35 years after bringing its waking nightmares into theaters everywhere, Jacob’s Ladder has been given a long-awaited 4K restoration and release from Studio Canal and Lionsgate. Here in the United States, the release takes the form of a SteelBook as part of the relatively new Lionsgate Limited imprint, and it’s an excellent purchase for anyone who loves this chilling, bleak thriller from Adrian Lyne.
Lionsgate’s edition of Jacob’s Ladder arrived in October and is available exclusively through the Lionsgate Limited shop. The SteelBook itself comes with an outer slip that captures the same eerie, dark energy as the film within it, and it’s loaded with special features. The packaging and bonus roster are both great, but it’s the work on the film itself that many collector’s have been most interested in. And, as a lot of physical media collectors have come to learn in recent years, Studio Canal rarely disappoints, and their partnership with Lionsgate here has created a beautiful transfer.
If you’re unfamiliar, Jacob’s Ladder is a chilling exploration of the horrors of war and the terror that can plague those suffering with PTSD. It follows an infantryman from The Vietnam War named Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins), who experiences terrifying visions back home four years later. As his visions get more surreal and haunting, he begins to lose touch with what’s actually real.
Jacob’s Ladder needs an unsettling atmosphere to really fire on all cylinders, and that’s what this new 4K from Studio Canal and Lionsgate is able to capture so perfectly. The entire film creates a state of nightmarish paranoia through its foggy lens and cramped New York City setting. The coloration toes a specific line that is not only hard to capture, it has to be difficult to restore correctly. It’s almost dull, in a way, using shadows and browns and greens to create a dangerous haze over the whole picture. But the word “dull” there isn’t a substitute for boring or hard to look at. It’s a brilliant use of color that creates the exact tone Lyne was going for, and I can’t imagine it being given better or more accurate life than it does here.
It comes as no surprise that Lyne was heavily involved in supervising the color grading and restoration. There are few movies from that era where the coloration is so pivotal to the film’s exact message getting across, and the team behind this restoration absolutely nailed it. When you combine that with a fantastic and subtle grain structure, you’ve got an impressive image in HDR10 and Dolby Vision.
As much work as the picture does to create a haunting atmosphere, the audio mix does just as much of the heavy lifting. the DTS 5.1 master audio track will make full use of your space, especially if you’ve got any kind of surround sound situation. Not that one of those is necessary to really experience what Jacob’s Ladder is throwing at you, but the paranoia hits even harder when the errant noises and footsteps are coming from behind your head.
With both picture and sound, Jacob’s Ladder is a film that needs real atmosphere to be as effective as intended. The restoration succeeds in both in a big way. Jacob’s Ladder is a tough watch, and it definitely isn’t for everyone, but fans of the film — or psychological horror in general — should add this to their purchase list. It’s some very fine work from a couple of companies doing great things in the world of physical media.
A copy of the Jacob’s Ladder 4k was provided for the purpose of this review.
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