Horrorfest 2021: The House That Jack Built

Trick or treat! Time for Horrorfest, where I watch and review 31 horror movies I’ve never seen before in the 31 days of October. Some years I have themes. Remember the Wes Craven year? And the Hammer year? And the Universal year? And the other Universal year? Of course you do! This year, I don’t have a theme! Spooky! Anyway, let’s get to it.

The House That Jack Built (2018)
Written and Directed by Lars von Trier
Starring Matt Dillon, Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Sofie Grabol, Riley Keough and Jeremy Davies
Denmark/France/Germany/Sweden

This is a slow moving and brutal study of a serial killer who views his killings as works of art. It is narrated by the killer himself, seemingly being interviewed by someone (or something – I don’t want to spoil it, but you find out in a pretty crazy ending).

Now, this sounds kinda pretentious, and maybe it is – this is Lars Von Trier after all! But, I got the impression that the movie’s in on the joke and is actually sort of making fun of the protagonist. In other words, it allows him to go on at length about his philosophies on art, but doesn’t necessarily take him seriously. There seems to be an undercurrent of, “Hey, this is all bullshit.” Which is a good take on the subject – if it tried to play off that killing can actually be art, then it’d just be edgy schlock.

Of course it’s really just a metaphor for the creative process, but, even then, it’s nice that it kind of takes the piss out of the creative process. The creative process is important and all, but you don’t want to let it get too precious, or else you’ll never end up creating anything. You’ll just be sitting around thinking about how precious the creative process is.

The main thing with this movie, though, is Matt Dillon’s performance – he plays the serial killer, and it’s worth watching for him alone. Sometimes I forgot it was even him as he melted into this monstrous (and banal) character. So, good job, Matt Dillon!