As the ’70s and ’80s wave of horror gets sucked dry, the ’90s become ripe for remaking, evident in the new “Jacob’s Ladder,” based off the 1990 cult classic directed by Adrian Lyne and starring Tim Robbins. The new films follows the same plot as the original, with a soldier returning home from war and experiencing a particularly bad form of PTSD.
When it comes to the stream of remakes overflowing in the annual slate of films, horror – specifically titles of a strong cult following – is a prime and vulnerable victim of the remake onslaught. For good measure, too, since the horror genre is always the most affordable, flexible, and repetitive of the zeitgeist.
These remakes, reboots, and auxiliary sequels vary in form and quality. On one end of the spectrum, you have Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria,” which escalates the foundation of Argento’s original to a state of art-house expansion, David Gordon Green’s “Halloween,“ feeding off the nostalgia the public retains for the formative slasher, and even films like Fede Alvarez’ “Evil Dead,” Matthew Reeves’ “Let Me In,” or Zack Snyder’s “Dawn of the Dead” have found clever avenues to continue the path of their forebears. However, on the other end, you have an ugly menagerie of Michael Bay-produced failures through his Platinum Dune production company (‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ ‘Friday the 13th,’ ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’). Even competent director Kimberley Pierce could not re-ignite the fire of Brian De Palma’s original for her 2013 “Carrie.” The fact remains that horror remakes fluctuate, wholly dependent on a right-minded director and firm script.
While the potential of the immersive, nightmarish experience of “Jacob’s Ladder” provides enough intrigue to see it renewed, little of this new iteration aligns with that of a promising remake. Jesse Williams, for all the radiant screen presence he generates, isn’t the first person you’d think of as a hardened veteran, a far cry from the mental instability Robbins is able to evoke in the original. Director David M. Rosenthal has made films that, while effective in parts, appear as mere genre exercises: coming-of-age family drama (“Janie Jones“), rural thriller (“A Single Shot“), erotic thriller (“A Perfect Guy“), disaster film (“How It Ends“). And now, he gets to try his hand at horror, already beginning with a hefty amount of expectations attached to the title.
“Jacob’s Ladder” arrives on August 23.