Dance of The Dead." Photo by David Gray
Visit the movie database for more information on Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
Your Talkback on this Story