Jacob — Jacob(Blu Ray)

2011's Rural Gothic Horror Jacob is a relatively straightforward take on the slasher genre, where a disturbed, mistreated and misunderstood figure becomes a local bogeyman. Written, directed, and produced by Larry Wade Carrell, his additional involvement in taking not one but two roles on screen leaves us in no doubt that Jacob is very much his film.  Here's a recent Blu-ray release of the picture from Crazed House.

Although it starts and ends in the present, most of Carrell’s film is set in the past (predominantly 1979), as it tells the story of Jacob (Dylan Horne), a hulking, mute child who only listens to his beloved sister Sissy (Grace Powell). We see the pair’s terrible childhood, during which their father (Michael Biehn) suffered a major, homicidal breakdown resulting in a bloodbath in a local bar and his death. We also see that things didn’t improve when their mother brought the abusive, unfaithful and often drunk Otis into their home. Sheriff Andy and fellow cop Billy, Otis’s brother, keep their rolling eyes on the property, but disaster seems inevitable - especially if Jacob’s sister is threatened.

One of the most illuminating special features on this Blu-ray comes from Montreal Comiccon, where Carrell discloses that Robert ‘Freddy Krueger’ Englund called the script “Of Mice and Men meets Friday the 13th.” It’s an apt summary, although there’s unmistakably lashings of Halloween too. But unlike Jason, Michael or Freddy in their original forms, Jacob Kell is a hulking, dangerous figure from the moment we meet him, with the camera often lurking behind him as the menace simmers.

But, there’s less plot in Jacob than the average instalment of the Friday or Nightmare series, and certainly less than Steinbeck’s novella. Something that isn’t made up for by the swirling horror influences. In flashes of violence, it steps into slasher territory, and in leaping around timelines, and looking back on the main events as rural legend from the present, it even steps into the ghostly too. But it really wants to sit with Southern Gothic horrors. The problem is that rather than taking a leaf from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it seems more inspired by one of the off-timeline Chainsaw Massacre prequels.

The majority of Jacob is spent setting up the killer’s motivation - detailing the familial events as a boy and young man that eventually cause him to snap. That means a considerable amount of build-up, lots of it unnecessary. In truth, what we really see is Jacob, a quite adorable bald child (Deke Garner), staring impassively at endless violence, then as a young man taking it out on cats.

The dialogue is pretty ropey, the acting even more so - not helped because Carrell spends so much time in front of the camera. The wide-eyed, grimacing acting of the director-actor cascades down. It’s difficult to find much nuance of emotion there, with Otis’s evil and Billy’s frustration coming through with a spade.

A particularly arduous part of the film is the extended scenes of Otis - or rather Carrell - having a blast at a bar. Overlong, pointless and tiresome (“you don’t tug on Superman’s cape”), but helpful in making up the 90 minutes. In contrast, Terminator veteran Biehn - known for one of the most frantic performances in sci-fi-horror - gets just a few scenes to go from down-on-his-luck dad to homicidal maniac.

On the plus side, Jacob’s production quality is, at times, excellent for its limited budget. The Kells’ (or Kellers’ - there is a fairly inexplicable expanded family dimension) ramshackle old house - guarded by trees in the opening and ending - is a brilliant construction, dwarfing some of the locations. In particular, the nondescript bar we spend so long in with Otis and his unlikeable friend before both reliably and thankfully get their comeuppance.

The shame is, given the effort poured into what’s evidently a low-budget independent film, there wasn’t a bit more for everyone to get their teeth into (with the possible exception of Carrell’s Otis).

Aside from the illuminating Comiccon footage, special features in Jacob’s Blu-ray release include deleted scenes with and without commentaries, examples of how storyboards made it to screen, screen tests, and the pre-production pitch trailer.