Jacob

A hulking mentally challenged young man called Jacob goes on a killing rampage when his drunken and violent redneck stepfather murders his little sister. I bought this for three reasons - I love slasher movies, the DVD was reasonably cheap and I have a son called Jacob. For the purposes of writing a review for IMDb I have given it a second viewing, about 6 years after the first. I was disappointed the first time, sadly there was no improvement with a second viewing. Most of the plot takes place in the 1970's, yes we get some old vehicles but fashion wise there's not a pair of flared trousers, a kipper tie or any big collars in sight. In fact the actors look more 1990's/2000's. Many splatter fans will be disappointed, it takes about 50 minutes before Jacob becomes a horror movie proper, before that it is more of small town Texan drama centred around a trailer trash type dysfunctional family. When the killing starts it is quite funny, for example Jacob easily rips off a man's "rubber" arm, you can see the bump where the actor is hiding it underneath his top. There are a few gory moments but the effects aren't exactly special. As for the acting on the whole it is of an acceptable level for an obviously low budget movie, though none of the cast will be in the running for an Oscar! The picture looks as though a filter had been placed on the camera lens, it is very sepia, I didn't like it. A supernatural angle is thrown into the plot in the shape of an old book on black magic, very ineffective, the result is a weak slasher movie with a silly supernatural touch. There are a number of very generous reviews here, some of the reviewers have this as their single contribution on this site, take them with a very large grain of salt!

I do not write reviews or rate movies generally, but my family saw this at Texas Frightmare and the director said during the Q&A after the film to rate it here if we liked it, so, this is my first and here goes. I liked the movie overall. It was another slasher film like many before it. Nothing new, but it was entertaining. The kills were effective and I enjoyed most of the movie. The little girl actress Grace Powell did a really fine job. Without saying too much here, she really had a few people in tears. I didn't like that we were expecting to see Michael Biehn, James Hampton, and Parrish Randall more and they were not in the movie enough. We've been big fans of Michael Biehn for years. James Hampton we've loved since forever. He is a solid actor who is also a nice guy that we've met before at the convention. Parrish Randall is the guy to have in a Texas horror film and he is another really solid actor. This is my only issue with the movie. Maybe those actors could not do more time in the film. The scenes they had were really good and just made me wish there was more of those guys. Some of the other acting was kind of just okay and what you will see in this kind of film more times than not. I liked that there was not a lot of profanity and nudity in the film. My son is 12 and likes horror films but sometimes the language and sex in a film make it a tough call for parents, so it was good to see a horror film that he could watch without me or his mom having to have concerns there. The Jacob character was really a good one for this kind of horror movie though. He had that larger than life force and power that a killer in this type of movie should have and he was more than scary enough. Overall, yes it was another slasher film, could have been better, but it was still fun to see. I give Jacob a 5 for what it did bring though and I am glad they showed it at the convention.

I guess I'm not on the local bandwagon in Houston. The movie had its good moments and a lot of bad. First off, the writing for the film was shallow, filled with parts of never ending dialog which slowed the delivery. The elements of the real story never surfaced on screen & I was left to hope that the violence would pick things up, which it did. Some of the actors in the film made me think, 'why was that person even in the film?' Many of the actors brought to the film lacked any real acting talent to give substance to undeveloped characters. There were parts in the film where the lighting was just plane awful. Another thing was the sound, it was not there when it needed to be.

If the movie was presented as a rough cut, then why was it released? The heart of this film could make it a local masterpiece? Surely, there are other ways to fund and promote this film project. This film is far from perfect and perhaps far from the solid leadership required to present a completed film to it's local fan base. The producers in charge of marketing and presenting this film failed to bring a real winner to Houston after all of it's hype. I surely hope this film has mild success in it's distribution.

Is it sad of the youngest actors was the star of the show? Grace Powell stole the show by far. I gave the movie a five which I think is good for this type of movie. Worth a red box admission if you like this genre. I wouldn't mind seeing the movie adapted or with a larger budget. The storyline is good enough to warrant it. Keep Grace Powell and start over with the rear of cast. Maybe the old lady and guy from teen wolf. The Dialogue seemed forced at times. They could have showed more versus trying to explain what was about to happen. I consistently made fun of the show but again I think that is why this genre exist. It makes you think about the horror and makes you laugh.

This film had great potential to remind viewers of some of the horror greats like Jason or Michael. Instead it fell flat with disappointing performances from all but Grace Powell and Dylan Horne. Terrible camera work, bad sound broke any immersion that might have been possible. But sadly the first thing I noticed was terrible make up. I have seen first year make up students apply better make up than this movie had.

The biggest problem was that nothing made sense. The violence was barely explained, though a back story is mildly flirted with. The only reason even mildly hinted at is a mental handicap. However, that feels like a cop out from a writer that lost the story.

All things said and done budget problems like shoddy camera work, terrible effects, and bad make up can be forgiven. If there is a well thought out and intriguing story to watch. Unfortunately this film fails in all categories.