See No Evil (DVD)
Steve Barton
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Starring Glen “Kane” Jacobs, Christina Vidal, Luke Pegler, Samantha Noble, Michael J. Pagan
Directed by Gregory Dark
Distributed by Lionsgate
OK, if you thought that this movie was going to suck from the second you heard about it, raise your hands now. Who cares if you’re at work, just do it! Ahuh! That’s what I figured. The majority of folks out there, myself included, were immediately dismissing this first WWE Films offering as a piece of cash-in shit. And why shouldn’t we? See No Evil had every opportunity to be a really bad movie. Let’s tally it up a bit, shall we?
Hot young cast? Check!
Music video director? Check!
Wrestler turned actor in his first role? Check!
Yep, all the pieces of the great Cinema Suck Puzzle™ were firmly in place. There was just one thing. One near seven-foot thing that kept the door of possibility open — Glen “Kane” Jacobs. This guy had other plans. Kane plays a great lunatic in the WWE, and to say he looks the part is an understatement. He went into this film to be scary. To be violent. He is the primary thing that keeps See No Evil from drowning in a sea of mediocrity.
Let’s start off with the basic story: A group of troubled youths are sent to an old hotel as part of a work program. Their job? Clean and refurbish! Their attitude? Shit! Luckily for us the dilapidated establishment’s sole occupant, Jacob Goodnight (Kane), doesn’t take kindly to strangers stomping around his backyard. One by one the kids are killed off in violent fashion.
Goodnight’s a true sicko. A savage mamma’s boy whose only instinct is to destroy what he believes to be sinful or evil. Yep, leave it to a crazy-ass mother to turn her otherwise normal young lad into a beast in the name of the lord. There is no compromising with Jacob. While he enjoys killing, he also enjoys taking souvenirs from his victims such as their eyes. Much to his delight one of the chaperones ushering the delinquents along is the very same cop that shot him in the head a few years prior. You can be sure that Goodnight has a special jar just waiting for the policeman’s peepers. Game on!
And what a brutal game it is. Let’s face it, no one is going to watch this in hopes of having a deep meaningful experience. We’re all here for one reason — to see people get fucked up. That’s where this movie delivers! The violence in See No Evil is kind of hard to describe. Although gore-hounds should be pleased, the film is not excessively bloody. At least it didn’t seem so to me. Maybe I’m jaded? Who knows? Anyway, while it may be a bit (a wee bit) light on the red stuff here and there, the true violence of the flick lies in the way that Goodnight manhandles his considerably smaller victims. You’ll find yourselves wincing on many an occasion as bodies are tossed around effortlessly with a heaping helping of malice. That’s what happens when normal folk try to tango with someone three times their size.
But what of this DVD’s supplemental side? Color me disappointed. This is a really mediocre package. We get two short featurettes, two kind of dry commentaries, some storyboard comparisons, and a trailer. The first featurette, a twelve-minute making-of entitled Do You See the Sin? gives us a quickie look at the sets and the special effects with some behind-the-scenes footage and interviews sprinkled into the mix. The second featurette, Kane: Journey into Darkness, is a collage of WWE clips chronicling Kane’s first appearance in the squared circle. At a runtime of just under four minutes, this barely scratches the surface of things. I guess everyone involved figured it was best to ignore Jacob’s Unibomb days and his brief stints as Isaac Yankem DDS and the fake Diesel?
More troubling are the two commentaries. One features director Gregory Dark along with writer Dan Madigan, and the other has Kane himself with his *ahem* tag-team partner, producer Jed Blaugrund. As previously stated, they’re each on the dry side with no one exhibiting much life. However, each of them mentions longer takes of some of the film’s violence. Where is this footage? Could we not have any deleted scenes? Could this not have been released in an unrated form? Hmmm. My double-dip gland is tingling. Something tells me we haven’t seen the last of Goodnight, and should he ever wreak more big screen havoc, it’s a pretty safe bet that another DVD edition will not be far behind.
See No Evil is not a great movie, but it is a surprisingly great time. If you were curious about it, fear not! It’s certainly worth a rental and even a buy for the slasher film enthusiasts out there. Horror has a new killer on the block, one that’s likely to be back sooner than you think. Welcome home, Kane. It’s good to have you.
Special Features
Audio commentary with director Gregory Dark and writer Dan Madigan
Audio commentary with star Glen “Kane” Jacobs and producer Jed Blaugrund
Do You See the Sin? featurette
Kane: Journey into Darkness making-of featurette
Storyboard-to-film comparison
Trailer gallery
4 out of 5
Special Features
2 1/2 out of 5
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