Alright, this movie was a one I've been looking forward to watching for awhile now.

I'm a really big fan of the silent hill franchise and really got into it during the last few years, and during the research, you bet that when I found out one of the biggest inspirations for the entire franchise was a psychological horror film from the 90s? I had to put it on my radar.

A theme you might've noticed with these blogs so far, is that I'm covering movies I've never seen before. despite not seeing any of these films, I've still been exposed to them in some way or another through pop culture. this exposure gives me a pretty decent idea of what I'm getting into with every film I've watched, but even with what I knew about Jacob's ladder, the film still managed to completely catch me off guard with how it portrayed its story.

Now, I'm going to be clear and say (SPOILERS) that about less than halfway through the film, it's pretty easy to catch on to the idea that there's a chance Jacob didn't survive Vietnam. the film makes it pretty obvious with how it presents the jumps between present day Jacob and wounded Jacob that something about the narrative we're being shown is off, but I don't think that takes away from the mystery or makes the movie's climax 'obvious'.

I think the idea was to always have the audience know that Jacob was dead from the very beginning, and like Jacob, the film is taking us through a journey of denial and paranoia; ending in acceptance. we all know Jacob's dead, but the longer the movie shows us a reality where he could've possibly survived, the more we as viewers hope that that reality is the reality that came to be. but the film constantly and effectively sits us back down and reminds us that this isn't Jacob's reality through the visions of demons, jump-cuts in time, visions of his family, and obvious discrepancy's in the world's logic.

It makes it so when the film's ending comes, you don't feel bad or scared for Jacob. you don't feel sad, and you don't feel like you or Jacob have been wronged. when the end of the film comes, you feel just as Jacob feels: a bittersweet peace.