So I’m watching the first scene of Anything for Jackson, a new Shudder original film. All I know is it’s about two older people and somebody named Jackson.
So I see two sweet, thoughtful older adults in a suburban kitchen talking about what sweet, thoughtful older adults talk about in the morning when the scene takes one of the most disturbing turns I’ve ever seen in a horror film – or any film for that matter.
I thought, what am I watching? I paused the film and reassessed whether I even wanted to go forward.
Anything for Jackson is quite a ride – much more than I bargained for – however, not what I expected.
While it could’ve been better in some instances, it’s a must-watch for those who like horror.
A GREAT SCARY SCENE SET UP
Older couple Audrey and Henry Walsh are grieving over the death of their grandson, Jackson. The pair hatch a diabolical plan to bring him back. This plan involves kidnapping a pregnant woman, named Shannon Becker, and satanic rituals.
The film has some great scenes. The best one, in my opinion, is correctly set up and executed, which made for a legitimate scare that lasted as long as the scene did.
So Henry wakes up in the morning. He reaches out to Audrey’s side of the bed, but she’s not there. He then notices she’s in the bathroom, brushing her teeth with her back turned to him. So he continues to talk to her about their plans as she brushes her teeth. Sounds like a perfectly mundane scene, right? Wrong.
As Henry is talking, I’m getting more and more nervous. I know something is off, but I don’t know what. I sense something horrible is about to happen, but I don’t know why, and I don’t know when, but I know it’s coming. When it finally pops, the payoff is huge.
Now, why was I so scared when nothing is happening? I couldn’t figure it out until I thought about it.
Everything was as it should be, except one simple factor was distorted just enough to freak me out but not enough to tell me what was actually happening.
Director Justin Dyck could’ve let me immediately know what was occurring, but he wisely didn’t, thereby drawing out the tension until much later, and the payoff was worth it.
Another strength of the film lies in its original storyline and its risky focus on unsavory characters.
Good main characters are basically decent people with personality flaws that hold them back in life. But the Walshes are bad people with evil intentions.
I believe most stories aren’t told from this angle because this tactic can alienate the audience and make for a bland horror film as a result. If I’m not emotionally invested in the main characters, I’m bored because I don’t care what happens to them. Kill them or don’t kill them. I don’t care.
But in this case, it works, but just barely. Fortunately, the film is in the hands of Sheila McCarthy, who plays Audrey, and Julian Richings, who plays Henry.
Both created three-dimensional characters that kept me interested even though I disliked the characters intensely at times. Without the proper interpretations of character and nuanced performances, the film would have been a bore-fest even with great direction and writing.
I also liked the storyline as it kept zigging and zagging, so I never quite knew where it was going.
For instance, another favorite scene of mine was when Henry is confronted at his office by Detective Bellows, played by Lanette Ware, who is looking for Shannon, played by Konstantina Mantelos, now handcuffed to a bed in a spare room in the Walsh home.
It’s not a typically scary horror scene, but it moved the story in an interesting direction at the right time. Every moment that I became a little bored, the story went in a direction that made me want to know more.
NOT SO FRIGHTENING SCENES
While I enjoyed a lot about Anything for Jackson, I felt some of the scenes that were supposed to be frightening weren’t that scary, although perhaps they could have been.
In one scene, Becker is trying to get out of her handcuffs as a handcuffed person is apt to do when she finds out something is under the bed.
Now, this is classic horror movie stuff. Great horror films have used the “something is under your bed” scare forever, just like there’s “something is in the dark basement” terror.
Poltergeist (1982) employs this technique to perfection.
The under-the-bed scene in Poltergeist is so good that it has its own name – the Clown Scene. If you mention the Clown Scene in Poltergeist to most horror film fans, he or she will immediately know what you’re talking about. That’s because it’s so effective, but that’s because it’s set up that way.
The scene starts with disturbing sounds off-camera. Robbie, played by Oliver Robins, sitting up in bed to see that his creepy clown doll is not in its chair. At this point, Robbie could immediately jump out of bed and look under the bed. But that would ruin it.
Robbie looks around to see where the doll could be. Since he can’t see the doll, it’s assumed it’s now under the bed.
Robbie leans over to one side of the bed, but he stops, and I think this is on purpose to build tension.
Instead of running, Robbie does the unthinkable. He goes to the other side of the bed to investigate.
As he leans over the bed and lifts the dust ruffle, the tension is at its highest because that nasty clown must be under the bed, just waiting to kill Robbie.
But when Robbie finally lifts the dust ruffle, we see – nothing. The tension is cut. Robbie is safe. But then…BAM! Clown doll wraps around Robbie’s neck.
Now that’s just good setup. We like Robbie at this point in the film, so we fear for him. We know he is in danger, but we don’t know how exactly. The moment lingers and lingers until the payoff, but we don’t get it right away. When we do, it hits like a freight train.
This similar type of under the bed scene in Anything for Jackson could’ve drawn out the scares, but it happened too fast, so the payoff wasn’t there. However, when the thing under the bed does show up, it’s worth it.
The other issue with Anything for Jackson is the ending. It seemed riddled with too many misdirections, so I never knew what was going on.
Instead of a clean, well thought out ending, it seemed rushed. I felt the final scenes were trying to do too much, and I never grasped what happened for sure or why some of the characters did what they did.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Anything for Jackson is a horror film worth seeing. It’s no Poltergeist, but what is really. It offers an interesting storyline that’s not typically done.
Most horror films won’t take risks, but this one did by focusing on less than savory main characters that depended on great acting to pull it off.
It’s no easy task to do that, so I admire the desire to push the envelope in that regard. For the most part that tact succeeded.
I wish some of the scenes could’ve been scarier by drawing out tension as was the case with the bathroom scenes with Henry, which was a great horror scene from beginning to end.
Overall the film moves quickly and makes for a decent horror film.
Rating (out of five): 
