The House That Jack Built

Name: The House That Jack Built
Director: Lars von Trier
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Crime/detective, Drama
Released: 2018
Duration: 2 h 32 min
Cast: Matt Dillon, Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman, Riley Keough, Siobhan Fallon

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Horror
Thriller

2018
Lars von Trier
152 mins
18

Summary

Architect Jack has a passion for European art and an unspoken fascination with the Third Reich. When he isn't obsessing over the finer details of his dream lakeside home, Jack kills and mutilates unsuspecting victims - predominantly women - and keeps their body parts as souvenirs. Horror thriller starring Matt Dillon

IMDB

Review

A star rating of 2 out of 5.

Stephen Carty

If you're no stranger to the work of Danish auteur and arch controversialist Lars von Trier (Antichrist, The Idiots), then you probably won't be surprised that The House That Jack Built is littered with sadistic violence and cruelty. This blackest of black comedies focuses on the five "incidents" that have defined Jack (Matt Dillon), a remorseless serial killer who's been plying his gruesome trade for years. Censor-baiting scenes involving violence and mutilation against women, children and a duck are part of the mix, though they aren't quite as shocking as you might imagine. If pitch-black humour is your cup of tea, then the film is even quite funny (such as when Jack returns to a murder scene in order to clean up). The problem, though, is that the 150-minute running time means the film really drags in places. Some sequences feel endless, especially when Jack engages in an ongoing discussion with another man called Verge (Bruno Ganz). Almost every scene is interesting in some way, but the end result will test your patience, and it will be too unpleasant for some audiences.

imdb-square

6.8/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameJackMatt DillonVergeBruno GanzLady 1Uma ThurmanSimpleRiley KeoughLady 2Siobhan FallonLady 3Sofie GrabolAlJeremy Davies

Crew

rolenameDirectorLars von Trier

Details

Theatrical distributor

Curzon Artificial Eye

Released on

2018-12-14

Languages

English | German | Italian

Guidance

Violence, swearing

Available on

DVD and Blu-ray

Formats

Colour