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Reviewed by:
Ian Jane on October 9, 2007.

The debut horror film from upstart film company JenKev Productions is See Jane Run, a film that wears its influences plainly on its sleeve. The basic premise – and it is basic – is that four young people decide to take a road trip through Texas for a romantic getaway in the lovely town of Brownsville. Of course, along the way they run into trouble, pick up a hitchhiker, and finally wind up having to deal with a maniacal killer with a penchant for torture.

Sound familiar? It should, because See Jane Run borrows very, very heavily from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and doesn’t really do much to differentiate itself from other TCM knock offs resulting in a film that simply doesn’t stand out. That’s not to say that the picture isn’t reasonably amusing – Sasha Andreev does a fine job of playing the killer and goes over the top with the kind of malicious glee that gives a good movie villain some serious screen presence – it’s just that it’s hard to care. Joe Estevez, is a an interesting old coot but again, we don’t care about him, so why should we be emotionally involved in their plight? The characters that we’re supposed to root for are simply shallow versions of characters we’ve seen before, the titular Jane bearing a very painfully obvious resemblance to Marilyn Burns as Sally in Tobe Hooper’s classic.

What works about the film? Well, aside from Andreev’s turn as the heavy, the gore is not only plentiful but fairly well executed. A few scenes show the film’s low budget roots but for the most part the scenes of torture and cannibalism are unpleasant enough to get under your skin just a little bit and the majority of the effects (none of which are CGI except for the opening murder set piece) are realistic enough that we can suspend our disbelief. The film also does a pretty decent job of taking advantage of the baked and worn looking Texas landscape, at least during the opening scenes. We can believe that strange people might live in the area, as it just looks desolate and a little uninhabitable. Sadly, once the film moves to what looks like suburban Austin, some of the charm does get lost.

Sadly, gratuitous gore and decent splatter effects aren’t enough to save the film when we don’t care about the characters and when we know where the film is going. Yes, the grue is a little unnerving but it lacks real substance. Had it gone a little further in its attempts to shock we might have at least had something visceral and nasty on our hands to appreciate on that level, but as bloody as the picture is the impact just never hits. Adding to this is the fact that it’s hard to sympathize with the characters when they stop just short of bringing it upon themselves. The film is set in modern times – do people really stop to pick up semi-deranged looking hitchhikers in this day and age? Is it a good idea to trust the crazy mechanic? If your friend and traveling companion mysteriously disappeared, wouldn’t you maybe think something was up? The characters here just don’t think, they commit the same easy mistakes that every other horror movie victim committed in the seventies and eighties stalk and slash boom.

Director Ryan Webb shows some talent and the film isn’t a complete waste of time thanks to a few inspired moments and some sincerely impressive cinematography but it’s a shame that more effort wasn’t put into crafting something more interesting than what is essentially a rehash of something that was done very well the first time.

Far from an undiscovered classic, See Jane Run has a few moments that might make it worth a look for fans of low budget horror. The film borrows heavily from what came before but some of the gore scenes redeem the picture if that’s your thing and you don't need character development to compliment it. The DVD looks fine but the extras are mediocre at best.

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Jennifer Clary, Joe Estevez, Sasha Andreev, John Rodriguez, Kevin Harberer, Jeremy Steel