''Jacob's Ladder'' is a 2019 American

psychological horror Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre freque ...

film directed by David M. Rosenthal and written by Jeff Buhler and Sarah Thorp. A remake of the 1990 film of the same name, it stars

Michael Ealy Michael David Brown (born August 3, 1973), known professionally as Michael Ealy, is an American actor. He is known for his roles in '' Barbershop'' (2002), '' 2 Fast 2 Furious'' (2003), '' Takers'' (2010), '' Think Like a Man'' (2012), '' Abou ...

, Jesse Williams,

Nicole Beharie Nicole Beharie is an American actress. She is best known for her starring roles in films such as the drama '' American Violet'' (2008), the psychological drama ''Shame'' (2011), the biographical sports drama '' 42'' (2013), and the independent d ...

Karla Souza Karla Susana Olivares Souza (born 11 December 1985) is a Mexican actress known for her roles as Laurel Castillo on the ABC legal drama series ''How to Get Away with Murder'' and Marina Hayworth on the ABC sitcom ''Home Economics''. She won the ...

, and

Guy Burnet Guy Burnet is a British actor. Early life Burnet attended Holland Park School where his interest in drama first developed, taking an A level in the subject. Before becoming an actor, Burnet aspired to become a professional footballer. He atten ...

. It was broadcast on

DISH Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...

on July 25, 2019, before the theatrical release on August 23, 2019, by

Vertical Entertainment Vertical (formerly Vertical Entertainment) is an American independent film distribution company founded by producers Rich Goldberg and Mitch Budin in 2012. Vertical releases films across all mediums, including theatrical, video on demand, physica ...

, to mostly negative reviews.

Plot

"After losing his brother in combat, soldier Jacob Singer returns home from Afghanistan — only to be pulled into a mind-twisting state of paranoia. Singer soon realizes that his sibling is alive but life is not what it seems. With his life now altered, he must figure out what is real and what is not."

Cast

as Jacob Singer * Jesse Williams as Isaac Singer *

as Samantha Singer *

as Annie / Angel *

as Hoffman, the Veteran Agency pharmacist

Production

Development

In 2013, ''

The Midnight Meat Train ''The Midnight Meat Train'' is a 2008 American horror film based on Clive Barker's 1984 short story of the same name. Its plot follows a photographer who attempts to track down a serial killer dubbed the "Subway Butcher", and discovers more th ...

'' screenwriter Jeff Buhler was reported to be writing a script for

LD Entertainment LD Entertainment, LLC (formerly known as Liddell Entertainment) is an independent American film studio and sales company, founded in 2007 by Mickey Liddell. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and run by Liddell, who formerly ...

's new version of ''Jacob's Ladder''. According to ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'', "the producers are looking to make something more akin to an homage and not mimic the original. The plan is to contemporize the story with new situations and characters but still maintain a story that examines issues and poses

existential Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and value ...

questions". James Foley was attached as director in November 2013. By March 2016, Foley was no longer attached to the project and was replaced by David M. Rosenthal. Rewrites were provided by Sarah Thorp when Buhler was unavailable to return. Buhler said that since, due to two recent wars, the American "cultural understanding of the experience of warfare and what it does to people mentally" has become "a completely different place than it was" in 1990, he decided to not be "necessarily going to the same conclusion, and finding a new way to give the audience an experience that is similar in terms of impact and feeling, but that doesn't play the same tune. It was a very tricky situation in the sense that we were trying to recreate something, but honor the spirit and concept (of the original), while telling a different story". Buhler promised a different twist ending than in the original 1990 film.

Casting and filming

In March 2016, it was announced '' The Perfect Guy'' star

had signed on to star in and executive-produce the film. In April 2016, Jesse Williams and

joined the cast of the film, followed by

and

in June. Williams described the film as "a total re-imagining of the cult classic".

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began on May 2, 2016. By June, filming took place at the Avondale station in

Decatur, Georgia Decatur () is a city and the county seat of DeKalb County, Georgia, DeKalb County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. With a population of 24,928 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, th ...

and

Peachtree Center Peachtree Center is a district located in Downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Most of the structures that make up the district were designed by Atlanta architect John C. Portman Jr. A defining feature of the Peachtree Center is a network of enclosed ped ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. Production had concluded by August of that year. The first official trailer for the film was released on July 1, 2019.

Release

''Jacob's Ladder'' premiered on the

on July 25, 2019 before being released theatrically on August 23, 2019 by

. Previously, the film was set to be released by

on February 1, 2019. It was released on Netflix December 22, 2019.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

the film has an approval rating of based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of . The site's consensus reads, "A needless remake that quickly loses sight of the themes that elevated the original, this is a ''Jacob's Ladder'' that leads straight to nowhere." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

it has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 31 out of 100 based on reviews from eight critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. John DeFore of ''

'' wrote: "As jumbled as all this is, the film never achieves the kind of sweaty intensity of the original."

Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for '' Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...

of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' said the film "plays like a half-hearted sketch of the movie it could have been."

RogerEbert.com ''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times ...

's Brian Tallerico gave it 1/4 stars, saying it "has some scary faces and a tacked-on commentary about PTSD and government intervention that feels cheap and unearned. Only the commitment from the always-solid Michael Ealy saves it from being one of the worst movies of the year, although just barely." Noel Murray of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' wrote that the film was "less strange and scary, and more mindlessly action-packed. It doesn't feel like a dream. It's more like hearing a stranger describe a dream."

References

External links

* {{David M. Rosenthal 2019 films 2019 horror films 2010s English-language films American supernatural horror films American psychological horror films American psychological thriller films American horror thriller films Remakes of American films Films directed by David M. Rosenthal Films produced by Will Packer Films scored by Atli Örvarsson Will Packer Productions films LD Entertainment films Vertical (film company) films African-American horror films Horror war films Horror film remakes 2010s American films African-American films English-language horror films