The Jack in the Box: El Origen

Jack in the Box (2019) is a movie I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a family that discovers an antique Jack in the box in their home. Little do they know this Jack in the box unleashes a creature that kills humans to survive. Once they open the box will they ever be able to close it?

This movie is written and directed by Lawrence Fowler (The Ghost Within) and stars Robert Strange (Penny Dreadful), Lucy-Jane Quinlan (Made You Look), Charles Abomeli (Torchwood) and Simon Balfour (Harlots).

This movie had so much potential and dropped the ball. The Jack has fantastic makeup, costumes, mannerisms and sound effects; unfortunately, the kill scenes are super weak, lack gore and should have been more creative. The acting is fairly mediocre and the ending is a bit predictable.

Overall this is a disappointing addition to the horror genre that should have been better. I'd score this a 3/10 and recommend skipping it.

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.

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

'The Jack in the Box' had the potential to be such an awesome movie, but sadly fails.

The film's score is really good. The sound effects are good. The Jack in the box doll with its haunting eyes, is creepy. The demon clown with its scary make-up is the stuff nightmares are made off. So what went wrong? The script. This is a very basic script, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes its good to have a premise that is simple and straight forward. Only, the dialogue is pretty standard. The characters are not fully explored and not interesting at all. The events are not even interesting. The demon clown appearing for the kill felt deja vu. He had the same demeanor in every scene - and there were times when it seemed they didn't really know what he was supposed to be doing.

The Acting. Boy, the acting was bland. The film looks acted. It didn't feel realistic - as if the actors were saying their lines, and then waiting for the director's "Cut!". It looked like they were doing this for the paycheck, or for experience only. They didn't seem motivated at all. Unconvincing. Lucy-Jane Quinlan especially was really bland as Lisa. Then again, the character itself was such a dull and dreary character that one can't really blame the actress. She hardly served any purpose in the movie until the final moment.

Ethan Taylor stars as the film's hero, Casey, who also didn't really seem like he was taking it very seriously. Maybe the director was to blame, who knows, but the film lacks on too many levels. Had 'The Jack in the Box' been directed by Mike Flanagan or James Wan for instance, I think it would have been a lot better. The film just wasn't as suspenseful or captivating as it could and should have been. The film also looked like it was shot with a home movie camera. The visual effects were also basic and low budget. The main draw card here is the box, which had a great design, and the Jack.

Having said that, it also is not a bad movie. If you can overlook the flaws, sit back and allow to be entertained, I'm sure you'll find something here you like. The clown certainly is memorable, although he, too, could have been far better explored.

Surprisingly, it was followed by a sequel - 'Jack in the Box: Awakening'.

Would I watch it again? No.

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.