A veteran suffers from horrific hallucinations, and must
separate his dreams from his reality to figure out what's happening. HORROR
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Jacob's Ladder (2019)Directed by David M. Rosenthal
Written by Jeff Buhler and Sarah Thorpe Starring Michael Ealy, Jesse Williams, Nicole Beharie, Guy Burnet, Joseph Sikora, Ritchie Coster, Karla Souza Remake of 1990's Jacob's Ladder |
Movies like Jacob's Ladder are the reason there's such a terrible stigma about horror remakes. For every Fright Night 2011 and The Fly 1986, you get about fifty Jacob's Ladder 2019's. It may just be the worst horror remake I've ever seen, if not one of the worst movies I've ever seen period. It's a complete mess from beginning to end, trying to rationalize the demonic visions of the original film but losing the subtext, the sense of dread, and the investment in character. It's pure dogshit, frankly.
Jacob Singer (Ealy) is a veteran of the War on Terror and a surgeon. His brother Isaac (Williams) died in the war, and its plagued him ever since. But then Jacob finds Isaac alive in the tunnels of New York City, and finds out his death was covered up because he was a test subject for a PTSD drug called HDA. Of course, as we go along, we find out that Jacob's really the crazy one whose been taking the HDA, and Isaac is his perfectly sane, family man brother. But by that point, I had completely checked out. The pace is super slow, there are no scares to be seen, and there's no reason they had to call this Jacob's Ladder beyond cashing in on a preexisting film with a following. There's no similarities between the two. It's barely a remake. I urge horror fans everywhere, and fans of every other genre. Do not watch this abysmal excuse for a movie. It will suck away an hour and a half of your life as it did me. This is one of the shittiest movies I've ever sat through, and I wish I could somehow have it removed from my brain so I could get back the tiny piece of my soul that it took away from me. It's disrespectful to a horror classic. Fuck this movie. |