The House That Jack Built -- Another Journey Through the Mind of a Killer
Name: The House That Jack Built
Directed By: Lars von Trier
Subgenre: Psychological Slasher (with some supernatural elements toward the end)
Series: Spooktober 2021 entry #17; review #110
Review: This will come as a shock to no one, but I'm on Reddit. I frequent the horror subreddit--along with other horror subs, blogs, and pages--quite a bit to keep my finger on the spooky community's pulse. Time and time again, The House That Jack Built gets brought up as one of the most disturbing modern films around, which isn't all that surprising given that it's written and directed by Lars von Trier, who's known for having some downright upsetting scenes in his films to say the least (specifically, everything about Antichrist). In fact, the cinephile community at large developed a bit of a buzz for The House after initial screenings of the film's unrated version caused over a hundred people to walk out--though those remaining reportedly gave the film a ten-minute standing ovation. From there, von Trier got into a bit of a tizzy with the MPAA over screening the unrated version of the film so quickly after an R-rated cut began circulating. It's that R-rated cut that is largely available online, for the record, and the version I watched on Hulu. Evidently, only a small portion of the most extremely violent scenes were censored--I'll be touching on that in a bit. Either way, with all that buzz, I knew I needed to make time to check it out.
The House That Jack Built is a long movie, comparatively at least with typical horror films. This is not a criticism, nor is it a compliment by itself. What is a compliment is what von Trier is able to achieve in that run time. The House That Jack Built is a journey into the mind of a serial killer, reminiscent of films like Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Angst, Tony (2009), or even the August Underground trilogy or Behind the Mask: Rise of Leslie Vernon. The viewer comes to know Jack through his conversations with Verge (sound familiar, literary fans?), where Jack peels back the layers of his story via five seemingly random incidents throughout his life as a serial killer. This leaves the film with an almost anthology-esque feeling: each vignette is centered around Jack, though each is a discrete story unto itself, although they do feed into the greater narrative of Jack's life and the culmination of his work. We watch as Jack reveals how his killing spree began, how it evolved and how he evaded police for so long, how his sociopathy played with (and against) attempts at building a family and finding love, and how his great work all comes together. Saying more would be too much.
Each incident is packed with tension. You know that something is wrong from each scene's get-go, but von Trier masterfully strings us along until we're practically begging for some resolution, and then gives it to us in staccato bursts of shocking violence. The film has disturbing elements, even more so should you watch the uncensored version, but those moments contrast so beautifully (or dreadfully--and if you're Jack, you'd know there's no difference between the two) with the tense, developing storylines that they're almost a macabre reward for making it through. And as gruesome as they are, the moments disappear in a flash, like another failed project swept away to start anew.
See, Jack is something of a narcissist. That's not altogether shocking if you know a bit about antisocial personality disorder, or sociopathy/psychopathy in popular nomenclature. Narcissism, remorselessness, and self-absorbed, amoral manipulation of others make up the Dark Triad of malevolent psychological traits found so often in perpetrators of the most heinous crimes, and Jack has those qualities in spades. The story between the stories--Jack's conversations with Verge--play out like a psychological evaluation in a criminal interrogation, and Verge skillfully dissects Jack's tales and reveals bits of his psyche that even he, as brilliant and Sophisticated as he may be, is not ready to face.
While The House is not a standard psychological horror movie, the psychology presented is fascinating, deep, and accurate, and it informs us as to the ending of the film.
The ending of the film, as it were, takes a hard left turn. I had my suspicions (given the foreshadowing hint above), but von Trier leans into that stylistic departure HARD. This will likely be a point of contention as it feels like the film has gone off its preset rails, but I believe it's actually a perfect culmination of everything that Jack has worked toward in his meager career--and, more importantly, we see exactly who Jack is at the end of his story.
Let's go back to what was censored in the film--and spoilers marked with strikethrough below. I was able to track down some of the unedited scenes and, frankly, the increase in gore doesn't actually add that much to the storyline. The scenes pack more of a gut-punch, sure, but the extra gore amounts to a few second overall. The unedited cut doesn't cut away during the sniping scene: we see Grumpy's leg dangling by a thread, and we see George take a bullet to the head; later, we the camera doesn't cut away during the breast mutilation scene.
The R-rated cut isn't terrible; the end result of he killing is more disturbing than acts themselves, in my opinion, at least with Jack's frozen little humannequins. That said, I still recommend the director's cut if you're able to find it as it represents the vision von Trier wanted to share, and it works well. It's no surprise, but the acting is stellar, the direction is superb, and the atmosphere is more charged than a stormy day. My only complaint is that, even with the film's edited run time, it's still just a touch too long. Certain scenes start to drag on a bit and, while the tension builds up even after Jack has killed (mimicking the metaphor of the shadows well), there's still just a bit too much fat for my taste. Then again, I'm not the biggest fan of slow-burning horrors, so take it with a grain of salt. So, is The House That Jack Built as obscenely disturbing as some folks make it out to be? Hardly, though there are a few blink-and-you-miss-them scenes of graphic content, but they're nestled in a far more interesting story about a serial killer who is far less sophisticated than what he believes himself to be. It's good; go watch it.
Overall Score: 4 out of 5 Chads debating whether they're architects or engineers. Did The House That Jack Built scare you? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
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