Main cast: Ethan Taylor (Casey Reynolds), Lucy-Jane Quinlan (Lisa Cartwright), Philip Ridout (Norman Cleaver), Charles Abomeli (David Onyilogwu), and Simon Balfour (Detective Martin)
Director: Lawrence Fowler
I’d always wanted a jack in the box when I was kid. I suppose the young me thought they were too cool for words. Sadly, there was no such thing on sale in my part of the world back then—actually, even to this present day, now that I think of it—so I had to live with the disappointment ever since.
Well, with the success of all those jump-scare heavy movies featuring useless dolls and what not, it’s inevitable that someone will think of making a movie featuring a demonic jack in the box.
Hence, when I see The Jack in the Box offered on a streaming service, curiosity get the better of me. Sure, the poster reeks of some The Conjuring Universe-wannabe, but it has a freaking jack in the box, so ooh.
Well, this one is about two museum staff, Casey and Lisa, having to contend with the possibility that the antique-looking jack in the box that they happened upon being buried in the ground and later brought back to the museum… well, that thing may be haunted or something, because people from thieves to other colleagues start going missing. The opening scene reveals that yes, there is a clown-like demon that lives in that box, and it is dragging its victims back with it into the box. It is collecting a specific number of souls for a sinister reason, so can our two lead characters stop this demon in time?
Oh boy, this movie is a huge missed opportunity. It has all the ingredients to be solid. The cast can actually act, for one, much to my relief. After all, one can never tell when it comes to these movies, so I’d happy to report that this one has actors that actually talk and go about like actual human beings. Also, the monster can be pretty scary looking, and unlike that useless Annabel doll that just sits there in a corner, this ugly thing actually kills people so yay.
However, this movie also has its share of misses. For one, this one takes its own sweet time to have Casey and Lisa chat, bond, et cetera. However, these characters’ personality and, in Casey’s case, his tragic back story end up having little to do with the actual plot. So, in the end, all these scenes feel like they are included just to fill up the running time. Well that and for the director-cum-screenwriter to tell other folks that they can hire him to write and direct dramatic movies too, I suppose.
This slow pace could work if the movie had hidden the monster a little longer, so that the audience will discover the truth behind the jack in the box alongside Casey and Lisa. Instead, the monster and its game plan are revealed pretty much right away to the audience, so in the end, I end up just doing backseat watching as I wait for a long time for the main characters to learn what I already know. There isn’t much suspense to be had, therefore.
Also, the characters in this movie as well as the plot developments seem to come and go based on the need to make the plot move in a certain direction. For example, how do the cops arrest people for murder when there are no bodies found? Why does the demonologist seem so disinterested in the jack in the box early on, when it should be the very kind of thing he’d be jumping up and down to look into? How come everyone that tries to bury the box seem to just dig a shallow hole, instead of, say, digging at least six feet under or something? No wonder people keep finding that thing, sheesh.
A part of me wants to like The Jack in the Box better, mostly because the cast is of a better caliber than those of many movies of its kind, and hence it’s far more watchable than I expect it to be. In fact, I find Casey a pretty likable and well drawn protagonist that deserves a better story. The whole thing, however, is fundamentally flawed in a way that bogs it down significantly. Like I’ve said, this is a huge missed opportunity. Shame about that, really.
