Microbudget filmmakers deserve our sincerest respect. Only a group of people so enamored of the genre, so desperate to make that indescribable connection to the work, could ever manage to get their projects from dream to reality. The men and women of the zero budget scene are nothing if not tenacious, often times blinded by the singular vision needed to get a movie made that no one believes will ever make a dollar. Every once in a while one of these lucky buggers manages to see the golden calf of real distribution waiting at rainbows end. The studios that give these mavericks that shot are surly to be commended for reaching out to the field and recognizing that not every filmmaker has to have name actors and a big time budget to affect entertainment. Now, take a moment – breathe – focus on those thoughts and energies because everything I just said was wholly designed to prepare you for my next statement…Mr. Jingles, as a concept and as an execution is an atrocious display of amateur filmmaking at it’s very worst.

Mr. Jingles (and I was seriously hoping for a Willard-esque tale of that strange zombie mouse from The Green Mile, perhaps in Shocker like fashion) was originally optioned by Lionsgate and prepped as a sequel to the even worse film - S.I.C.K. – which Lionsgate inherited when they took over the Artisan catalogue. Any of you who gave away part of your soul and a frighteningly large number of brain cells to the team that brought you S.I.C.K. would have known better than to set your blind eyes on a sequel to that rotting corpse of a flick. But, cooler heads prevailed (it would seem) and so Mr. Jingles made it’s way to video shelves, sans the crippling moniker of 2 S.I.C.K.

Regardless of the name change this film almost lives up, or down, to the expectations set by its “in name only” predecessor. Although they ultimately have nothing to do with one another, it is easy to see how the films could be comparatively associated. Both are shot on video and feature what could only be described as rudimentary acting. In each case, the character of the overweight killer dons some less than terrifying clown garb and stalks a group of teenage morons. Where Mr. Jingles differentiates itself is in the creation of a backstory – something far too few slash and trash DTV’s forgo in favor of guts and grue.

The film centers around the return of Angie (Kelli Jensen) to the small town where years earlier her family was terrorized by the titular character. It seems that sweet 19-year-old Angie, who was locked up in an asylum for the past 7 years, is looking to make up for missed time. Enter her two cousins, who plan to help her get her groove back on, by forgoing the usual stunted teen conventions of dating and romance and setting up a party so Miss Angie can get stoned and screwed by some stud as soon as possible – now how’s that for family values! Well, I’ll bet anyone here with a 5th grade education can guess who’s going to show up at Angie’s party.

Almost nothing goes right in Mr. Jingles - the characters and their situations are the very definition of ridiculous, the cinematography is non-existent. The dialogue is spoken rather than acted and I am almost at a loss for words, why Lionsgate could not spring a few hundred bucks for some added audio effects on this film. In an opening sequence, as police raid the home to stop Mr. Jingles attack, an officer fires several rounds which sounded so much like those little strips of pink paper, polka dotted with droplets of gunpowder that we used to pop in our cap guns back in the early 80’s I actually began convulsing in fits of nostalgia. This effects problem would not have bothered me in the least if I had seen Mr. Jingles at a con or an underground festival, but for christsakes, this is a freaking studio release. You can’t tell me that the filmmakers are happy about this - they shouldn’t be - and neither should the viewing audience. Look, you know and I know that horror fans are a very forgiving lot, but after you’ve been kicked in the balls a few times by the “slick cover art” con, you have to start recognizing that it smarts… can anyone here say Brain Damage Films!