6 Degrees of Hell

JACK'S MOTEL is a very bad film indeed, a shot-on-video piece of zero budget film-making with zero originality and zero aspirations. A title change (from the original 6 DEGREES OF HELL) and the addition of '80s child star Corey Feldman to the narrative (in the form of some extraneous, added-in scenes equalling about 10 minutes screen time) do nothing to sell this one whatsoever.

The loose plot sees a demonic force entering a small town and possessing various townsfolk; there is an evil plan in force, but it's all told so disjointedly and without enthusiasm that you just won't care. The writing is lazy and there's a singular lack of imagination here, and the performances from the no-name cast are as stilted as you'd expect. The poor CGI is another nail in the coffin. In the end this just feels like an advertisement for one of those god awful "haunted house" experiences they run in the USA; I half suspect it actually is.

Six individuals are caught up in a supernatural perfect storm, as an evil lays claim to one of them while threatening to tear apart the soul of a small Pennsylvania town.

The copy I have looks terrible, but I think this might be more due to the disc being a screener than because of the film itself. I sincerely hope so, because it has a digital-block look that screams amateur. I do not want to hold it against the creators if this was not their doing.

The movie purports to be filmed in a real haunted hotel. As someone who does not believe in haunted places, that is unfortunately lost on me.

But let me address the Corey Feldman thing. This film is being marketed as "Corey's Feldman's Six Degrees of Hell". He has little to do with the film, so this is a marketing gimmick. And, surely, he is the biggest name attached to the project, so that makes sense. But here is the problem: people who are not die-hard horror fans probably will not see this. And those who are have a general dislike of Feldman. Anyone who has met him knows he is an arrogant little man.

But is he any good? I suppose if you want to see him with bleached 1990s hair smoking a fake cigarette, then yes. He really has no part in the story and interacts with only one other actor.

This entire 90 minute film screams "cheap long commercial" for the haunted house featured so prominently in the film. It has a dishonest marketing gimmick of giving Corey Feldman top billing, although he is only in the movie for about 2 minutes. Smart way to try to sell a film, not a smart way of impressing viewers. The rest of the cast is amateur to its core. Lead June (Nicole Cinaglia) cannot hold the movie and her acting is stiff, unbelievable, and downright awful. However, the worst acting in the film is done by Kelly (Ashley Sumner), who appears to have only been in movies by this writer (not surprising). Her acting is awkward and uncomfortable to watch. Luckily, she is only in the film for about 5 minutes. The same is true for the sheriff (Faust Checho). This was a good choice. Kellen (Joe Raffa) is a believable bad guy, but his acting is also below average, likely because he took on too much by acting in and directing this film. I don't know why, as director, he decided to feature himself so much. It brought the film down. Based on the rough cuts between scenes, he also should have stayed away from editing. Chris (David J Bonner) is mediocre and forgettable. The only decent acting in the film is done by Brian Anthony Wilson and Davy Raphaely. In my opinion, they should have been given bigger roles in the film, and everyone else - we should have seen less of them (this includes Feldman). They would have accomplished more with hiring a better cast and crew, and not having Feldman. Regardless of the cast, perhaps a more seasoned cast still couldn't have saved this film. It is confusing, and the boring performances don't help you pay enough attention to watch what is happening. The script was far below average and, based on the level of profanity, I'd say it was written by someone in their teens. There are flat out incorrect uses of terms and words that make you laugh. There is too much going on to follow, and it seems like the writer tried to cram 20 bad movies into 1 very bad one. Finally, I wouldn't have classified this as a horror movie. The only "horror" scenes were clearly added after the fact on a very very cheap camera when the maker likely realized it didn't have enough gore to be sellable to its target audience. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone with half a brain who likes a good story OR who likes a good scare. On this budget, which is higher for "low budget films," they should have delivered on a lot more - even the cinematography, SFX, and sound mix screams amateur hour.

I love when someone can articulate WHY a movie went off the rails,and Dr Drew's review sums it up perfectly. This movie was a jumbled mess,with little explanation or direction. Every character had some dead relative,the sheriff was annoying and his vendetta against the one guy was far from professional. No one listened to the paranormal investigators,even when they were being proved correct. Acting wasn't terrible, honestly could have done without corey Feldman,not because of any Corey hate,but LITERALLY could have cut his scenes and the movie would have remained the same. A completely pointless cameo for the sake of name dropping. So while not the worst movie I have ever watched,not actually really good either,mainly due to character arcs that didn't connect,AND went nowhere,and the roundabout way the devil had of accessing his conduit. It made no sense that the devil would go on a twenty year journey,killing random people to connect back to the conduit.

One of the cool things about independent film, making in present and day is you get the chance to see some of the childhood actors that you grew up watching on television and another movies and this one provides you with exactly that this film focuses on a TV group who is trying to explore new options in the paranormal field And what they end up uncovering rocks a small town to the core. I'm biased and on horror films so I'm automatically give it two thumbs up the originality could've been a little bit better but overall. I think this film is definitely worth a watch especially if you want a blast from the past from one of your favorite childhood actors.