I love the work of Edgar Allen Poe, as so do the majority of horror fans. Serial killers and their crimes are part of history and many of their gruesome crimes sometimes can be grounds for a good film if the story is told right. But let’s face the facts here: there have not been many good ones, and the majority are made independently with low budgets with poor acting and lacking in production value. JarRing falls into that category, unfortunately, and there is something about a serial killer that raps “Poe like” poetry to his next victims over the phone that does not quite work for me. The funny thing is that the victims call him first, and almost every day to hear his next rhyme.
The story is about a group of four friends who discover a phone number that every time they call it has a bizarre rhyme talking of death, murder and things that pertain to every day life. Each day, the foursome call the number to listen to the daily rhyme. However, when the two females of the group go missing, the two men go looking for them following leads that are linked to the bizarre calls. Meanwhile, a group of legal volunteers are trying to free a man on death row when it is discovered that the case is linked to a similar crime that he could not have committed. The two stories come to a connection at the conclusion of the film where the truth is revealed. A killer is involved and is interested in keeping his victims’ body parts in jars as symbol of his insanity.
While I respect the art of independent filmmaking, and have worked on a few independent films myself, I know that there is always a problem with getting the locations and putting a cast and crew together that are willing to work for little or no money. In order to make a good film, you need to have all your numbers in order and make sure your script is tight and your cast and crew are ready. Most of the time, this never happens, as is evident in this film. I picked up on plenty of errors in the script that pertain to the characters and the story. The story goes into ranting verbal fights between the two male characters in which they just bitch each other out or get into arguments with other characters over things that have nothing to do with the story. It seems that they are running around in circles when the story should be moving forward. The dialogue is one dimensional, and it is more than obvious that the actors are reading the script line for line rather than trying to make the words their own. This, in turn, affects the acting, and, to say the least, the acting in this film is just plain poor.
The film’s production values are an up and down roller coaster ride. There are jump shots that don’t match up, and a scene where subtitles are used over music when it could have been as simple as letting the characters say their lines. (Something tells me that the sound guy fucked up that day. Guess the filmmakers don’t know about ADR). There is also too much jumping around in the story, which kind of ruins the mood for the viewer. The editing is decent and the sound mix is not half bad. However, if this film is meant to be a horror film, there is not much that makes it seem like one. It lacks in not only suspense, but the film’s lack of effects and lackluster production values take away any reality that the film tries to muster up. On a positive note, the music is pretty good.
Overall, JarRing is a film that is all over the place. While it’s not that hard to figure out the concept behind the story, the way in which the filmmakers try to tell it makes very little sense. Having characters sitting around for a half hour trying to solve a riddle does not make for good entertainment. This is one that I can’t recommend.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
