Jack Goes Home

The downward spiral into madness Jack Goes Home tries to imbue falls short. What's left is a disjointed film wondering what it wants to be.

While I do agree we get to see a different side of Lin Shaye from what we see in the Insidious chapters, I felt her performance to be over the top and wrought with cliché moments à la Mommie Dearest.

Rory Culkin gets everything thrown at him including the kitchen sink, yet never deviates from the mouth agape, detached look expression he sports throughout the film. His acting skills are far superior to what we see play out during the movie.

Natasha Lyonne makes a cameo appearance at a receptionist desk. It makes you wonder if she said her four lines as a favor to Dekker. Fortunately for Lyonne, she can make a desk look good. It's unfortunate for us that we only get a glimpse of her.

On a positive note, there were a few creepy scenes any horror fan would enjoy. And it was also a beautifully shot film. There was enough glimmer of hope buried within Jack Goes Home to make me interested in Thomas Dekker's next move as a director and film writer.

Jack (Rory Culkin) seems cold to the news of his father being decapitated in a car crash. His pregnant girlfriend Cleo (Britt Robertson) is away visiting her parents. His lesbian friend Shanda (Daveigh Chase) finds him disturbingly sleepwalking. He goes home to care for his mother (Lin Shaye) and uncovers hidden family secrets. Shanda joins him.

Thomas Dekker is an actor trying to branch out into filmmaking. There is some good creepiness mostly due to Culkin's disturbing acting. This is a psychological horror which is outside the norm. Dekker's work is professional but lacks an excitement. There are moments of tension but it never maintains its intensity. It all adds up to an uneven attempt with some interesting aspects.

"Jack Goes Home" is a psychological Thriller (with some horror elements) about a boy named Jack (Rory Culkin) whose dad is killed in a car accident, after hearing the news he returns home to help his mother with the funeral and cope with the whole ordeal. As Jack struggles with the loss of his father he starts to notice strange behavior from his mother while also attempting to uncover possible secrets that his parents have been hiding from him for years. I thought the plot line was interesting enough, unfortunately the movie does a poor job of developing and delivering it.

The movie is essentially about a man's struggle with the loss of his parent and his own mental instability. I like movies that dig into the human mind and really focus on one individual slowly losing it, however "Jack Came Home" does a very poor job of pulling that off. Jack is a pretty unlikable character from the get go, he's emotionless, dull, and really has no interesting character traits so to be honest I really had trouble watching him mope around and complain about everything for almost two hours. Jack's mother (player by Lin Shaye) is an interesting character and makes for some of the more interesting scenes in the movie, unfortunately she isn't featured that much.

The movie tries to keep things interesting by throwing in a little bit of mystery but again they just do such a poor job of developing it, by the time big reveals are made you will have likely figured everything out and be bored with it. I saw the final twist coming a mile away, so much so that I kept telling myself maybe that wouldn't be the twist since it was so predictable. I feel like they had the right idea in a lot of places but then just completely dropped the ball in the points that mattered most.

As far as indie horror movie goes "Jack Goes Home" is far from one of the worst, even though it's barely a horror movie, but it is definitely not anything to write home about. It's predictable, drab, and pretty dry overall.

I enjoyed this one, because in my honest opinion, it had a lot to offer. From the great acting, to the dialogue, the effects, the plot, the confusion, everything falls quite lovely in place and the puzzle reveals itself little by little. I had fun here, I kept asking myself questions, I was waiting to see more, started to suspect one and the other.

It is a beautiful psychological drama, with some horror elements to spark the atmosphere, and pretty much no dull moments. So if you are a fan of the oldies and crazies like Identity, The Pact, Session 9, this one will fit the list just fine. Some will consider it better, some perhaps not so much, but you will find a lot of familiar traces here.

Jack Goes Home is indeed a little gem of a movie, that should be recommended and watched by more people because it surely delivers on so many levels. Of course, bare in mind, I did say, little movie. I won't place it up there, with your big budget productions.

Cheers!

"There's nothing to do or say. Um... we live, we drive, we crash, we die. Had to happen sometime."

Coincidentally, I have just seen "Marrowbone". A film about someone who has difficulties in processing the loss of a loved one. And when I was about halfway with "Jack goes home", I realized that I was watching a similar story. And it might be that the ultimate outcome is identical. I wasn't far wrong. And to be honest, I thought this intriguing film slightly better than the previous one. And this only because of the brilliant acting of Rory Culkin. A portrait about how madness takes over someones personality.

I hadn't seen the name of the actor who's playing the leading role. So I was wondering for a long time where I had seen that face before. And when I finally found out his name was Culkin, it hit me. Damn, he looks a lot like his brother who made a couple of burglars their lifes a hell in "Home Alone". But I must confess that his acting performance surpassed everything that his famous brother Macaulay ever did. As Jack, Rory displays a whole range of feelings and moods. From pride to indifferent. From sadness to calmth. One moment he tries to unravel an old family secret. The next moment he flees into a daze of alcohol and drugs. He even experienced homosexual delusions. And all this after he was forced to return to his parental home because his father died in a car accident.

It's clear from the start that something isn't right. That indifference with which Jack tells his pregnant wife that his father died. Even though his father apparently was pretty important to him. The way in which he tells in detail about his beheaded father, is strange and frightening. On the other hand though it's strangely enough also funny in a certain way. The behavior of his mother Teresa (Lin Shaye) is also strange. Perhaps the traumatic effect after the accident? After her outburst during dinner about whether she should or should not mourn about the loss of her husband, you start to think she's relieved about that loss. Are those dark family secrets real? It results in a complex mother-son relationship which escalates as the film progresses.

"Jack goes home" is such a movie that makes you feel uncomfortable. Despite the total lack of bloody or frightening images (even with a creepy attic in the house), there's this constant feeling of tension. The psychological chaos is a constant in this film. "Jack goes home" balances between a ghost story and a psychological family drama. Jack is involved in a battle with his personal demons and seems to be gradually losing his grip on reality. And even though the characters are of such a nature that there is always the danger of relapsing in overacting, the main actors ensure that they do not fall into that trap. It feels like I'm repeating myself, but the acting of Rory Culkin is fascinating. For me this movie is worthy a watch. In other words, a must see. And if you get the chance to see it, let me know if I'm totally wrong!