Anything for Jackson is a horror film which clearly starts as it means to go on – offering drastic, sometimes bizarre contrasts between humdrum suburban life and an occult storyline which is recognisable, but no less OTT for it. The resulting film is like a mash-up between Hereditary (2018) and Inside (2007) – make of that what you will. For me, despite the fact that it becomes less able to keep the surprises coming as it nears its close, it’s nonetheless a very entertaining, grisly feature with more than enough ideas to hold interest. It manages that rare skill of balancing dark humour against some pretty gruesome content, too, achieving that tonal balancing act which gets away from so many films.
The older couple whom we meet as the film begins – Doctor Henry Walsh (Julian Richings) and his wife Audrey (Sheila McCarthy) seem to be at that stage in their lives of humdrum domestic happiness – that is, until their morning is disrupted by the delivery of a distraught, heavily-pregnant woman, whom they gag and chain to a bed upstairs; this is clearly part of a plan which they’ve been formulating for some time. Hmm. This being done, they’re back to dignified ‘normal’, or at least, the appearance of it. Reading a statement to the young woman, Henry’s patient Shannon (Konstantina Mantelos), they explain that their plan is to bring their deceased grandson, Jackson, back. Back? Shannon queries who the little boy sitting in the room is, then. It seems that, even before the plan is put into action, something is not right with this house – and the occult content of the film’s plot is about to take a significant hike upwards, as it transpires that the Walshes are going to invoke demonic forces, to try and reincarnate Jackson into the body of Shannon’s unborn baby.
Of course, the film doesn’t exist where intoning in an archaic language from a mysterious book ends well, and cinema would be the poorer if it did. The film fills us in on elements of the back story after the event we begin with, and if done well as it is here, it’s a pleasing way to structure a plot. It also allows the film to mete out its nastiness – which is very definitely in there – mixing it in with more humorous aspects, and the more humanising aspects too. Whilst the film doesn’t dig too deeply into the human psyche, there’s enough characterisation here to assert that there is more going on here than simply a re-tread of Evil Dead-style tomfoolery (a film which we all love, sure, but which lacks anything really resembling a back story). As the film unfolds, the growing evidence of what this loving, if deeply-damaged pair has done badly wrong leads to some genuinely appealing horror sequences, and where the film initially leads with its occult horror tropes (the grimoires, the pentagrams, the rituals) it transforms into more of a ‘haunted house’ movie, but this doesn’t feel like a bad fit at all. Rather, thanks to a handy plot reveal, the haunted house motif makes sense. A few of the successive scenes successfully made me squirm, too, being as they are a solid blend of splatter and spooky.
It’s interesting seeing how this pans out around three main characters who have barely any concept of what’s going on. Motivated by grief, the film successfully gives the impression that Henry and Audrey have never done anything illegal or immoral in their lives before this point; now, driven by their grief, they are an odd fit for the lunacy unfolding in their home. In places, some of the shifts between chintzy normality and the forces of hell are a little obvious (Audrey making tea straight after a demonic encounter is really driving that point) but, largely speaking, they’re plausibly bewildered, desperate people who are also dangerous, and – essentially – to blame. The film’s more serious subtext is absent families, whether through bereavement or estrangement, just played out with the kind of grotesque excess at which horror excels. And at the heart of all of this is Shannon: I will admit raising an eyebrow at yet another woman in horror whose impending motherhood conveniently eclipses her personhood. I’m also surprised that I’ve read some reviews of this film commenting warmly on its novel plot, as for me this is hardly a film without some precedent. Rather like Rosemary’s Baby (1968) we’ve another horror here which rests on the proprietorial treatment of a pregnant woman. Thankfully, Shannon has enough about her to fight her corner – or, at least, it seems that way; I’d be interested to see what other viewers made of some of the final ambiguity…
Minor quibbles aside (I didn’t really get started on the metal-incel-occult stereotype who pops up) I really did enjoy this film. It’s a kind of gory parable, a cautionary tale about meddling with those pesky demons which more than deserves its place amongst the best of the horror films which have followed a similar story arc.
Anything for Jackson (2020) is available to watch now on Shudder. For more information on how, please click here.