Anything For Jackson Review: A Supernatural Thriller Filled With Gore

Anything For Jackson has demons, gore, and a really good story at the core of it. If you make a deal with devil, read the fine print.

I love a good horror movie. Especially one with jump scares, gore, and off the wall deaths. Anything For Jackson has all of these, plus a decent story at the core about an elderly couple that feel like they have no choice. From almost the very beginning my heart was pounding out of my chest, and it only beat faster as time went on. 

You don’t have to wait long for the good stuff to start in Anything For Jackson. Within a few minutes Audrey and Henry are dragging a kidnapped pregnant woman into their home. If you have not read the synopsis, it doesn’t take long to figure out that they are planning something very dark and downright evil.

They lost their grandson in a car accident, and would do anything to get him back. Including a reverse exorcism, where they intend to invoke the soul of their grandson, into the baby this woman is pregnant with.

The twist of having an older couple at the head of this dark deed makes this satanic movie so much different than other movies of this genre. Apart from kidnapping someone and trying to bring their grandson back from the dead, they seem normal enough.

Dark & Twisted

Over the course of the movie we get to see a lot of demons, some bloody and insane deaths, and a whole lot of creepy things. Once they invite a dark spirit their house, things don’t exactly go according to plan. I guess the lesson here is to always read the fine print when making a deal with the devil.

Once the door to the underworld is opened, murderous ghosts show themselves around the house, until the ritual can be completed. And trust me, there are some truly gruesome moments, that you know I loved every second of.

Anything For Jackson itself is shot perfectly – almost always in a dark room, with minimal lighting — setting the mood for dark and twisted moments. There are multiple jump scares — and good ones at that. Ones that feel deserved, not just thrown in to make the audience jump. Besides these jump scares, there are some pretty good twists and turns that I did not see coming. 

Overall Thoughts

Sheila McCarthy and Julian Richings were the perfect casting choices. They were likable enough, because of course your heart breaks for them and their loss. However, you don’t feel bad enough for them to justify that what they are doing is right. You almost understand where they are coming from. Almost. 

In the last thirty minutes there is a clear shift in the film. Not so much a bad thing, but a lot changes as we get the bigger picture of what is going on in that house, and what exactly this couple did. When they invite a fellow Satanist, Ian, into their house to complete the ritual things…. change. It isn’t that the ending didn’t work for me, but I think it did go a bit off the rails here.

However, the story pulled together in a satisfying enough ending in the last few minutes — especially if you like gore like I do.

About Anything For Jackson

After losing their only grandson in a car accident, grief-stricken Audrey and Henry, a doctor, kidnap his pregnant patient with the intentions of performing a “Reverse Exorcism”, putting Jackson inside inside her unborn child. Consider this wintery anti-Nativity tale Shudder’s Christmas counterprogramming, from a writer and director who together have made a bevy of traditional holiday movies.

Anything For Jackson comes to SHUDDER on December 3rd!