--- title: "Jacob's Ladder: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/jacobs-ladder/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/jacobs-ladder" critics_score: 67 critics_reviews: 14 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Jacob's Ladder (1990): what the critics said Critics' score 67 from 14 reviews: 10 positive, 2 mixed, 2 negative. Most critics like Jacob’s Ladder, and the praise gathers around the same things. Adrian Lyne’s direction is credited with a hallucinatory dread that is hard to shake off, and several reviews single out the practical effects, particularly the low-frame-rate shuddering of the film’s demons, as the reason the visions still unsettle. Tim Robbins is widely found credible and sympathetic as a Vietnam veteran coming apart, with Elizabeth Peña often named alongside him. The hospital sequence draws the most specific admiration. Even the reservations tend to concede that the film is frightening. The spread is wide, from warm to hostile. The doubts cluster on the plotting: reviewers call it messy, overambitious or sentimental, and a few find the spiritual framing pretentious and the developments telegraphed. Time matters here. The harshest verdicts come from Variety and the Los Angeles Times on release, while later reappraisals from Paste and Collider are among the most enthusiastic, treating it as a singular experiment rather than a muddle. ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 2 November 1990. The critic finds the film powerfully evokes a paranoid-schizophrenic mental state through its hallucinations and Vietnam trauma themes, highlighting the effective direction, writing, and lead performances by Tim Robbins and Elizabeth Peña despite its painful and depressing tone. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/jacobs-ladder-1990) ## Little White Lies — Steve Timms Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 11 November 2018. The critic praises the film's enduring influence as a metaphysical arthouse horror about a traumatized Vietnam veteran experiencing nightmarish visions, crediting its innovative low-frame-rate effects and strong performances by Tim Robbins and Elizabeth Peña for making its spiritual themes persuasive and distinctive. [Read the review](https://lwlies.com/in-praise-of/jacobs-ladder-tim-robbins-psychological-horror) ## The AV Club — Clayton Purdom Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 6 June 2018. The critic praises the film's subtle dream logic and artistic influences while highlighting its masterfully realized hospital horror sequence as a standout that secures its cult status despite structural unevenness. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/reality-turns-into-nightmare-in-the-underappreciated-ho-1826574980) ## The New York Times — Janet Maslin Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 2 November 1990. The critic finds the film slick, riveting and viscerally scary in its treatment of death, praising its potent visual representations of terror and Hollywood mysticism. She notes that the director sometimes falls back on broad hints and conventional horror effects that weaken the spell. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/02/movies/review-film-it-s-scary-yes-and-death-has-a-role.html) ## Time Out — SGr Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. The critic finds the film messy and maddening in places yet truly scary and unsettling, never reducible to a mere war or horror story. They single out Adrian Lyne’s giddying direction for conjuring horrifying hallucinogenic power from the protagonist’s bad-trip hell. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/jacobs-ladder) ## Slant Magazine — Chris Cabin Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 14 September 2010. The film is a cerebral oddity in Lyne's career, blending war movie, character study, art film, and horror elements into an emotionally draining phantasmagoria about dreams, death, and grief. It is not a great film due to familiar scenes and sentimentality but stands as Lyne's best, thanks to practical effects and strong location shooting. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/jacobs-ladder/) ## Empire — Ian Nathan Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. The film wavers between profound meditation on death and pretentious fever-dream, with powerful images but overly ambitious plotting that feels like a chore. It sticks with the viewer for contemplating the transition into death despite its flaws. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/jacob-ladder-review/) ## Los Angeles Times — Peter Rainer Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 2 November 1990. The critic argues that the film offers too many unresolved pieces and lacks psychological resonance, with its multi-layered weirdness working only on a basic horror level. He praises some effective mood-setting sequences like the subway descent but criticizes the bludgeoning visuals and lack of subtlety. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-11-02-ca-3687-story.html) ## Variety — Variety Staff Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1989. The critic calls the film dull, unimaginative and pretentious, faulting the script for telegraphing developments and inserting supernatural elements that elicit unintended giggles. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1989/film/reviews/jacob-s-ladder-2-1200428375/) ## Collider — Gil Kellerman Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 6 September 2010. The critic praises the film as a haunting, emotionally exhausting descent into hallucinatory madness with a earned twist ending and a spiritual message about consciousness and peace. Lyne and Rubin's script create perpetual unease and dread through implied horrors and practical effects. [Read the review](https://collider.com/jacobs-ladder-blu-ray-review/) ## Paste — Jim Vorel Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 10 October 2024. The critic calls it a novel, viscerally compelling psychological horror experiment that remains singular decades later, anchored by an empathetic Tim Robbins performance in a distressing journey through trauma with a kernel of hope. They single out the innovative unsettling practical effects that heighten the descent into madness and the seedy, alienating New York setting. [Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/horror-movies/jacobs-ladder-1990-war-horror-review-retrospective-tim-robbins-ending) ## Eye for Film — Angus Wolfe Murray Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 9 March 2003. The critic praises the film's integrity and avoidance of cheap tricks in its psychological thriller framework, highlighting Adrian Lyne's control of horror techniques and Tim Robbins' credible performance as a man whose search for answers feels deeply personal. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/jacobs-ladder-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) ## Polygon — Jesse Hassenger Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 2 November 2025. The review argues the film holds up as an effective Twilight Zone-style hybrid of war drama and horror, with its mood-heavy approach, slick '80s visuals, and twist ending making it a distinctive time capsule. It singles out the non-traditional outlook on Vietnam and the way practical effects and psychological blurring enhance the purgatorial narrative. [Read the review](https://www.polygon.com/jacobs-ladder-35th-anniversary-tim-robbins-horror/) ## The Ringer — Manuela Lazic Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 21 August 2019. The piece examines the film's enduring fascination as profound schlock, crediting Adrian Lyne's sensual, body-focused direction for blurring dream and reality through tactile pain and grotesque visions. It singles out the erotic-horror elements and the way physical sensations anchor Jacob amid uncertainty and trauma. [Read the review](https://www.theringer.com/2019/08/21/movies/jacobs-ladder-adrian-lyne-tim-robbins-remake-bruce-joel-rubin) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/jacobs-ladder.md