Jack in the Box - Es lebt

I had not even heard about this 2019 movie when I was given the chance to sit down to watch it here in 2020. But from the movie's cover, this most definitely was a horror movie, and that was what lured me in.

Well, for a horror movie, then "The Jack in the Box" was bland and rather generic. Sure, it was a watchable movie, but writer and director Lawrence Fowler just never managed to bring the movie out of the mediocre lane.

The storyline in "The Jack in the Box" was pretty straight forward, albeit very, very generic. And it was contents that you have seen in other previous horror movies many times before; a demonic entity being caged up inside a physical box, unleashed unto the world unwittingly by someone not knowing what powers they were meddling with. From that point on, the movie was just overly predictable and followed a very generic how-to-make-a-horror movie blueprint, which left very little room for surprises and plot twists, apparently, because there were none of such in the entire movie.

I will say, however, that the demonic Jack in the Box was actually nicely made and had a good, scary appearance. But it was just a bit under-used and didn't come off as being malignant and evil enough. It felt more like just a creepy uncle creeping around in a clown costume. So writer Lawrence Fowler didn't really manage to create something that was all that spooky or disturbing.

The acting in "The Jack in the Box" was adequate, but it was clear that the actors and actresses had precious little contents to work with in terms of script and character development.

All in all, "The Jack in the Box" was a watchable movie, but it was hardly an outstanding or scary horror movie. My rating of "The Jack in the Box" is a four out of ten stars. Watch it if you have the chance and if you have a preference for horror movies, but just don't get your hopes up for a horror masterpiece. This is, however, the type of movie that you watch once, shelf it and never return to watch it again.

It's not gory. It's not fast-paced. It's not fancy.

They clearly spent all the budget on the box and Jack - which are nice and convincing. But they obviously hired their cousin with a DSLR to shoot it. It is recorded with ambient light and sound. So it just looks and sounds flat. That seems to be the standard nowadays in these dime-a-dozen pre-professional horror movies. So if you are looking for stimulating atmosphere, there is an echo-y, brightly sunlit, nearly empty local historical society "museum" at the center of the film.

It is also very understated in a British way. The lead actor will wind up going on to better things. He is charmingly handsome; and it is only up for him from here. He just had a peculiarly muted accent. Most of the other cast was staid and just there.

The movie had some interesting ideas. A decent protagonist. A very well-designed villain. But horror-oriented plot, suspense and execution - not so much.

Jack kept me in this, even though the story made no sense!

I really expected to hate this movie. With all the rinse and repeat stuff out on the streams today, I was ready to write it off, but I'll admit I was kinda wrong. Huge props to a horror movie for attempting a real storyline with some actual depth. This is also one of the first movie monsters in a while that genuinely scared me.

Does it have plot holes and shortcomings? Of course.

Is it pretty obvious that the budget for the movie wasn't huge? Yes.

Are there some slip-ups accent-wise with the "American" main character? Yes, but they're very entertaining.

I'll be honest, I had a lot of questions while watching the movie, and many might have concerned actual plot holes. Who knows? But I do enjoy watching movies (especially horror movies) that make me ask genuine, non-sarcastic questions which this made me do.

This film has a great box and an excellent villian. Jack's costume and the actor's movements (especially his facial movements) were a real highlight. Unfortunately, it doesn't have much else. The dialogue feels unnatural and the music score attempts to compensate for this unnatural pace of the plot. The barren set design does not help with the world building either.

Not a deal breaker but, even as a non-american, I could pick that the main character was not from the US, and it breaks the already tenuous realism built in this film.

The demon's costume and performance were fantastic though.

Watch or don't, it won't change you life.