atomicgirl-34996 I remember when I first saw this movie. My mind was totally blown. I thought it was the most original film I'd ever seen. Then I saw Carnival of Souls, and that's when my opinion of the film sank considerably. Let me first say what's good about Jacob's Ladder before I give my critique. The film was visually stunning and filled with haunting, unforgettable imagery. I hadn't seen it in literally 20 years before watching it again recently, yet still remembered many of them as clear as yesterday. I'm not sure, but I also believe this was the movie that also invented the "demon" special effect (of the rapidly moving head coupled with goblin sound effects). So, based on the visuals, it gets points from me. As for the story and concept, this is where the movie falters. Jacob's Ladder is basically just a Carnival of Souls retread with better direction, splashy visuals and a better budget. However, it's in many ways the weaker film. The reason why is that Carnival of Souls never lied to the audience but this film did.Some people might say, "No fair! What's the difference between what Carnival of Souls did and what Jacob's Ladder did?" Well, the difference is that if Carnival of Souls lied, it lied by omission. To put it another way, it let you assume what happened after the first scene. With Jacob's Ladder, it's a completely different story. It says point blank that it's a horror mystery about a Vietnam Vet who has terrible hallucinations and flashbacks because he's the victim of some kind of conspiracy. Then, when it solves the mystery of the conspiracy, it says in the last scene. "Psyche! There was never a conspiracy at all! He was dying the entire time!" This is what I mean by the movie lying. It sets you up for one story, then pulls the rug out from under you and says, "That story? Forget it. This is the real story."The movie even cheated to make the audience think that everything that happened to Jacob after he was stabbed in Vietnam was rooted in reality. There are many times when we are shown scenes from the other characters' perspectives when Jacob isn't around. For example, there's a scene in which the members of Jacob's unit are staring at each other after one of them hangs up on him. There's another scene of Jezzie secretly burning photographs behind Jacob's back. The problem with these scenes is that because they happen outside of Jacob's awareness, it misleads the audience into thinking that the "conspiracy" plot is really happening. Because of the misleading plot, all of Jacob's Ladder between the moment Jacob gets stabbed and the moment he dies is nothing more than a red herring. Because it's a red herring, it's inconsequential. It's so inconsequential that if someone only watched the first ten minutes of the movie in which Jacob is shown being bayoneted and the last three minutes in which he dies, that person wouldn't be missing anything in the way of character development or plot because that's all the movie boils down to--a guy dying from his wounds. All the stuff in between is irrelevant.So, all in all, Jacob's Ladder merits a 6/10. It's well directed and visually arresting but it's a lot more unoriginal than people give it credit for (again: see Carnival of Soul). Plus, it uses deception to pull off its twist.

rdoetjes I finally saw this movie. It's impossible to obtain for some reason and I saw it at a friend's movie shelf.We put it in and your like Alice sucked down the rabbit hole. You literally do not know if Tim's characters is in the real world or (re)living one of his psychotic attacks or is Dreaming. You're constantly jerked around in this maze of insanity. It's subtexts post-partum grieve, psychosis, helplessness and inevitability are very strong elements that are played with in a grotesque yet very mature and refined way.And when you think you've finally figured out where the exits of this maze of madness is then you find yourself in a dead end.It's not an easy watch especially for anyone who's suffered a panic attack let alone a psychotic attack. This is as real as psychological horror gets.

Lee Eisenberg It's easy to see Adrian Lyne's "Jacob's Ladder" as a simple psychological thriller. But I interpreted it as saying that war screws people up. This isn't just PTSD. The protagonist's harrowing experience in Vietnam is causing him to see all sorts of horrifying things. And there's also the issue of gaslight: the lawyer tells the protagonist "you weren't in Vietnam" and the shadowy agents try to muzzle him (despite what we find out at the end).This isn't the scariest movie ever, but it's an intense one. I have no doubt that a number of people lost their grip on sanity after experiences in war (especially one as pointless as the Vietnam War). Tim Robbins achieved one of the high points of his career with this movie, with good support coming from Elizabeth Peña and Danny Aiello, as well as brief appearances by Jason Alexander (George on "Seinfeld"), Ving Rhames (Marsellus in "Pulp Fiction"), Macaulay Culkin (right before he got famous in "Home Alone"), Lewis Black (a comedian who performs in the persona of a man having a nervous breakdown) and S. Epatha Merkerson (a supporting actress in a variety of movies and shows).

agustintomaslarghi This is the first review that I write on IMDb, just for the fact that this is a terribly underrated film, and I couldn't believe that this film scored just a 7.5/10 while films such as The Sixth Sense scored a 8.1/10Jacob's Ladder kept me at the edge of my seat all the time, not knowing what to expect next. This film embodies the core principles of the psychological thriller genre, you don't know if the protagonist is just suffering from PTSD, if is something going wrong for real, if his in hell or something like that, what is real and what is in his mind.The acting of Tim Robbins in this film is really outstanding, you can feel the fear and the pain of the protagonist through the film with each dialog, with each scene, you just want him to have some peace. The movie throws at you many symbolisms, making you guess what's going on.If you like the Silent Hill game sage (which is heavily influenced by this film) you're going to love this film.If you like psychological thrillers but you hate when the plot is really obvious or the plot twist is just a slap on your face, be sure that this isn't that kind of film.Not gonna lie you, the ending can make you feel a little empty, but if you're watching a psychological thriller you're not in for the happy ending.This film is twice as good when you watch it a second time, because you can tie all loose ends and all the symbolisms through the movie. Hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.