The House That Jack Built (2018)

 

The House That Jack Built flirts with being a genuinely gripping serial‑killer horror, and at times you can see the sharper, nastier film it might have been. The park shooting scene in particular is nasty and brutal,  showing Lars von Trier can still craft real dread when he wants to. But the movie quickly sinks into the director’s trademark pretension, weighed down by rambling philosophical detours and sequences that are utter nonsense and will have you staring at the screen thinking "what the fuck?". What could have been a lean, vicious thriller with a great performance from Matt Dillon, is stretched into an overlong, self‑indulgent slog. Trimmed by 45 minutes, it might have delivered the brutal, unsettling horror it promises.

2/5