The Jar

Hi,

It's Paul again. My original review was based on the worthless VHS version. TerrorVision got the original print from Bruce Toscano and restored the movie to the original aspect ratio and color and OMG it's not even close to what was on the VHS. I am truly happy to see Bruce's original vision brought to life.

First of all, the movie is not for everyone. It's not a linear story. A monster doesn't jump out of the jar and eat people's souls. Just go for the ride. I understand why some people don't like the movie. However, with the full restoration, the movie is so much better.

Anyway, the movie sold out two shows at The Music Box in Chicago and another full house at Scream Screen in Denver and not everyone in the audience enjoyed the movie but those who did really liked it. It's not a movie you 'get' it's a movie you just go with.

Check out the TerrorVision Blu-ray.

Gary Wallace Paul in The Jar.

It's slow paced, most scenes don't get together but there are good shots and I like the overall idea of it. With changes it could be a good movie.

It's true. This flick isn't as bad as some of the reviews suggest as long as you have something else to do during the lulls. Needless to say there are plenty of lulls. I recalled watching this movie back about 16 years ago and was not impressed with it at all at that time. My first impression after all these years is that this was a student film someone managed to sell to a studio. The film is extremely low budget and not terribly exciting. However there are some decently freaky dream sequences that you might find worth watching if you like low budget horror flicks (like me) and the whole thought of this old man leaving a pickled punk in a dudes apartment where it takes over the man mind is at the least creepy. I suggest watching this movie while cleaning the house or surfing the net.... Every 20 minutes or so when something interesting happens you can stop what you're doing and watch for a minute or two.

If you were able to sit through movies like... Drive In Massacre Ghost Riders Garden Of The Dead The Cremators You wont have a problem opening The Jar.

Many people seem to hate this movie... well, I love it! Caught occasionally on Telecapri (a regional, Italian TV station that used to show a lot of b-horrors 10 or 15 years ago), this strange film obsessed me for years, becoming a sort of legend: even talking to my friends, it looked like I was the only one who had seen "The Jar"! The strange images of this obscure flick had become part of my fantasy. Last year, I subscribed to an internet horror fans' forum and opened a post there, in which I described all the scenes of this movie, I had been recalling for years; there where other people in Italy who knew it! Obviously, they hated it too; but I finally got that film's title! I bought it on VHS on Amazon, despite the reviews found on this site. Yes, the dubbing was terrible (but it couldn't be worse than the usual Italian dubbing this sort of films get), the editing approximate and the story confusing; but all these elements, helped creating the odd atmosphere that this strange film surely has. Hallucinations, suspension between dream and reality, mystery, non-sense (I admit the candy store scene's a "WTF!?" candidate), isolation, terror and probably some inadvertent qualities too! I consider it as a bad dream: incoherent, maybe incomplete (according to another user's comment, "The Jar" was heavily cut for distribution's reasons), but fascinating and leaving my mind full of inspiration and weird memories. I still like it after all these years and I think it's not worse than many other B (or Z-grade) films that attempted to obtain a 'cult' position after years.

-Dario-

The plot involves a hairy guy named Paul who picks up a creepy old man who was injured in a car accident. The old man insists on taking along this jar wrapped in a bag. Paul takes the old man back to his (Paul's) apartment, the old man vanishes and Paul is left with this jar, which contains this little blue monster that looks like one of the Ghoulies. After that, things get weird as Paul hallucinates and/or dreams all this stuff.

I suppose there could be some symbolism in the film, but we know nothing about Paul before the dreams start, and the dreams seem to have no connection to anything that is happening. My theory is that the director or writer or whoever it was that decided to make this movie took all the weird dreams he had had in his life and rolled them into this painful film. None of the dreams are memorable enough to require a visual translation, though, so they're quite boring to watch. This begs the question of why he decided to do it.

This movie has the feel of a really bad student film. Someone attempting to make an "arty" movie.

Another interesting thing about this film is that it was made in Colorado, but appears to be badly dubbed. All the characters have these dull, out-of-place voices that don't seem to match their faces. It reminds me of B-Movies from the '60s like "Manos: The Hands of Fate" and "The Beast of Yucca Flats" that were either recorded without sound or had the sound erased, and then tried to put sound back in in post-production.

I think this is a bad movie, but I'm no expert. There could be some deep meaning to this film that I don't get. Give it a rent and see for yourself.