Jacob's Ladder

Bluesky

When Jacob's Ladder was initially released it took the number one spot in America and then promptly bombed. After that it was confined to scrappy VHS and the bargain bin of late night television. The film's first failing was that it, a mainstream horror film, was genuinely scary and it didn't let its audience off with an understandable catharsis. The second was that conceptually it was too far ahead of its time. 35 years later, with a restored UHD release, we can look back and see the film for what it is: not only highly influential in horror cinema but a meditation on the acceptance of grief and mortality.

StudioCanal presents a new 4K version of of director Adrian Lyne’s Jacob's Ladder. The restoration, by the Californian company Roundabout Entertainment, is of the high standard that you would expect from a StudioCanal release. It really brings to life some of Lyne's visionary techniques such as the demonic head shake (now a staple of horror cinema).

The disc contains only two special features. There is a new trailer for the restored version's release. The other is a short but compact documentary, On The Rungs Of Jacob's Ladder. It follows the film from conception to production to box office failure and finally to cult status, becoming the precursor to the likes of Donnie Darko and The Sixth Sense. The postulations on the film's initial failure cover the fact that, as a horror film, it is an uncomfortable watch.

Themes such as The Vietnam War, post traumatic stress disorder, and government conspiracy did not fit with America's jingoistic cultural narrative in the run up to Desert Storm. The meshing of horror, political thriller, metaphysics and unexpected plot twist was something pretty much unique in cinema, something audiences were unprepared for. However the idea that Jacob's Ladder was doing something wholly new is not quite true. Another film which has achieved cult status, the 1962 arthouse horror Carnival Of Souls, shares not only a similar plot twist but has analogous artistic and thematic elements.

Overall the new release is a well put-together package, tight without the extraneous content found on many discs. The new artwork on the packaging is in keeping with the film. It does Jacob's Ladder justice.