“A bad movie about a prank turning bad.”
An ultimate prank goes ultimately awry and creepy in The Jokesters, an indie-horror film
directed by A.J. Wedding. Styled as found-footage, the movie transitions from a
Jackass-like comedy to a wedding
drama to a scare in the woods and finally to a bloody massacre.
The film opens with clips of some of the best pranks of
Internet sensation “Prank Masters,” a Youtube badass gang consisting of hunkie leader
Ethan (Dante Spencer), his meanie best friend Nick (Nathan Reid), Mexican-in-denial
Chris (Luis Jose Lopez) and always-on-the-yes Andrew (Gabriel Tigerman). Their glorious
days will soon end as Ethan announces his marriage to beautiful Gabrielle (Yen Jeager), leaving the group and the pranks behind.
The wedding day finally comes but the pranks continue
coming. Bringing their camera with him, Nick messes around with the guests. As the
best man, he even sabotages his speech for the newly-wed. But it does not end
there as he convinces Chris and Andrew to launch their greatest prank against
their friend.
Taking inspirations from The
Cabin in the Woods, the trio plans to bring nightmare to Ethan’s honeymoon.
They succeed but Ethan catches them in the act. Ethan retaliates and Nick finds
himself facing his own worst fears. Suddenly, Nick snaps and the prank turns
into a deadly chase in the woods.
The Jokesters has
both comedy and suspense, but never manages to blend them together. Considering
that its first half is the comic part, the film takes a long time to set up. So
much is shown about the wedding and their previous pranks, but there is not a
single clue as to the horror that will soon happen. So when it comes, it comes
at an uncomfortable surprise. Instead of being tense and suspenseful, the
honeymoon prank which started the fright turns out to be a bad humor. For a
movie which promises horror in its poster, it is very frustrating as the scary
part only comes at the movie’s final twenty minutes.
This sudden change in genre is also reflected in the characters.
It is very confusing as the characters change drastically. The forgiving Ethan
turns bitter, pissed-off Gabrielle to a mocker, and happy-go-lucky Nick to
villainous psychotic. Things are so sudden that it feels that a different story
has been connected to the original one. Thus, there has never been a good
marriage between comedy and horror, resulting to a very unconvincing story. The
after-credits revelation, which is actually major information, is badly placed and
feels unsure, just like an afterthought to make the film’s unsatisfying ending
realistic, if not solid.
In effect, the horror part in the film felt unnatural and
overacted. The dialogues and emotions are too forced, making the actors looked
like silly comedians by shifting from warm buddies to ill enemies. Nick’s
underlying jealousy to Ethan and secret love to Gabrielle have never been
hinted and his confession feels weird and bad.
The Jokesters is
quite ambitious in its effort to stand out among all other found-footage films.
Sadly, it fails as it never accomplished a credible and plausible mix of comedy
and horror. It is simply another forgettable film in the genre.
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