Movies
[BD Review] ‘Jacob’ is Admirable but has Zero Focus
Reviewed by Patrick Cooper
Sometimes the sincerity and DIY spirit of an indie horror film can make you like it more than you should. Case in point: Texas filmmaker Larry Wade Carrell’s 2011 shocker Jacob, which just dropped on Blu-ray. I can’t help but admire Carrell’s ambition and his obvious passion for the genre. His southern gothic bloodbath was clearly a work of love and for that reason alone, I think a lot of horror fans will enjoy it. However, the film does buckle under some of the trappings of a DIY production – namely poor acting, an unbalanced tone, and languid pacing.
The titular character is a six-foot tall, 400lb bald-headed behemoth who’s a cross between Lenny from Of Mice and Men and Frankenstein’s monster. In saggy overalls and a blank expression, he sulks around town, listening to the voices in his head that tell him to kill cats or whatever’s handy. He’s a horror cliché in OshKosh B’gosh. His stepdad, Otis (Carrell), is the local rabble-rouser. He gets loaded during the day then beats his wife at night. The only family member who connects with Jacob is his little Sissy, who throws tea parties for him and helps cool his growing hatred of Otis. One night, in a drunken whirlwind, Otis kills Sissy, setting off Jacob’s homicidal berserker rage.
Carrell (who, besides Otis, also plays a bumbling police officer) spends a gross amount of time developing characters and presenting trashy small town stereotypes. He seriously overdoes it in these departments. We don’t need a 10-minute scene of Otis getting trashed in a dive bar with his buddy to know he’s a rowdy alcoholic. During all of these lengthy scenes of character “development,” Carrell’s unable to balance the serious and comedic tones. This lack of focus disallows any actual attachment on the audience’s part, so by the time Jacob’s hillbilly slaughter begins (around the 50 minute mark) all there is to care about is how entertaining the kills are.
The film definitely brings the heat in this department. Once Sissy is killed, Jacob transforms into a battering ram – tearing off limbs and gutting redneck shitkickers with superhuman strength and zero regard for finesse. The townsfolk literally take up torches and pitchforks against Jacob. It’s never clearly explained where he got his abnormal strength, but it’s inferred through a series of flashbacks that Jacob’s real father, played by OG Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), messed around with some Necronomicon book that infused him with an ancient power. See, this film’s all over the goddamn place. There’s even an old crone with cataracts who’s shown later in the film cackling and stroking the book with her bony fingers. Because why the hell not at this point.
Jacob is a mixed bag of comedy, drama, and gore, but it only pulls off the bloody bits successfully. There’s zero focus and too much time is needlessly spent beating us over the head with unwarranted character development. I admire Carrell’s enthusiasm, but his next films will definitely benefit from more clarity.
A/V
Jacob is presented in 1080p in 2.35:1 widescreen with a DTS Master Audio 5.1 surround track and a 2.0 stereo mix. Detail is very fine in, although it does reveal facial makeup imperfections at times – particularly in close-ups on the older officer Carrell plays. You can clearly see where the wrinkly makeup ends and his natural skin begins. It’s awfully distracting. The 5.1 mix sounds terrible because dialogue comes out of every speaker, so when a character is in the front of the screen, his dialogue can be heard behind you. Stick with the 2.0.
Special Features
Two Audio Commentary Tracks: One track features Carrell and the film’s cinematographer, the other features some of the actors.
Deleted and Extended Scenes: Seven minutes of deleted scenes with optional commentary by Carrell.
“The Journey of Jacob: Behind the Scenes”: this ONE HOUR long feature looks at all of the aspects of the production. Features cast and crew interviews and on-set footage.
From Storyboard to Screen: Montage of storyboard to screen comparisons.
Interview at Montreal Comic Con: An interview with the director and some of the cast members at the Canadian premiere.
Screen Test Featurette: Cast members practice one of their scenes.
Trailers
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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