The Jack in the Box

None of the actors were familiar to me and that was perfectly fine. The story was creative and not like a horror film concept I've seen before. It combines the eeriness of some of our greatest fears regarding clowns and the nostalgia of a childhood toy. Excellent character creation, costuming, and movement of Jack. No foul language or gratuitous violence. Not Rated but was a film we watched with our 10 year-old. Give it a chance.

A low budget but enjoyable horror. The main character is a good actor and the jack in the box wasn't exactly scary but was entertaining.

It's not gory. It's not fast-paced. It's not fancy.

They clearly spent all the budget on the box and Jack - which are nice and convincing. But they obviously hired their cousin with a DSLR to shoot it. It is recorded with ambient light and sound. So it just looks and sounds flat. That seems to be the standard nowadays in these dime-a-dozen pre-professional horror movies. So if you are looking for stimulating atmosphere, there is an echo-y, brightly sunlit, nearly empty local historical society "museum" at the center of the film.

It is also very understated in a British way. The lead actor will wind up going on to better things. He is charmingly handsome; and it is only up for him from here. He just had a peculiarly muted accent. Most of the other cast was staid and just there.

The movie had some interesting ideas. A decent protagonist. A very well-designed villain. But horror-oriented plot, suspense and execution - not so much.

I really expected to hate this movie. With all the rinse and repeat stuff out on the streams today, I was ready to write it off, but I'll admit I was kinda wrong. Huge props to a horror movie for attempting a real storyline with some actual depth. This is also one of the first movie monsters in a while that genuinely scared me.

Does it have plot holes and shortcomings? Of course.

Is it pretty obvious that the budget for the movie wasn't huge? Yes.

Are there some slip-ups accent-wise with the "American" main character? Yes, but they're very entertaining.

I'll be honest, I had a lot of questions while watching the movie, and many might have concerned actual plot holes. Who knows? But I do enjoy watching movies (especially horror movies) that make me ask genuine, non-sarcastic questions which this made me do.

Jack in the Box (2019) is a movie I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a family that discovers an antique Jack in the box in their home. Little do they know this Jack in the box unleashes a creature that kills humans to survive. Once they open the box will they ever be able to close it?

This movie is written and directed by Lawrence Fowler (The Ghost Within) and stars Robert Strange (Penny Dreadful), Lucy-Jane Quinlan (Made You Look), Charles Abomeli (Torchwood) and Simon Balfour (Harlots).

This movie had so much potential and dropped the ball. The Jack has fantastic makeup, costumes, mannerisms and sound effects; unfortunately, the kill scenes are super weak, lack gore and should have been more creative. The acting is fairly mediocre and the ending is a bit predictable.

Overall this is a disappointing addition to the horror genre that should have been better. I'd score this a 3/10 and recommend skipping it.