Jack’s Back (1988)

Directed by Rowdy Herrington. Starring James Spader, Cynthia Gibb, Robert Picardo, Jim Haynie, John Wesley, Rex Ryon, Rod Loomis, Chris Mulkey, Danitza Kingsley. [R]

Absurd thriller struggles to even stick with its initial premise—there’s a Jack the Ripper copycat stalking the streets of Los Angeles on the centennial anniversary of the famous slayings, targeting women who are patients at the same hospital. A young doctor (Spader) is named as the culprit because of incredible reasons, but the doc’s twin brother (also played by Spader) swears otherwise because he has visions of the real killer at work. Since the audience knows who said “real killer” is, there’s no real suspense going on…until it becomes clear it’s all a fake-out, and the real-real killer is someone else, and since we know it can’t be one guy, it’s probably the other guy because he hasn’t been given enough to do yet, but please don’t tell me it’s that guy because that would be—yep, it’s that guy, son of a gun! Spader’s low-key solemnity doesn’t do any favors for either thinly-written role (where’s the slimy danger he radiated in his best 80s roles?), the awkward dialogue is as unconvincing as the underfed supernatural gimmick, and debuting writer/director Rowdy Herrington doesn’t bring much to the party aside from lots of moody blue-on-black lighting out of a music video. Pity it wasn’t another hundred years before Hollywood produced another Ripper-influenced flop like this.

30/100