JACOB'S LADDER
A review in the public domain
by The Phantom
(baumgart@esquire.dpw.com)
The Phantom went into JACOB'S LADDER expecting something along the lines of FLATLINERS; a fairly standard mainstream thriller with some horror touches -- enough to give moviegoers a few thrills, possibly even a few gross-outs, but no more than an occasional slightly crazed look or boiled rabbit. After all, the director, Adrian Lyne, is a master of the mainstream, commercial film -- with FLASHDANCE, 9 1/2 WEEKS, and FATAL ATTRACTION to his credit, Mr. Lyne is nothing if not knowledgeable about what sells, and he of all people would know that while audiences do like the occasional scare, the real money is in making films that are, at heart, conventional and predictable above all else.
So imagine the Phantom's surprise when he found that JACOB'S LADDER is as close to a full-tilt serious high-tech monster psychological thriller as we are likely to get until MISERY opens this Christmas. As Lyne took the audience through his rollercoaster-ride of a film, the Phantom marveled at the camera work, the lighting, the eerie music, and all of the classic horror touches that abounded throughout the film. Despite what the studio wishes you to believe, JACOB'S LADDER is not another GHOST, and it's not another FATAL ATTRACTION. JACOB'S LADDER is a classic, traditional horror film the likes of which we haven't seen in a good long while.
That said, the Phantom should also point out that JACOB'S LADDER is not a hard-core horror film like BRAIN DEAD -- an excellent low-budget film that it resembles in more than a few ways. When all is said and done, horror gives way to explanation and resolution, and truth be told, the film's ending is embarrassingly bad. But the festival of exposition doesn't begin until the last ten minutes of the film (to kick it off, one character literally stands facing the camera and explains the entire film to an audience which Mr. Lyne and the studio apparently believe has been standing in line for popcorn for the preceding two hours). And by that time the Phantom was not only able to forgive Mr. Lyne for giving in to convention -- the quaint American cinematic tradition of supplying a sensible and rational ending to everything -- but also for directing two of the most awful films of the eighties (the Phantom wasn't a particular phan of FATAL ATTRACTION, but at least it didn't provide another nail for the coffin of cinematic intelligence as did his two prior efforts).
JACOB'S LADDER begins in Vietnam, where we first meet Jake as he and his platoon get involved in serious combat. But shortly Jake awakens on the subway, bound for the Bergen Street station and home. Was the Vietnam episode a dream? Is the dirty, ill-lit subway car a dream, and is Jake still in fact in Vietnam? Though this last possibility can be dismissed by any New Yorker, who would know only too well that Jake's "G" train was a real-life nightmare from which few Brooklyn-ites can awaken, much of JACOB'S LADDER proceeds in just this fashion. Much of the time we never really know whether Jake is awake or asleep, or if the demons and strange goings-on he sees are really happening. And just when we're sure that Jake is finally back in "reality," Lyne pulls the rug out from under us once again and we're off on another loop of the coaster ride.
For phans who have seen the excellent low-budget sleeper BRAIN DEAD, this will sound very familiar. But where BRAIN DEAD achieved many of its nightmarish effects through the use of graphic gore and a generous helping of red dye #2, in JACOB'S LADDER Lyne relies on chipping away at tiny bits of normality -- a very effective and disturbing technique. Instead of putting a headless zombie on the subway, Lyne strews trash all over the floor and lets the lights flicker just so. But the trash doesn't look like trash you would expect to see on the subway, and the lights have a tendency to go out at just the worst times. The train itself is deserted but for a woman and a homeless person sleeping on a bench, but the woman doesn't respond to Jake when he asks whether or not they've passed Bergen Street, and to be honest, she doesn't look quite right. In fact, she looks like she might have stumbled out of the theater auditorium next door, where she could plausibly have played an extra in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. And though Jake is prepared to ignore the homeless person entirely as he leaves the train, something on the bench moves. We just get a glimpse of it, and we don't know what it is -- but what it isn't is *right*.
