Culture

Cult Film

To call Jacob’s Ladder a horror movie would be selling it short. It doesn’t only rely on frightening images, it also gets inside your head. Tim Robbins plays Jacob Singer, a soldier who returns from Vietnam and begins to experience terrifying demonic visions. His girlfriend (Elizabeth Peña) believes he is suffering from post-traumatic stress, but Jacob starts to suspect that he died in Vietnam and is now in hell. The grimy concrete jungle that is New York City (subtext alert) suddenly adopts an even more sinister presence. Jacob starts to move between different realities, and his world becomes unnerving in subtle ways. Like him, we are unsure of what is real. Some of what we see may only be the projection of his mind.

This was Robbins’ first leading role, and he’s an ideal casting choice, because he just seems like a regular guy. If the film had cast a brooding, swaggering type of actor with movie-star gravi- tas, it would give the audience some distance. As it is, we are kept all the more invested when it’s a relatable character being inexplicably sucked into a maelstrom of hellish insanity. This is one of those films that keeps the viewer strongly drawn in on both an intellectual and an emotional level.

For some viewers, the film’s WTF factor might crowd out everything else, but there’s plenty of subtext in there. It’s a film about life and death; it is also full of biblical allusions. But what I found to be the most engaging thread of the movie was its exploration of what happens when your own mind turns on you. It’s established that Jacob is abnormally intelligent, and his mind may have been kicked into overdrive by an external agent. Some reviewers have noted that the film might be an allegory for schizophrenia; I believe it could be an allegory for mental illness in general. Beyond the tangible experiences like hallucinations, the film captures the feeling of becoming afraid of one’s own mind; not knowing what is real or what to trust. Definitely requires multiple viewings.