''Jacob's Ladder'' is a 2019 American psychological horror 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 Brown (born August 3, 1973), professionally known 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), ''About Last Ni ...

, 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 film), Shame'' (2011), the biographical sports drama ''42 (film), 42'' ...

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

, and

Guy Burnet Guy Burnet (born 8 August 1983) is a British theatre, film and television actor. Early life Burnet was born in London, England. He attended Holland Park School where his interest in drama first developed, taking an A level in the subject. Befo ...

. It was broadcast on

DISH Network DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...

on July 25, 2019, before the theatrical release on August 23, 2019, by Vertical Entertainment, to mostly negative reviews.

Plot

"After losing his brother in combat, 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, which can be found in Volume One of Barker's collection '' Books of Blood''. The film follows a photographer who attempts to tr ...

'' 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, which finances, produces, acquires and distributes full-length theatrical motion picture ...

'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 Homage (Old English) or Hommage (French) may refer to: History *Homage (feudal) /ˈhɒmɪdʒ/, the medieval oath of allegiance *Commendation ceremony, medieval homage ceremony Arts *Homage (arts) /oʊˈmɑʒ/, an allusion or imitation by one arti ...

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 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 actor ...

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

Decatur, Georgia Decatur is a city in, and the county seat of, DeKalb County, Georgia, which is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. With a population of 24,928 in the 2020 census, the municipality is sometimes assumed to be larger since multiple ZIP Codes in ...

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 capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. 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 Vertical Entertainment. Previously, the film was set to be released by

on February 1, 2019.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American 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, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of based on 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 a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

it has a weighted average 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'' wrote: "You can forge a decent drama out of elements this scrappy, but not necessarily a film like ''Jacob's Ladder''."

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 Will Packer Productions films Vertical Entertainment films African-American horror films Horror war films Horror film remakes 2010s American films African-American films