Oct 9

Oct 9 NIGHTSTREAM film review: 'Anything for Jackson'

*‘Anything for Jackson’ (Image courtesy of NIGHTSTREAM)*

When a loved one declares 'I would do anything for you,' well, the deadpan horror comedy 'Anything for Jackson' (screening during NIGHTSTREAM starting Oct. 9) takes that sentiment to its hilarious and dark extreme.

In short: After losing their grandson Jackson, polite Satanist couple Audrey (Sheila McCarthy) and Henry (Julian Richings) kidnaps a pregnant woman (Konstantina Mantelos) for a supernatural ritual.

The sheer ridiculousness of 'Anything' is watching the disarmingly kind grandparents prepare tea, discuss hemmed pants and summoning the demonic forces in a blood ritual. Audrey and Henry would fit perfectly in any staid BBC drama or Masterpiece Theater movie ... were it not for the fact they are a pair of kidnapping Satan worshippers. The absurd juxtaposition of the outwardly warm couple with their unspeakably evil intent is this supernatural horror movie's secret ingredient.

The film's best decision isn't merely putting ridiculously sweet old people in a crazy dark story - 'Anything' doesn't reduce Audrey or Henry to a punchline or some one-note satirical joke. On the contrary, the story treats them as sincerely motivated characters who - although innately well-mannered - are compelled by genuine and tragic heartache. Their sunny disposition belies an internal darkness beyond the obvious dark incantations. For all the comically droll and dark elements, 'Anything' is driven by inconsolable grief of a magnitude that it drives Audrey and Henry to unreasonable extremes.

And because 'Anything' is anchored by a pair of misguided Satan worshippers, it's arguably a film without protagonists, at least in the traditional sense. While it's easy to empathize with their loss, Audrey and Henry are zealots - a lot of the humor and scares arives from the fact that they are in way over their heads. They're meddling for forces they don't fully understand, resulting in a story that follows the unconventional path of fools who can stop their ever-worsening nightmare from spiraling out of control ... but they're totally committed to the end goal.

If the heart of the dark comedy is rooted in Audrey and Henry's evil act driven by unspeakable sadness, then the horror comes from the unintended consequences of their misguided evil. As the craziness surrounding the couple intensifies, the film doesn't tip its hand as to what is happening: leaving the audience as on edge and in the dark about is happening to them as the couple themselves.

Final verdict: 'Anything for Jackson' is an offbeat horror gem of 2020, accented with dry humor and empathetic (if misguided) protagonists in a story that's as low-key hilarious as it is gleefully violent and unsettling.