Film According to Mr Cinema review: Jacob's Ladder (1990)

Adrian Lyne’s innovative 1990 horror classic “Jacob’s Ladder” really gets under my skin more than any film I’ve seen since the original Japanese “Ringu”. “Jacob’s Ladder” trails Jacob Singer, a veteran of the Vietnam War, who after an odd incident among his platoon is sent home. The film jumps in time between his experiences in ‘Nam and his current life, in which he finds himself being chased and tormented by hellish, demonic creatures intent on murdering Jacob. Soon he is contacted by an old friend, who was in the same squadron as Jacob, and confides in Jacob to seeing similar horrific images and dies soon afterwards; after consulting several other friends from his army division who have all been seeing the same thing, Jacob becomes intent on finding the reason for this.

This film, though, through my description may sound pretty standard fare for a horror movie, is anything but standard. It is truly a very creepy and bizarre film. Jacob’s ladder is truly an unnerving film that is quite unlike anything else I have seen before. The movie was the first to use the patented horror technique of speeding up blurred images to create a scary supernatural effect. For the fact that this film managed to successfully freak me out while managing to fascinate me, I would recommend this movie to most any serious horror fan. If there was anything that bothered me about the film, it would be that it peaked too quickly and lost some level of intensity through that, however this is easily overlookable through the fact that it is an otherwise extraordinary and completely uncanny picture.

Rating: 8.5/10