Jacob’s Ladder (d. Adrian Lyne, 1990)
This one’s mandatory viewing for cinephile Silent Hill fans, since this film’s DNA is all over the games, from the twitchy faces co-opted for the enemy designs, to James Sunderland literally wearing Jacob Singer’s outfit.
But the connection is less about the aesthetics than the tone. It’s a story existing in the surreal, incomprehensible middle-ground between life and death, where angels and demons both try to tell poor tortured Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) something he can’t or won’t understand through increasingly violent means. The drama seems to drag until it all falls into place later in the film, but even then, just like the best moments in the Silent Hill games, it’s a mood unlike anything else.
Oh, and in case anyone’s wondering, yes, there was a 2019 remake; yes, it was real bad.
