Spike (2009) - Review

Man takes his dog for a walk, dog smells something interesting, the man investigates. Low and behold hidden beneath the undergrowth is the body of a dead girl. Quite the quandary for the poor fella, what should he do? Of course logic and good sense would dictate that he would call the police. Yeah, well that isn’t going to happen as he decides to take the body home with him.

Spike, which is the name of the dog, is a short, sharp kick to the Jacobs from JABB Pictures. Running to a brisk 25 minutes this movie did a fine job in leaving me wanting more, as it gets in, does the damage and then leaves without warning. The subject matter is macabre, yet this is not a graphic movie. Sure the implications are there, and as such it is probably more effective because of this.

What I found disturbing about Spike, aside from what will become obvious as you watch it, is the complete sense of detachment from the body. At no time is any thought or consideration given as to how or why she ended up a corpse. Whether this was intentional or not I do not know, although I will say that it did compliment the cold detachment of the life that the man leads.

Shot with a budget of absolutely nowt Spike is an effective movie that only hints at what is to come from JABB Pictures. It isn’t perfect, I felt a couple of the scenes could have been tightened up a little but on the whole it is well worth checking out  Director Jason Hoover has crafted a twisted story, one which builds nicely to JABB’s second movie Polly, more on that though in a separate review.

Spike itself is a movie in which all involved are learning the craft, but it appears that they are quick learners. Independent filmmaking has its detractors, due in part to the amount of crap that gets thrown into the world yet when it is made with passion, as this obviously was, it is hard to ignore.

The DVD of Spike also contains the short films Dolls and In Heaven and can be purchased at JABB Pictures Official Site.

Review by Jude Felton