There's a lot that's not *right* in Jake's life, and throughout the film we find Jake clinging desperately to what he believes is reality. Yet it is a reality that is built on a very shaky foundation -- Jake's mental health. The well-written script (by Bruce Joel Rubin, who wrote the immensely popular GHOST) hints at possibilities: Jake might be suffering from a mental breakdown. He might be suffering from the effects of his tour of duty in Vietnam. He might be hallucinating, possibly because of drugs he took -- or drugs that were given to him without his knowledge -- while in the Army. And finally, he might be dead. It is to both Rubin and Lyne's credit that they make the last possibility the most plausible, for throughout much of the film it appears that Jake may be slowly descending into hell, and the demons he sees appear at least as real as does Jake himself.
Of course, the Phantom would never give away just what exactly is happening (there is a definite "something," alas, for as the Phantom mentioned, unlike BRAIN DEAD, JACOB'S LADDER is at heart a mainstream film) -- guessing is half the fun. But suffice it to say that things are almost never what they appear to be, and that while Lyne has us on the rollercoaster he rarely misses an opportunity to unnerve us, to confound us, and every once in a while to just plain scare the popcorn out from under our seats. There is more than a little ERASERHEAD in this film, and Lyne sends shivers down our spines in just the way Lynch did: by creating a world in which stockings draped over a shower curtain rod can look sinister; in which people's heads shake back and forth much too quickly; in which a chiropractor might be an angel and a surgeon a devil; and in which almost nothing seems quite right.
Well, not true. Although in Jake's world everything seems just a little off, in our world there are more than a few things that are exactly right. For one, the music (by Maurice Jarre) is wonderful, eerie and atmospheric when it needs to be and a delight the rest of the time. Lyne uses sound and lighting effects to great advantage, but he never over indulges so that the audience becomes aware of his camera tricks. And his rips in reality -- the touches of horror that he sprinkles throughout the film -- brought tears of joy to the Phantom's jaded eyes. Phans who saw THE EXORCIST III remember that many of its "special effects" were perfectly ordinary objects used in a disturbing context. When George C. Scott hears that his friend was murdered by having all the blood drained out of his body, we are horrified both because the script is so rich and the description is so good, and because we see over a dozen small beakers, all neatly aligned on a tray, that are filled with blood. Lyne's effects are like that, and JACOB'S LADDER succeeds as a horror film where films like LEATHERFACE fail: while gore is easy, it is rarely scary. JACOB'S LADDER may not be a hard-core horror film like HELLRAISER, but in many ways Lyne shows us a more convincing vision of hell than Barker -- with his team of special effects technicians -- was able to.
The performances (especially Tim Robbin's as Jake) are convincing, the script is generally intelligent, well-written, and without too many pointless diversions (though there are some), and the film -- like all of Lyne's films -- looks great. It is not a horror film from first frame to last, and phans who sneak out of GRAVEYARD SHIFT and into JACOB'S LADDER expecting more of the same (though the Phantom would have difficulty understanding why anyone would *want* more of the same) will be disappointed. JACOB'S LADDER needs a little time and space to develop in its own way and at its own pace, but the Phantom thinks that phans who see it and are willing to accept its sometimes illogical twists and turns will be pleasantly surprised. And phans who enjoyed BRAIN DEAD will almost assuredly enjoy JACOB'S LADDER, for there but for the grace of a major studio and $20 million dollars is something very similar to Charles Beaumont's glorious Twilight Zone-like script.
Good psychological horror films are so few and far between that the Phantom urges phans to see JACOB'S LADDER while they wait for the giant rats to leave and MISERY to arrive. When Chucky returns this Friday for a rehash of the very clever and original CHILD'S PLAY, the Phantom will be in attendance, laughing and throwing popcorn with the rest of the audience. But he probably won't be scared or disturbed or even very intrigued; JACOB'S LADDER was able to do all of these things with remarkable skill, and so the Phantom recommends it very highly indeed.
: The Phantom
: baumgart@esquire.dpw.com
: {cmcl2,uunet}!esquire!baumgart
.
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