A mysterious figure appears to wreak havoc on two sisters in the feature film debut of the character created by director Colin Krawchuk.

When John is found dead after a failed attempt to reconcile with eldest daughter Emma, Emma attends his funeral. There, she meets her younger half-sister Jocelyn. Emma, a road manager for a local band, only plans to stay for the funeral and leave afterwards as she still harbors ill feelings toward her father. Despite Jocelyn’s constant pleas to try to start a relationship with her sister, Emma finds herself blaming Jocelyn as John had left Emma and her mother only to start a new family, which resulted in Jocelyn.

At the same time Emma decides to stay the night in town before leaving, Jocelyn decides to find comfort with her friends as it is Halloween night. After giving out candy to trick or treaters, Jocelyn and her friends attend the local carnival while Emma still finds herself in a town she’s never been in. However, she soon finds a mysterious man in a jester mask stalking her. When the Jester begins to show what he can do, Emma begins to fear for her life and soon enough, Jocelyn finds herself being stalked by the Jester as well. The two sisters now much find a way to overcome their differences and find a way to stop the Jester.

Based on a trilogy of short films, director Colin Krawchuk and Michael Sheffield are given a chance to make a feature film out of the shorts. They do something very interesting with the character they created and make him the epitome of negative thoughts in the mind of his potential victims. There is a lot of supernatural elements as well as some pretty nifty kill scenes, some laughable as meant to be as we are dealing with a “jester” here, but others shocking.

Leila Symington and Delaney White are great in their roles of half-sisters Emma and Jocelyn. While the latter attempts to make amends and start a relationship with her sister, Emma still holds a sense of bitterness and still holding a grudge against their father even after death. A lot of the focus is on the sisters, Emma in trying to just get in tone with the town before she plans to leave by going to the local bar and general store while Jocelyn names the most of Halloween by giving out candy to trick or treaters before joining her friends for the town festival. This is the definition of a complicated and dysfunctional family.

Co-writer Michael Sheffield is aces as the titular Jester. He uses a combination of supernatural forces as well as some magic to unleash his fury on his victims. The level of blood in the kills slowly advance from a hanging to one victim getting both his teeth and eyes taken out by the magic of the Jester. There is a hilarious unexpected death involving a police officer who becomes a victim when he confronts him in the store after Emma tries to reason with them. However, the Jester does have a bit of heart when he scares the bejesus out of a kid bullying another during the trick or treat scene without resorting to death or dismemberment.

If you haven’t seen the short films, then chances are you will see The Jester as a tamer Terrifier meets It. It still is a great feature film for Colin Krawchuk. We could have a new horror icon in the midst with this one.

WFG RATING: A

DREAD presents an Epic Pictures production. Director: Colin Krawchuk. Producers: Brian Clarke, Patrick Ewald, Carlo Glorioso, Ted Hentschke, Chad Horn, Cory Okouchi, and Katie Page. Writers: Colin Krawchuk and Michael Sheffield; based on their short films. Cinematography: Joe Davidson. Editing: Colin Krawchuk.

Cast: Leila Symington, Delaney White, Michael Sheffield, Mia Rae Roberts, Gabriel Morgan, Lena James, Joe Hansard, Jessie L. Greene, Judson Grubby, Ken Arnold, Dan DeLuca.