Jacob

A hulking mentally challenged young man called Jacob goes on a killing rampage when his drunken and violent redneck stepfather murders his little sister. I bought this for three reasons - I love slasher movies, the DVD was reasonably cheap and I have a son called Jacob. For the purposes of writing a review for IMDb I have given it a second viewing, about 6 years after the first. I was disappointed the first time, sadly there was no improvement with a second viewing. Most of the plot takes place in the 1970's, yes we get some old vehicles but fashion wise there's not a pair of flared trousers, a kipper tie or any big collars in sight. In fact the actors look more 1990's/2000's. Many splatter fans will be disappointed, it takes about 50 minutes before Jacob becomes a horror movie proper, before that it is more of small town Texan drama centred around a trailer trash type dysfunctional family. When the killing starts it is quite funny, for example Jacob easily rips off a man's "rubber" arm, you can see the bump where the actor is hiding it underneath his top. There are a few gory moments but the effects aren't exactly special. As for the acting on the whole it is of an acceptable level for an obviously low budget movie, though none of the cast will be in the running for an Oscar! The picture looks as though a filter had been placed on the camera lens, it is very sepia, I didn't like it. A supernatural angle is thrown into the plot in the shape of an old book on black magic, very ineffective, the result is a weak slasher movie with a silly supernatural touch. There are a number of very generous reviews here, some of the reviewers have this as their single contribution on this site, take them with a very large grain of salt!