See No Evil - 2006 - PFF

What do you get when you mix a group of juvenile delinquents, a creepy old hotel, and the 7’ monster Kane? You get WWE’s first major film production, the 2006 slasher film “See No Evil”. I truly love this movie, it has great death scenes, awesome makeup, and some pretty good twists and turns.

The plot is pretty simple, you have eight teens who are doing time for various crimes. They have been chosen to participate in a way to get time off their sentences. They just have to spend a weekend cleaning up the abandoned Blackwell Hotel to prepare it to become a homeless shelter. They are there at the request of the hotel’s caretaker, Margaret.

The overall look of the hotel once inside is almost a throwback to the old slasher films of the ’60s and ’70s. Everything has an eerie, sickly yellow tint to it. The soundtrack is pretty subtle and compliments the film well. There are just so many wonderful parts to this movie and sadly some of the best ones would be spoilers. So let’s go into what I can tell you about this film.

You are introduced to each of our delinquents and also told what they are in for and each is almost a stereotype of their crime. There are two adults with the group besides Margaret and they are from each of the respective detention centers. We have Hannah from the girls' detention center, and we have Williams from the guys.

This film has some really great death scenes, as well as one of the best “kill/attack” scenes I have ever seen. Actually…..it has a couple that would totally rank in the Top 10 of Universal Karmic deaths. What I love about this movie without giving too much away is that the deaths are original, they are not the same old slasher type murders. They really do mesh into the storyline and are part of the story. They don’t just feel like they have been added for gore factor or because the script says “insert death of <character> here”. One of the most terrifying things, of course, is the Big Red Monster, Kane himself. The man is 7’0” tall and just huge. Anyone familiar with WWE wrestling knows he is just a monster of a man and has the very unique one blue eye, one brown eye for his character when he wrestles, he has that here too. Though the film released to pretty negative reviews, it has still amassed a cult following due to the popularity of Kane and people who just love a good slasher film.

Speaking of Kane, he is playing the 7’0” terror Jacob Goodnight. With his huge hands, immense height, and size and beautiful yet creepy eyes, it is easy to see how this man could be something out of a dark nightmare that would make you check your closets and under your bed before you got in at night. I will admit there are multiple times in this film that Kane really shows his strength and just amazing physical ability. He did all of his own stunts in this film, though that is not surprising given his current occupation. Kane’s real name is Glenn Jacobs. In his over 20 year career, he has established himself as one of the most terrifying personas in the industry. There is a story that is told about the casting introduction for See No Evil that because Kane is so huge and has such a dominating presence, that he was asked to stay seated when they were doing the introductions because one of the women, who only came up to his sternum, would not go anywhere near him.0

Now seeing all of this would almost make you question what kind of man is behind the monster. Welp, actually he is a big, gentle teddy bear who loves children. His charity of choice is St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and it is not uncommon to see him pose with little ones during WWE events. So, he has a pretty big heart in that massive chest. If you want to see more of this monster of a man, check him out twice a week on WWE Raw and WWE Smackdown on Monday and Thursday nights as well as you can see him in the 2014 “See No Evil 2” with Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps) and Danielle Harris (Rob Zombie’s Halloween, Halloween 4 and 5).

Next up is Zoe, played by the beautiful Rachel Taylor. Zoe is one of those girls that you just have no sympathy for. She is just a bitch, there is just no nice way to put it. She is stuck up and has the attitude that she is better than everyone around her. With her valley girl blonde hair and attitude, she is almost reminiscent of those mean girls we all knew in high school. Even though her character is not my favorite person, I truly love Rachel Taylor. She had a few smaller parts on her resume before this film, like parts in the 2005 TV series “Heartland” as well as parts in a few TV movies. Her career is continuing to blossom with roles in the 2008 film “Shutter” as well as a minor recurring role on the hit medical soap/drama “Grey’s Anatomy”. She also had the lead role in the short-lived Horror series “666 Park Avenue” (I was so sad when this was canceled) and most recently you can see her in the Netflix series “Jessica Jones". I look forward to seeing where her career goes and what other roles she gets.

Our next delinquent is Michael, played by Luke Pegler. Michael is your atypical jerk. He is the kind of guy that would kick a puppy just to see how many people he could upset by it. He is mouthy, mean, rude and that guy you just wait to see get killed off. He is the “worst” of all the delinquents as far as him crime goes on either side of the fence and is tied to one of the other delinquents, due to knowing them from the “outside”. He oozes that false machismo that is enough to make you sick. He is also that immature guy that stole your soda in the lunchroom, just to take one drink and then throw the can back at you because he didn’t like it. Now saying all these negative things about Michael, I want to flip the coin and praise Luke for being such a talented actor to make Michael, not just a one-dimensional character that you are “programmed” to dislike. Luke really does a great job of playing this slimy character. He was still pretty unknown in the film community when he got this role, but I have no doubt it was his performance in this role that lead to other roles. Like, the rotten Baxter in the WWE film “The Condemned” with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Vinnie Jones. He also had the role of a soldier in the hit Starz series Spartacus. Most recently you can see him in the series “Home and Away”. He is another young actor that I look forward to his future.

This film has it all as far as the slasher genre goes, There is some nudity, though not all that much, some pretty awesome deaths, and great special effects, it actually has a story too and everything that is going on doesn’t take away from that story. It is a great movie if you are just in the mood for a slasher film, but want something that is a bit more recent and has some decent special effects. It is my go-to for a Saturday afternoon spook movie.