Anything For Jackson Plot
A pair of bereaved grandparents attempt a reverse exorcism on a pregnant woman they have kidnapped in order to bring back their dead grandson. But the ancient rites they use to do so allows restless spirits to cross over into their home.
Anything For Jackson Review
‘No one has more time than a grieving family. No one.’
One of the gems of Shudder’s original slate, Anything For Jackson is that rare film that manages to deftly mix humour with pitch-black horror, often turning on a dime within scenes and keeping the viewer on edge while also showing us a good spooky time. Where many horror comedies fail is through an uneven mix between the two genres – either not funny enough or not scary enough. While Anything For Jackson leans more into the latter, the film somewhat lulls the viewer with some quirky characters and low-key humour before unleashing some truly unsettling horror setpieces.
Director Justin G. Dyck sets the tone in the opening scene, a long take of our protagonists Audrey and Henry in their kitchen going about their morning business which is interrupted when Henry rushes outside and returns with Shannon, a pregnant woman and drags her kicking and screaming upstairs. The film continues in this manner, constantly subverting expectations with a comical situation or a well-timed scare.
While essentially being a self-contained horror, predominantly set in the four level home of the main couple, the film feels bigger thanks to the inventive use of the architectural space and the various ghouls that inhabit it. A great example of this is the lift that the couple put in after the accident that killed Jackson and crippled their daughter.
The lift has a tragic memory attached to it but is also utilised to menacing effect, such as the trick-or-treating ghost that starts off as a small child but grows into a towering ghoul when it emerges from the lift to torment Audrey. The ghouls that Dyck unleashes are a formidable and eerie menagerie – from the horrific ‘Flossing Ghost’ who will make you look twice at your dental floss to the bitey ‘Suffocating Ghost’ played by the elastic limbed ‘Twisty’ Troy James.
Aside from the ongoing supernatural threat, ancillary characters also provide tension. The character of Ian (Josh Cruddas), for example, a socially awkward satanist with a talent for the dark arts, starts off as comical in his early scenes, but transitions into a formidable and untrustworthy presence by the end. Whereas Detective Bellows (Lanette Ware), who increasingly turns the screws on Henry in her search for Shannon, is sent down a rather unexpected path, her fate becoming a dark recurring punchline that continues to unsettle.
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But it is our main characters that keep us invested, from the benignly evil but oddly sympathetic Audrey and Henry, grieving for the twin losses of their daughter and Jackson, to Shannon, the innocent woman who will do anything to protect her unborn child. An early flashback shows Shannon finding out she is pregnant from Henry, her doctor.
After he consoles her and makes her feel better about her situation, he excitedly messages Audrey to say they may have found their candidate, putting a chilling twist on his affable persona. The main trio of actors are the glue that holds the film together through it’s tonal shifts. Julian Richings, a recognisable genre fixture over the years from Cube to Urban Legend, gets a rare starring role as Henry and nails it, as does Sheila McCarthy as Audrey.
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Much of the humour and tension results from Henry and Audrey as they flail their way through the devilish machinations they have unleashed. But the film wisely places their grief front and centre, guiding them down their foolhardy path as the bodies begin to pile up (or dismember themselves in a snowblower!)
Dyck and writer Keith Cooper cut their teeth in romantic Christmas films, having amassed a huge filmography of some thirty-plus films in the last decade. But they had always harboured a desire to make a horror film, and this longstanding passion yielded a fantastic script by Cooper. Dyck fully utilises his accumulated filmmaking skills to bring the script to vivid life.
The pair even used their own homes as the main house, and their familiarity is apparent, with the set pieces and camera moves tailor-made for the space. While getting great performances from his actors, Dyck also creates some dark visual poetry with the frame, particularly a scene where two hands reach for each other through an expanding pool of blood. And the ending, while perhaps underwhelming for some, leaves us on a chillingly poignant note which is also open to interpretation as to what actually happened.
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Anything For Jackson Overall
Dyck and Copper have crafted a modern horror gem that takes the framework of an exorcism movie and twists into a supremely entertaining, spooky and yes, touching film. Let’s hope they take a break from Christmas films again soon to serve up some more great horror.
What did you think of Anything For Jackson?
Anything For Jackson is available now on Shudder. What did you think?
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