Jacob's Ladder
Year: 1990
Director: Adrian Lyne
Starring: Elizabeth Pena & Tim Robbins
Runtime: 113 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 25/10/23
Director: Adrian Lyne
Starring: Elizabeth Pena & Tim Robbins
Runtime: 113 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 25/10/23
Warning: This review contains spoilers.
I recently reviewed the Silent Hill films as I am a massive fan of the franchise, but I’ve never actually looked into the film that was one of the biggest inspirations for the franchise, 1990’s Jacob’s Ladder. So, considering my recent reviews of Silent Hill I felt that now was a better time than ever to check out the psychological horror cult classic.
Five years after being honourably discharged from the Vietnam War following a near fatal skirmish with the enemy, Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) is struggling to adapt to normal life. Suffering with PTSD, as well as dealing with the grief of his son’s death prior to the war.
Haunted by visions of demons and believing that the Army experimented on him during the war, Jacob begins to question whether he is already dead and living in hell, or if there are any answers as to what’s really going on.
Just going to be upfront about this, I can’t really share my thoughts about Jacob’s Ladder without ruining the story, but this film is also over thirty years old now so I feel that I can be a bit more relaxed about what I say here.
I really loved the story and the way it explored PTSD and grief in ways I’ve rarely seen, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen from a main character in a story before. Jacob is such a sad character, and not in a mopey or dramatic way, he’s just incredibly tragic. He’s lost everything, his wife, his child, his health, the war, and he’s now working a job he doesn’t find fulfilling because it’s the only one he was able to get as a veteran, and the mundanity of every day life is just so bleak and seemingly meaningless even compared to being at war.
Tim Robbins is really outstanding here, delivering such a massive range for this performance, and genuinely selling you on the twisted nightmares that Jacob sees around him.
Five years after being honourably discharged from the Vietnam War following a near fatal skirmish with the enemy, Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) is struggling to adapt to normal life. Suffering with PTSD, as well as dealing with the grief of his son’s death prior to the war.
Haunted by visions of demons and believing that the Army experimented on him during the war, Jacob begins to question whether he is already dead and living in hell, or if there are any answers as to what’s really going on.
Just going to be upfront about this, I can’t really share my thoughts about Jacob’s Ladder without ruining the story, but this film is also over thirty years old now so I feel that I can be a bit more relaxed about what I say here.
I really loved the story and the way it explored PTSD and grief in ways I’ve rarely seen, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen from a main character in a story before. Jacob is such a sad character, and not in a mopey or dramatic way, he’s just incredibly tragic. He’s lost everything, his wife, his child, his health, the war, and he’s now working a job he doesn’t find fulfilling because it’s the only one he was able to get as a veteran, and the mundanity of every day life is just so bleak and seemingly meaningless even compared to being at war.
Tim Robbins is really outstanding here, delivering such a massive range for this performance, and genuinely selling you on the twisted nightmares that Jacob sees around him.
I did find the pacing to be horrendously slow, and I would have liked the body horror elements to have been a bit more pervasive overall. As it stands the film has only one truly great sequence that utilises the grotesque monsters the film is known for and that’s the hospital scene right near the end of the film.
I also wasn’t particularly keen on the reveal that Jacob and his team were the subject of an experimental drug called ‘Ladder’. Honestly whilst I can roll with the whole Jacob dying during the opening sequence of the film and the rest being some his end-of-life experience accepting death, I thought the whole drug thing was needless addition that only made things more complicated than they needed to be for no extra payoff.
That being said, I did like the ending. It’s a controversial one because you could walk away from it feeling like you’ve had your time wasted because it’s the old cliché ‘it was all a dream’ kind of thing. But I felt like it gave the journey Jacob goes on even more meaning because this is quite literally what’s going on inside his mind as he lay dying in Vietnam.
I did manage to work out the ending quite early on, and so I would have liked things to be a little more vague, but whilst also making what we see a little more cohesive. I think that’s part of what tipped me off, the fact that almost scene by scene Jacob’s relationship with Jezzie (Elizabeth Pena) would change, and he was just as bewildered as an audience member. It was just so clear to me that he was dying, and his mind was breaking down.
I did really enjoy Jacob’s Ladder, but I do feel like it could have been a lot better in places. I feel like it could have done with more body horror, and that the ending could have been telegraphed a lot less by making what we see a lot vaguer, but also making things flow a little better. Robbins’ performance really sells the whole film, and I do think this is one I’m going to be returning to again in the future because there’s so much to unpack here. Definitely one to seek out for a creepy, but contemplative psychological horror.
I also wasn’t particularly keen on the reveal that Jacob and his team were the subject of an experimental drug called ‘Ladder’. Honestly whilst I can roll with the whole Jacob dying during the opening sequence of the film and the rest being some his end-of-life experience accepting death, I thought the whole drug thing was needless addition that only made things more complicated than they needed to be for no extra payoff.
That being said, I did like the ending. It’s a controversial one because you could walk away from it feeling like you’ve had your time wasted because it’s the old cliché ‘it was all a dream’ kind of thing. But I felt like it gave the journey Jacob goes on even more meaning because this is quite literally what’s going on inside his mind as he lay dying in Vietnam.
I did manage to work out the ending quite early on, and so I would have liked things to be a little more vague, but whilst also making what we see a little more cohesive. I think that’s part of what tipped me off, the fact that almost scene by scene Jacob’s relationship with Jezzie (Elizabeth Pena) would change, and he was just as bewildered as an audience member. It was just so clear to me that he was dying, and his mind was breaking down.
I did really enjoy Jacob’s Ladder, but I do feel like it could have been a lot better in places. I feel like it could have done with more body horror, and that the ending could have been telegraphed a lot less by making what we see a lot vaguer, but also making things flow a little better. Robbins’ performance really sells the whole film, and I do think this is one I’m going to be returning to again in the future because there’s so much to unpack here. Definitely one to seek out for a creepy, but contemplative psychological horror.