Verdict
Summary
Nicely shot for an indie film, Jacob unfortunately has too many ingredients and too much seasoning to keep it a balanced dish. It’s a southern gothic drama cross pollinated with a supernatural horror movie, and while that can work in the right hands (Texas Chainsaw Massacre still mesmerizes), it unfortunately doesn’t taste quite right here.
Plot:
An evil force transforms a patriarch of a family into a killer, which is then transferred to the oldest son, a mute boy named Jacob.
Review:
In the late 1970s, a family inherits a mansion home, and the patriarch Lawrence (Michael Biehn) is overjoyed because he struggles making ends meet as a mechanic. His wife takes care of their mute son Jacob and their cute daughter Sissy while Lawrence spends time away renovating the old house they’ve inherited. When Lawrence unearths a book of evil (some kind of Necronomicon or book of spells) from the floorboards, it transforms – and transports him away for months – into a vessel of evil. When he returns to town one day completely changed, he heads to the local watering hole where he massacres a bunch of innocent people and is killed in the process by the sheriff, leaving his wife a widow. Enter good o’le boy Otis (writer / director Larry Wade Carrell), who shacks up with Lawrence’s widow and becomes the man of the house. An abusive alcoholic, Otis learns that he can’t abuse the mute Jacob (Dylan Horne), who’s grown into a hulking beast with an uncontrollable violent streak and a fascination with dead things. When Otis goes way too far and kills Jacob’s little sister in a drunken rage, Jacob goes into beast mode and decimates Otis, causing the entire town to go on the hunt for Jacob, who is now the walking embodiment of evil who kills anyone and everyone who tries to stop him.
Nicely shot for an indie film, Jacob unfortunately has too many ingredients and too much seasoning to keep it a balanced dish. It’s a southern gothic drama cross pollinated with a supernatural horror movie, and while that can work in the right hands (Texas Chainsaw Massacre still mesmerizes), it unfortunately doesn’t taste quite right here. It’s overwritten and while some of the actors are well cast, some of the others don’t have the skill to deliver the lines that Carrell has written for them. Carrel casts himself in two roles, and while he tries quadruple duty (two acting parts, writer and director), he’s overwhelmed with the tasks at hand. The movie is violent, but most of the worst stuff depicted is off camera, but it’s still unpleasant and uneven. In a way, the Jacob character reminds me of the Jacob Goodnight character from See No Evil. Strange how similar those characters are (mute, hulking bald killers with supernatural strength, plus the name), but no one else seems to have noticed that.
MVD recently released a Blu-ray of the Unrated version of Jacob, and the quality of the transfer is strong, with crystal clear high definition image and sound. There are cast and crew commentaries, a handful of making of features and interviews, a screen test, deleted and extended scenes, with commentary, storyboards, and trailers.
