Monday, September 20, 2021

JACOB'S LADDER (1990)

Vietnam, 1971. American soldier Tim Robbins is not having a good time.  Fast-forward to New York City, 1975 and Robbins is now working for the Post Office and has a pretty dope life: nice apartment, kind neighbors, beautiful girlfriend who likes him, cool books to read.  The only negative thing is he occasionally sees mutated humanoid demons who want to kidnap him and stick a large needle in his skull.

JACOB'S LADDER was better back in 1990.  I remember enjoying it back then and being freaked out by it.  Watching it now, it's too lightweight.  Tim Robbins' life is definitely fucked up, but sadly, I'd trade places with him in a second.  His anxiety-filled, demon-haunted, nightmare hellscape life is better than my life.  Way better.  It's hard to feel sympathy towards a protagonist in a horror movie when their nightmare existence is an improvement over your own daily life.

Medium pace that slows down toward the end, random body parts laying around, "The Stranger" by Albert Camus, freaky demons, good acting, very little blood, zero gore, impressive cast, getting tentacle-fucked from behind and out the mouth, light female nudity, interesting photography.  JACOB'S LADDER is a good movie (and influential in its day), but it's just not hardcore or fucked up enough to still be shocking.

Remake - Jacob's Ladder (2019)