Jacob's Ladder

Jacob's Ladder (1990) was poorly received on release, became a cult film, and is now regarded as one of the most influential horror films ever made. Jacob Singer is a Vietnam veteran living in New York and working at a post office, and the world around him is coming apart. Faces change, things happen in the subway, his past and his present start bleeding into each other. The most recognisable effect in it is the figures with vibrating heads. That is not digital. Those shots were filmed at a very low frame rate and played back at normal speed. The movement is therefore organic and wrong at the same time, and the brain cannot work out why it is disturbing. The Silent Hill games draw on this film directly and their makers have said so openly. Everything settles into place in the final section. This is why it is best watched without reading anything about the plot. Tim Robbins carries it, and so does Elizabeth Peña. Good for: psychological horror, films about trauma, and stories that only reveal their shape late. Less good for: there are a great many disturbing images and the hospital scenes are particularly hard. Anyone wanting answers will be left without them for a long stretch, by design.