Title: Junior

Also known as:
Engine Trouble (Alternative title)

Year: 2002

Genre: Slasher / Horror

Language: English

Runtime: 92 min

Director: Marc Ickx

Writer: Marc Ickx & Liam Bradley

IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0306774/

Two friends, Rebecca and Sandra, borrow a car to go on a road trip. They make a stop at a gas station where they stumble upon a strange lady and her wild dog that she keeps locked in a room. When they leave the gas station their car engine breaks and they're stuck in this hillbilly place. The two friends get seperated, and they're about to find out that the wild dog is actually a masked, crazed man with a sickle...

Our thoughts:
The only reason I even own this movie is because of Cecilia Bergqvist. She's an actress from near where I live, and I had only previously seen her in Troma's "Parts of the Family". I knew what I was getting was.. well... gonna be shit. Everything pointed towards that, but sometimes you just want to own and watch something from a different reason than it being a great movie. In this case, she was the reason, simply for being from around these parts. Though the movie isn't Swedish - it's actually an English movie shot in Belgium, so that makes it even more interesting (and explains poor performances/dubbing).

Oh please, you don't need a plot! It's women being chased by a killer! But okay, let's play ball. This is a movie about two friends going on a road trip. The girls, Rebecca and Sandra, sing heavy metal songs in the car and have a jolly good time. That is until their car breaks down after a visit at a gas station, and Sandra decides to go on her own while Rebecca stays in the car. Soon she's terrorized by something from outside of the car. And this, my friend, goes on for an eternity! We're talking 10 minutes of a car rocking, basically. That's followed by 7-or-so minutes of her trying to fight off the killer by the car.

The movie is bad. It's really bad. It's a slasher movie built only around the idea that they wanted to make a slasher. No care was put into finding out what makes some slashers good and most poor - they just went right ahead and made this as retarded as they could. Not only do they seem to have zero knowledge in pacing - many, many scenes take forever to end. Not just the scene in the car, but nearly every scene where anything happens is far too long. Did they fight for a 90 min runtime, or were they just too impressed with their own work?

The cover and DVD menu promises a large killer in an orange jumpsuit, wearing some sort of technologically advanced goggles, a grinning skull mouth under his cloth headwear, equipped with a pick axe. None of this is true. The killer in the movie is small and basically does martial artsy dances. He's dressed in a black trenchcoat of some sort. His face is only covered by bandages and a snout-looking gas mask (or whatever-mask). And finally, his weapon is a stylish sickle. I'll b e honest - I blame the filmmakers more than the artwork artist here. It makes no sense, but I'll rather put the artwork artist in the right, because the killer in the movie is such a full-blown retard that being scared of him is a ridiculous thought. He acts like a queer ninja with mommy issues! Oh, right, yes, like any good slasher, he has mommy issues.

The acting and dubbing is bad too, and sometimes so bad that it distracts me from my existence. Cecilia Bergqvist is honestly the best actor in the movie. She has several flaws too, but far from the issues that the rest of the cast possesses. I won't go into details about the dubbing. And I am trying to forget the facial expressions that the "father" does between him saying the only two words he seems to know ("boy" and "bitch").

The movie lacks gore and nudity, it's stupid to the max, the killer has flamboyant moves and is less scary than a lollipop.. There's not much to get here. You'll be disappointed whatever you expect. But it does bring a few good laughs if you watch it in the right mood. And if you're Swedish (and especially if you're from Värmland) then you might enjoy seeing Cecilia Bergqvist in this Belgian sub-standard slasher. "Junior", or "Engine Trouble" is as boring and bland as both of its titles combined.

Positive things:
- Fun to see Cecilia Bergqvist in something. She's not great in the role, but shines next to everything else in the movie.
- Some of the hanging body parts looked okay in the darkness.
Negative things:
- Scenes are too long (see: 10 minutes of a rocking car)
- Little gore and no nudity.
- Terrible killer (the one on the cover is better).
- Poorly shot.
- Poorly directed.
- Poorly written.
- Poorly dubbed
- Poorly acted.

Gore: 1.5/5
Nudity: 0/5
Story: 1/5
Effects: 1.5/5
Comedy: 1/5

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