The benign work of Latin American director Joe Castro, perhaps the only one in his filmography that can be seen not only by audiences from a niche audience. This film is no thrash, but rather an avant-garde thriller with dramatic elements, depicting the joyless life of a drug addict with the experience of Jack. Under the influence of drugs, he gradually turns into an antisocial personality, and all his aspirations are to get another dose. The script of the film, authored by the experienced Daniel Benton, who worked a lot on television, is distinguished by a non-linear narrative. It seems to be unfolding into the past and the future, beginning with the first murder committed by a distraught Jack. In the past, we've seen Jack still sane. The death of his friend from drugs did not stop Jack at all, but it was the friend who became the dark side of the hero’s consciousness, pushing him to violence.
If it were only a drama about the life of drug addicts, Castro’s low-budget work (it is quite shameful to show it at any secondary film festival, since for semi-amateur cinema it is quite a professional picture), of course, would lose to such films as “On the Needle” and “Requiem for a Dream”. But Castro’s film is still a thriller, and therefore there will be hallucinations of the hero, performed with the help of quite decent animation, unpleasant physiological changes (by naturalism, Joe Castro’s film is far ahead of Requiem for a Dream) and, of course, the murders committed by Jack during one day in a warehouse where he used to work as a watchman. And its victims are people who came to the warehouse on this day for various reasons.
Despite the lure of the slasher, Jack Hammer is not a slasher, since all murders are shown quite everyday, and the viewer, of course, will not ask stupid questions about the motives, because crimes committed by drug addicts are not uncommon in any country. Unconventional murder weapon - jackhammer - perhaps the only thing that brings "Jack Hammer" with slashers. The fact that the film is not loved by horror is quite understandable, since it is not a horror movie. At the same time, this is the only film from the director who has seen, which does not give the impression of amateur.
My teacher in the history of art landscape artist V.V. Barybin once said that if the artist painted one good picture, then, then, he was not in vain engaged in art. “Jack the Hammer” is perhaps the only film of the director, which has a realistic action, a relevant plot and makes an unconditional contribution to anti-drug propaganda. It is a pity that Castro made a very bad horror film After Death, and in the future he was distinguished only by the low quality of his works.
If you are carrying a low-budget avant-garde movie, then Jack Hammer may well appeal to you. Don’t expect too much from him, but in all Castro’s filmography, this is the only objectively good film that shows how slowly, under the influence of drugs, a person goes crazy and turns into a dangerous madman who can no longer discern reality. He is frightened by the fact that this may well be and, unfortunately, sometimes happens.
7 out of 10