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Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: January 26th, 2016.
Director: Rowdy Herrington
Cast: James Spader, Robert Picardo, Jim Haynie, Rod Loomis
Year: 1988
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The Movie:
Rowdy Herrington wrote and directed this 1988 film introduces us to John Wesford (James Spader), a man on the fast track to becoming a hot-shot doctor. Soon after we meet him, however, he finds his date murdered and then the L.A.P.D. find his corpse hanging from a noose. The cops figure it was a murder suicide but after some witnesses blab about what they saw that night, the cops turn their attention to John's twin brother, Rick (Spader again).
Shortly after John's death, Rick starts having strange visions relating to the murder. He doesn't want to go the cops, understandably, but he does team up with one of his late brother's co-workers, a lovely lady named Chris (Cynthia Gibb), to try and put the pieces of this puzzle back together. Was John, or is Rick, really trying to recreate the infamous Jack The Ripper murders a hundred years after they finally stopped or is there something else going on here…? Dr. Carlos Battera (Robert Picardo), a shrink with ties to the case, thinks he might be onto something here.
Stylish in a late eighties sort of way, Jack's Back is a reasonably suspenseful picture that doesn't have any trouble keeping our attention even if it does start to unravel a bit as it nears the big finish. The Jack The Ripper angle was used previously in Time After Time but Herrington takes Jack's Back in its own direction, this doesn't feel like it's borrowing from that other film. The kill scenes are bloody enough to appeal to horror fans and earn the picture a deserved R-rating but at the same time they never go so far over the top as to take things into exploitation territory. If the movie tends to play to clichés, it's the type of clichés that genre fans appreciate - stalk and slash sequences with ladies in various states of undress, shadowy figures skulking about in the dark - stuff like that.
The cast do good work here. Spader shines in an early role (and a double role at that), playing both parts with some enthusiasm and crafting a pair of interesting characters as he does so. He's charming and fun to watch, a good casting choice to be sure. Robert Picardo is also pretty good here as the psychiatrist involved in the case, while Cynthia Gibb is both super foxy and quite good in her part.
This is, when it gets right down to it, pretty entertaining stuff. Never truly scary but at least fairly suspenseful, nicely shot and well acted.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Jack's Back hits Blu-ray from Shout! Factory framed at 1.85.1 widescreen in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer taken from the film's original negative. Some of the darker scenes are a little bit noisy looking but aside from that minor quibble, this is a really solid picture. Detail is very strong (comparatively speaking, this was shot soft), colors are nicely reproduced and quite accurate looking and black levels are nice and solid. Grain is present as it should be but there's virtually no real print damage here, just some occasional tiny white specks now and again. Compression artifacts are never a problem and the image is free of any obvious noise reduction or edge enhancement.
The only audio option for the feature is an English language DTS-HD 2.0 Mono track. This isn't the fanciest mix on the planet but it works just fine. Dialogue is properly balanced and easy to follow and there are no problems with any hiss or distortion. Optional subtitles are provided for the feature in English only.
The main extra on the disc is an audio commentary with writer/director Rowdy Herrington that does a pretty great job of filling in the background details on the making of this picture. Harrington tells some interesting stories about how he got his start in the film business, where some of the ideas for the story in this film came from, his thoughts on the cast and crew that he worked with and specifically what it was like working with a young James Spader. The track is well paced and generally speaking a pretty interesting listen.
In The Making Of Jack's Back we get interviews with Herrington, Producer Tim Moore, actress Cynthia Gibb, and director of Photography Shelly Johnson. This covers some of the same ground as the commentary but the involvement of those not on the track allows the twenty-four minute piece to provide some additional perspective on the making of the film.
Outside of that we get the film's theatrical trailer, static menus and chapter selection. As this is a combo pack release, a DVD version of the movie with identical extras is included inside the Blu-ray case.
The Final Word:
Jack's Back loses a bit of steam toward the finale but Spader is really good in the dual role and the supporting cast also do fine work here. If the film isn't a forgotten classic it is a very fine suspense picture worth checking out and Shout! Factory's Blu-ray presents it in excellent shape with some solid extra features as well.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
