Four friends who are famed on the Internet for being the ‘Master Pranksters’ are having to go their separate ways. One member of the gang, Ethan (Dante Spencer), is getting married, the remaining three are having one last attempt to pull off the mother of all pranks on Ethan and his bride to be - Cabin in the Woods style.

 

When I first read the synopsis for The Jokesters I was really interested in the plot, as I loved the idea of a prank “Cabin in the Woods”, actually turning out to be a “real” The Cabin in the Woods. Despite being filmed in a ‘found footage’ style, I was determined not to let my disdain for these types of films cloud my mind with negative thoughts. Interestingly, I was able to watch The Jokesters without complaining about found footage issues. The picture quality was clear, the camera was steady and it was totally watchable.

 

Unfortunately, my issue this time was not with the filming style but with the fact that I wasn’t convinced that these four guys were real pranksters. It all felt a bit contrived. The pranks didn’t seem genuine and as such I found it to be a bit silly. As a viewer, you instinctively know when something on screen is real or not! I feel that this character building loses osme of the edge and when the chilling events begin to spiral out of control, it's difficult to find sympathy in characters there is no connection with. Perhaps to add more depth director AJ Wedding should have got the actors to carry out real pranks. This would make for a much more entertaining film.

 

There were some gory, bloody moments but nothing that satisfied my blood lust (come on, I want to bathe in the stuff!). Plus when one character got bumped off, we didn’t really get to see anything and I wished I had seen more. It is by no means a bad film but one that still has flaws, which over shadowed the best parts.

 

Apparently there is a The Jokesters 2 in development but for me I would need real pranks with more blood and gore.