Dir. Lars Von Trier | Now Streaming On: Tubi | Rating 2/5

I might break some hearts with this review, but to be real with you – I didn’t love this.⁠
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The House That Jack Built has some elements of dark comedy but leans heavily into arthouse. It toys with this theme of descending. Jack descends mentally into madness and morally (later physically) into hell, through Dante’s Inferno. As a viewer, we begin almost liking Jack and then become so deeply repulsed by him. This is a clever juxtaposition to make, but I didn’t understand most of it during my watch through and had to rely on my post-watch research to really grasp it. THTJB does fall victim to a common arthouse flaw, not telling enough for a casual viewer to be able to follow along. ⁠
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On to the extreme depictions of violence that make THTJB noteworthy. Almost every scene is deeply unsettling and in your face. I found myself thinking while watching – “this could really happen, this could be happening right now.” Personally, I think the portrayal of the murders and Jack’s logic deeply resembles NBC’s Hannibal, which is a project I absolutely love. The frame of Grumpy in the freezer will definitely be sticking with me. ⁠
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Jack was an interesting character to watch but I found the full runtime to be bloated at over 2 hours. As someone with an actual OCD diagnosis, some of these jokes landed for me and others rubbed me the wrong way, but such is the way of cinema. Jack straightening the pizza boxes in the freezer did get a good laugh out of me. ⁠
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Overall, due to its subject matter and highbrow theming, this is far from a casual watch and may not suit most viewers. But if you’re a true crime or gore buff, give it a go.⁠
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Know Before You Watch: Features extreme gore, violence, death, nudity, blood, animal violence.