LogFAQs > #902985833

Gafemage posted...

oh yeah im also starting Jacobs Ladder (1990) now

Still collecting my thoughts/feelings on the movie... like It Follows, Jacob's Ladder is another movie that has strong highs but also feels incomplete, but unlike It Follows, there isn't a specific point where the movie starts a downward descent, and with Jacob's Ladder, the highs are stronger than those of It Follows, and the lows are less severe.

As far as the ending goes, I'm still indecisive as to how I felt about it... it was nice & all, and actually somewhat unexpected, but both the ending & the scenes building up to it meant that the movie had to sacrifice its sense of ambiguity & surrealism. I have to admit that I was sort of subconsciously hoping for the movie to end the way it did, and felt a significant sense of relief when Gabe was walking his father up the stairs, but as my thoughts stewed over the ending, I couldn't help but feel short-changed. The movie is absolutely haunting at its darkest moments - to the point where even the most hardened viewers may eventually find themselves begging for the movie to give them a sense of solace - but these moments are what make the movie so memorable & captivating; if they'd taken the ending in a different direction & doubled-down on the overarching darkness & surrealism prevalent throughout the movie, it certainly would've been a tough pill to swallow at first, but I believe my lasting impression of the movie would eventually grow stronger than it will with the ending they took.

Another gripe I had with the movie was that I feel it didn't have quite enough haunting, dreamlike moments. The contrast between "normal" scenes & far-out, nightmarish scenes is important, but there's a point in the movie (specifically the part where the former soldiers meet up & pursue a civil case against the US army) where the movie felt like it was too grounded in reality for too long... thankfully this was shortly followed + salvaged by arguably the film's single scariest & most unsettling scene. I do, however, feel that said scene (the one at the hospital) could've stood to be a minute or two longer at least before the movie returned to "reality"... on that note, I think the movie in general could've stood to be at least a half-hour longer altogether... maybe even longer than that.

TL;DR Jacob's Ladder was a great, atmospheric psychological horror film that suffered from minor pacing issues & would've benefited from a higher concentration of actual horror scenes. Ending was acceptable & comforting, but I also couldn't help but feel the movie could've been more if they'd taken a different direction. Also could've maybe been a longer movie altogether. You can definitely see where Silent Hill drew its inspiration from. 8/10
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https://imgur.com/1EOFcjn https://imgur.com/epjd8zk