Anything for Jackson

Anything for Jackson

Most directors would have turned ‘Anything for Jackson’ into a slapstick comedy of errors, especially in the years following when ‘Shaun of the Dead’ made horror-comedies popular again. And it starts off with some wicked dark humor that leads you to believe it’s going that way but then it doesn’t. Justin G. Dyck’s very smart movie baits us with a clever concept and instantly great characters, only to give them nightmare fuel worthy of Clive Barker, who we may see later this month in Hulu’s “Books of Blood.” Dyck has an extensive resume of TV holiday movies (“A Christmas Village,” “Christmas in Paris,” “48 Christmas Wishes”), so maybe he knows more about the darkness than most.

“You can’t win a moral argument with me. I’ve made a deal with the devil.” So says Henry Walsh (Julian Richings) to his very kidnapped patient Shannon (Konstantina Mantelos), whom he’s handcuffed to his bed. And he’s not exaggerating. After losing their daughter and grandson Jackson in an accident, grief has driven Henry and his wife Audrey (Sheila McCarthy) over the edge. Unable to imagine life without him, they turn to the occult for answers.

They join a Satanist group that meets at what looks like an average Community Center, who help them find a book not unlike the Necronomicon from “The Evil Dead,” and well, unleash something similar to what Ash found in that cabin. After performing a ritual over Shannon’s belly, the Walshs start getting visitors.

Dyck and writer Keith Cooper don’t waste any time getting into their story, opening with the kidnapping and setting stakes through a couple brief flashbacks Audrey discovered she could resurrect crows with this book; she seems more like the planner than her husband does; he lets it all fall apart so quickly he might as well have been asking for attention from the authorities.

The very effective middle section of “Anything for Jackson” is a series of what could be called visitations on Audrey, Henry and Shannon. As it turns out, when you call on Satan for help, he brings some friends kind of like Pinhead in “Hellraiser.” The demons and ghosts at the center of “Anything for Jackson” become increasingly disturbing there’s a woman literally flossing her teeth out of her mouth including a bending, twisting creature that I won’t forget any time soon. And everyone who gets near the Walsh house gets sucked into the evil vacuum, not unlike how people around Damien in “The Omen” were essentially doomed.

No one expects this plan to work, and there is a kind of inevitability that puts Cooper in a corner, because anyone who has watched a movie knows. Thus the climax doesn’t have the same force as the middle section, particularly since another character becomes a little too involved with the action. Nevertheless, it holds together largely on the basis of strong performances from the cast.

McCarthy shows convincingly how overwhelming grief can lead people to do stupid things, while Richings is just incredible as a man who wants nothing more than to save his last loved one from a life of misery forever. Both of these are great performances (and Mantelos does develop a strong character even if she’s forced to scream too much in Act One), and without them the movie falls apart.

Considering that most of “Anything for Jackson” takes place in the bedroom where Shannon is being held along with basically three other characters and whatever else drops by that night, Dyck’s direction is confident especially given how limited in scope it is. He has a smart way of not over-foreshadowing his scares; some of his most unsettling images jar an audience without feeling like he’s going for a jump scare.

Working in the holiday movie factory for years has likely made him more efficient than many young horror directors, and that efficiency pays off even if fans of his other work who see this will be too freaked out to ever believe in Christmas magic again.

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