If you were a fan of WWE programming, you could’ve jumped into See No Evil (2006) with ease, as Glenn Jacobs also known as Kane played a natural extension of his on-screen wrestling character. Just unleashing a gorier, more feral extension. This throwback slasher channels the relentless stalk-and-slash spirit of Jason Voorhees, minus the hockey mask.
From the WWE Ring to the Slaughterhouse
At the time of it's release, WWE Studios was in an era where it was aggressively pushing to leverage their wrestling talent’s brand into mainstream media, aiming to capitalize on their larger-than-life personas to cross over into movies. For a horror flick, who better to headline than a near seven-foot colossus of a machine? It’s an almost flawless transition that made Jacobs' the ultimate pick to stalk.
Kane’s Goodnight: Twisted Eyes of Vengeance
Both Jacobs' WWE character Kane and his 'See No Evil' role as Jacob Goodnight share striking similarities, rooted in trauma-fueled backstories that shape their monstrous personas. Unlike his wrestling character, Goodnight’s backstory is vague, something the less-picky hardcore slasher fans might shrug off, happy to fill its 84-minute runtime with blood over backstory.
Through glimpses of flashbacks, which is pretty much all we get, we see Goodnight’s abusive upbringing, hinting at what fuels his psychopathy and gives rise to his “Hand of God” persona, hell-bent on punishing sinners with his gruesome signature of gouging out their eyes. His religious zealotry is on display as the movie opens with police entering a home to find a woman held captive in a twisted ceremonial ritual, only to be ambushed by Goodnight.
It’s safe to say the movie earns its stripes with its no-nonsense approach to effective, gruesome horror. Director Gregory Dark, who previously honed his craft in music videos, doesn’t waste time on overcomplicated setups or building anticipation before Goodnight’s arrival. Even once the main arc of the story begins, we don’t have to wait long for Goodnight to make his presence known.
Strong Slasher Energy That Maintains Gore Over Growth
Four years on, Goodnight is holed up in the abandoned and dilapidated Blackwell Hotel, which was ravaged by a mysterious fire. It now serves as the setting where a bus of prisoners, under the supervision of Williams (Steven Vidler), who is coincidentally one of Goodnight’s former victims, arrive to clean and restore the premises for a shot at shorter sentences. Rocking club-ready outfits, not a hazmat suit in sight, the group, including Kira (Samantha Noble), Michael (Luke Pegler) and Christine (Christina Vidal) are laughably unfit and ill-equipped for the job and certainly not prepared to handle Goodnight’s wrath.
As the body count piles up, the group desperately dodges Goodnight’s gritty fingers, trying to keep their eyes intact as he swings his vicious chain hook, hot on their tails. Goodnight’s early spark dims as he continues his pursuit. What hooked us at the start gradually loses its grip, offering nothing new to raise the stakes and leaving the action feeling flat after a while.
Between Goodnight’s twisted sense of divine retribution and the haunting strain of the children’s song “Jesus Loves the Little Children” that weaves through the movie, a creepy atmosphere is certainly achieved. But if the script had just peeled back a few more layers of Goodnight’s character to keep him from fading into such a one-dimensional killing machine, it could have made a real difference.
