Jacob's Ladder (1990)
Psychological thriller directed by Englishman Adrian Lyne and one of those movies whose legacy kinda precedes them if you watch them today. It inspired a lot of other works. It's also one of those movies that, nowadays, are almost impossible to watch without knowing the twist beforehand which is why I am going to talk openly about it in this review. However, if you happen to not know the twist of Jacob's Ladder yet and are at all interested in seeing it, take this as a warning.
Jacob's Ladder follows Jacob Singer, played by Tim Robbins, an American soldier who returned from Vietnam after, as we are led to believe, sustaining a gruesome injury. Back home, he works as a deliveryman, dates his coworker after having been divorced from his previous wife and one of his three sons is stated to have died in a car accident. Soon he find himself haunted by strange, demonic apparitions and sinister strangers.
If you've heard of this movie, you've probably also heard about its big reveal, namely that it's depicting Jacob's dying dream. It's one of the earlier examples of the psychological, metaphysical thriller and probably one of the best ones not directed by David Lynch. It inspired a lot of works in its wake, most notably Silent Hill 2 (which has a lot of this and a lot of Lost Highway in it). It's also the movie that that horror trope of monsters or ghosts with twitching heads goes back to. You've probably seen it in something before.
Aside from its vast influence on other works, though, Jacob's Ladder is quite a good movie in its own right. Especially if you are lucky enough to not know the twist beforehand, it successfully keeps you guessing what it is that is happening to Jacob. There are some interesting misdirections and red herrings in there. There is a somewhat understated current of occultism (Jacob is seen surrounded by books on it a couple of times and while it's title is a biblical reference, chances are someone talking about "Jacob"s Ladder" is into Kabbalah) and a somewhat overstated current of conspiracy theories.
Which, honestly, is probably the movies biggest idiosyncrasy. It has this rather prominent subplot about shady drug experiments on soldiers in Vietnam which it deems important enough to make a reference to its historical background before rolling the credits and I'm honestly not entirely sure what exactly it's getting at. It's this weird little conspiracy story that feels a bit like it's from a different movie altogether. Since I've started writing this review I've learned that the pay off to it is in an extended sequence that didn't make it into the final cut of the film but I'm still not sure that it really explains why it's there. I'm kind of tempted to rationalize it by assuming it was something Jacob fantasized to rationalize his own death by friendly fire but if that were the intention, I feel the movie wouldn't have made a point of pointing out it's allegedly inspired by a true story.
I had honestly forgotten just how much of that was in this movie, because what really sticks with you are all the iconic setpieces of horror and drama such as the demonic entities that appear to Jacob at a house party, the hallucinations about his old family or, of course, the hospital sequence which seems to have acted as seed of inspiration for the entire Silent Hill series. I also rather enjoy the genuine sense of unease and paranoia that pervades the movie. It really does make New York feel like a cold and lonely purgatory.
Plus, there's some other stuff in there that's just kinda neat. An impromptu performance of the Marvelette's Mr. Postman by a group of women Jacob comes across during his work. Jason Alexander as a sleazy lawyer. A brief but memorable appearance by Macaulay Culkin. Danny Aiello as an angelic chiropractor who quotes catholic mystic Meister Eckhart and delivers what's basically the summation of the entire movie. It's just a pretty likable and well put together production overall.
So this is still quite good and it is easy to see why it had such an impact on the writing and iconigraphy of many psychological horror movies and games that followed it. It's one of the best executed examples of the "dead all along" twist and it still offers a very memorable, nightmarish depiction of purgatory. The idea that it's a state of mind where you're experiencing an increasingly hellish and nightmarish vision of your own life until you learn to let go of it and accept that it's time to move on. Compared to something like Angel Heart, which feels rather hokey in hindsight, this is rightfully considered a classic of its genre.
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