The Terrible Tale of Jacquelyn Torne (2017) User Reviews

"You haven't kept me very well at all!"

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 8/10 · 17 July 2018]

On Halloween a girl tells her friends the sad old tale of Jaquelyn Torne, (Jacko-lantern!) an unfortunate woman who lived a long time ago as a virtual slave to a brutally violent ogre of a man who murdered her one Halloween Night after the simple mistake of finding seeds in his pumpkin pie, and then he buried her in the pumpkin patch outside their cabin, and then on the same night the following year she rose from the ground to exact her gruesome revenge as a ghoulish nightmare that was part zombie, part pumpkin and all terror!! As the 'story' ends it's then revealed that the girl telling it has also been conducting some kind of ritual to invoke the vengeful spirit of Jaquelyn in order to get her own revenge against her horrible abusive father, which she does in a pretty spectacular infernal fashion as the short draws to a satisfyingly crazy little end. So I thought this was a good short, it had a nice festive Halloween vibe and I loved the twisted fable gone bad aspect of it, I did think that when it lingered on just the actors talking for too long it started to get very bland and campy, but like with every good horror short I've seem yet on the Crypt TV youtube channel, it has a really cool-looking and effectively used monster to anchor the slight story, and the pumpkin-headed tree root zombie thingy that appears in this is terrifically put together, it looked weird and interesting and I liked the creepy jerky way it moved around! I'm pretty sure it had animation of some kind integrated into the face and I love to see that kind of thing done, special effects in the midst of practical effects, with each complementing the other very well, that's how it should always be done in my opinion, and the monster alone makes this short a worthwhile one. I love the over the top colours and dramatic image of when it bursts through the wall and the light is shining behind it, it's like a classic image taken from an old fashioned horror comic, a bit like what they did in Creepshow. So while not perfect or exactly brilliant or anything, this is an good short that's fun to watch and it has a fun macabre atmosphere and some excellent monster effects work to enjoy. One of the gems of Crypt TV and well worth checking out! X