Jacob's Ladder is one of my all time favorite films.
*This film was inspired by literature about death and the Tibetan book of the dead, but unlike 'Enter the Void' it doesn't beat you to death with that concept.
*This is also the film that inspired the 'Silent Hill' video game series.
It is so dark and relentless. The are light moments but they are only set up to let you down until the very end of the film when all the pieces come together. (If you're paying attention)
Jacob's Ladder isn't structured, written or set up in any normal way. Some classify its a psychological horror (or drama) and others classify it as a strait up horror film.
Hollywood was scared to death of this legendary and impressive script from Academy Award winning screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin. And no he didn't win an oscar for this one, he did for 'Ghost' (). Though if there was an oscar for ballsy screenwriting this would have won. (But it's a hard film to classify) However this film would not be the same without Adrian Lynne's brilliant sense of grounding the spiritualism in reality. Bruce's original script had more obvious symbolism. (which in a different film may have been interesting to see, but not as intriguing or disturbing I think)
It's like National Lampoon's Vacation or The Game. It's sincerely one of those films where everything that can go wrong will go wrong. But unlike 'Vacation' (which is a comedy not a horror) and 'The Game' (which is punctuated at the end with a 'I think' brilliant punch-line) Jacob's Ladder is more relentlessly honest. It doesn't set itself up as an accident or even a prank you could bounce back from . . . . it sets up as either dream, hell, or insanity…which exploring the human condition is far more frightening. Every little detail in this film is mulled over, even throw away lines like 'I called ever hospital in town' are designed to get under you're skin. "But he was just in the hospital, and in another, was it a dream, hallucination, maybe she just missed calling the one he was in…" you think.
After all there are people who see things whose reality gets twisted whose dreams they see in daylight . . . severely mentally handicapped people (okay that's a blatant oversimplification and under-classification). And if you've ever met or spoken to one of these people you realize how real those delusions are. And as the film cascades into the spiritual idea of dreams, insanity, hallucinogenic drug flashbacks, vietnam, or the idea of heaven and hell, literal angels and demons…the real fear in this film is it could be real. No not real for the character but real for you someday. What if you started losing your mind, couldn't differentiate your dreams from reality…what if you are dead now? What happens when you die. And this film doesn't attempt to answer anything in any of the quick cuts or carefully planned sequences.
1 Nightmare:
When I was a kid I used to have nightmares all the time…when I had nightmares of things I'd seen in movies 'Pennywise', 'Freddy Krueger', 'Jason Vorhees' ect I knew the rules from horror (being a fan) I could survive it and laugh about it when I woke up. 
But when the nightmares were so abstract blurred (like sequences in this movie) that I couldn't get a grasp on reality or get grounded what it was I was looking at, it was desperately more frightening, giving my imagination carte-blanche subconsciously to scare the living shit out of me. And using editing tricks and camera tricks, this film legitimately attempts to capture (slowing down sequences, speeding up sequences, but doing them so deftly that your eye or even your mind as someone who understands film tricks could barely detect the edits and tricks. It's so flawlessly executed. And the commitment of the actors, beauty of the cinematography (a lot of sequences are at magic hour, especially some really good vietnam helicopter photography) and the gorgeous score by Maruicce Jarre, yes that Maricce Jarre of Dr. Zhivago fame .
1st nightmare.
- The most frightened I have ever been from a dream is one time (dreaming) I was in a long bizarre corridor filled with junk, like the back room of not a thrift shop, but a thrift warehouse with bizarre gadgets and things from different eras strung about. In the center of this room there was a painting on an easel covered by a sheet. I walked over to the painting and pulled off the sheet and sitting there was a watercolor very dreamlike with blurred edges painting of an older couple sitting at a dinning room table eating breakfast screaming in each others faces with looks of pure hate and fear…it didn't make sense…the juxtaposition of the setting verse the strangeness of the looks on there faces left me shocked and I woke up in a cold sweat. I was about 13 at the time and still haven't forgot that image. Why, who painted this, what did it mean…did it have any meaning at all…was it just random. The couple looked like they were dying and letting out all the hate anyone could possibly feel from there lungs at one another…lost. Completely lost in nonsense.
I woke up wondering how the fuck my subconscious cooked that up. You see I wasn't being chased by a monster…most nightmares are very tangible, monster try to kill you, you try to get away, or you have a disease or you're lost, real feelings you can relate too…but there is nothing like having a nightmare where you couldn't relate or even ground yourself in something that made sense. Jacob's Ladder has images that evoke that kind of random yet intriguing fear of 'losing it'.
* * * Spoiler * * *
'If you're frightened of dying and holding on you'll see devil's tearing your life away. If you've made your peace, then the devil's are really angels freeing you from the earth'. - Louis - from "Jacob's Ladder"
This film will have a different affect on ever audience member that views it. It is a spiritualist journey into hell that you take with you.
There are a lot of great before they were famous's in this movie including Vhing Rhames, Jason Alexander, Macauliy Chulkin, and stand up comedian Lewis Black
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