Why 'Jacob's Ladder' Remains One of the Creepiest New York Stories Ever

I first watched Jacob’s Ladder on VHS in 1991. I was only 12, probably way too young for such a movie, but my parents were pretty liberal about what I was allowed to see, if they even knew what it was. We weren’t very religious, so biblical connotations aside, a movie titled Jacob’s Ladder sounds like a kids adventure about some precocious twerp who discovers a magical climbing device that takes him up to the clouds where he’ll talk to fairies and ride oversized hamsters.

Regardless, it scared the utter crap out of me. I was already kind of afraid of New York City subways, what with the muggers and the rats and the vagrants and The Baseball Furies from The Warriors. Now I couldn’t get the imagery of those white-faced demons zipping by on the C train out of my mind.

Directed by Adrian Lyne, who has always been better known for sexy movies (9 ½ Weeks, Fatal Attraction, Unfaithful) than scary ones (though some of those meet in the middle), Jacob’s Ladder was barely a success when it was first released in 1990. Critics liked it for the most part. As quoted on the Blu-ray, New York Times maven Janet Maslin called it “viscerally scary” (though I would’ve added a few exclamation points to that sentiment and made it “viscerally scary!!!!!!”). The movie celebrates its 25th anniversary on Monday, and it has grown in stature over that time.

A selfie of Kevin watching ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ (or the Blu-ray cover, courtesy of Tri-Star)

Upon a recent second viewing, I can testify that it’s as terrifying for a 36-year-old in 2015 as it was for a 12-year-old in 1991. And it’s not just those white-faced demons, who now recall a hellish mishmash of Harry Potter torturer Voldemort and The Leto Joker. There are plenty of other bad-acid-trip sight gags that are equally chilling, like the spinning heads (an effect Lyne amazingly achieved practically with a sped-up camera trick); the dessicated animal skull in the refrigerator; the tentacle monster getting freak-nasty with Elizabeth Peña at a house party; the eyeless man who administers a lobotomy.

But the whole psychology — and spirituality — of the film is tormenting.

Tim Robbins, in sexy-tall-drink-of-water mode two years past Bull Durham, plays Jacob Singer, a Vietnam vet living in Brooklyn (waaaay before Brooklyn was cool) being plagued by creepy hallucigenic visions everywhere he turns. It’s clear these have something to do with chemical weapons used on his platoon that lead to Jacob getting stabbed in the stomach in the jungle, which we see in the film’s opening moments.

But in New York, with demons haunting him, shady men in trenchcoats hunting him, and a blurred sense of reality — i.e., despite the fact that he’s now living with a new girlfriend, Jezzie (Peña), at one point the film takes a Mulholland Drive-esque turn and returns him to life with his ex-wife, Sarah (Patricia Kalember), and sons — the questions mount up.

Tall drink of water Tim Robbins in 'Jacobs’s Ladder’ (Tri-Star)

Is any of this actually happening, or is it all Jacob’s mind playing tricks on him? Was it the Viet Cong who attacked his platoon with chemicals, or his own government? Is there anyone Jacob can trust? Even the scenes with the man who appears to be his most trustworthy companion, his chiropractor Louis (Danny Aiello), ooze with creepiness (I’ve just realized that my irrational fear of getting adjustments at the chiropractor’s may very well subconsciously stem from that early viewing of Jacob’s Ladder). Is Jacob even alive? Because his existence is starting to closely resemble a living hell. And why did young Macaulay Culkin, who shows up as his dead son, suffer such a high mortality rate in the early '90s? (See also My Girl and The Good Son. At least he survived those robberies.)

Jacob’s Ladder is such an intense watch that even the gaffes are traumatizing. During a scene in the aforementioned alternate reality scene with his family, we see the blurry figure of a man in the mirror as Jacob tucks his son in. Apparently it’s a crew member and that was a goof, but in the heat of the scene in a movie where reality is an enigma, it makes for yet another bone-chilling moment.

A screenshot of The Man in the Mirror (Tri-Star)

I wouldn’t spoil any of the movie’s tricky questions here, only to say that Jacob’s Ladder perfectly blends elements of horror, suspense, '70s paranoid thriller, and ultimately, surprisingly affecting spirituality. But above all, it’s a supremely creepy mind-effer. And if you’ve never seen it, watch it immediately. But maybe not if you’re only 12.

Watch the trailer for 'Jacob’s Ladder’: