In the “1st Incident” of The House That Jack Built, Jack picks up a stranded woman on the side of a remote road and drives her to a nearby shop. With her vehicle lifting lever accompanying them, she makes the statement that “a jack like that can do a lot of damage.”

Both her and the audience eventually experience exactly how much damage a Jack can do.

Jack, her rescuer and murderer, is a serial killer, and The House That Jack Built is his recount of 5 murder incidents “chosen at random”. But his acts progress from odd to abhorrent with each story he tells.

It’s a movie that’s held together by a disturbingly great performance from Matt Dillon as Jack. But the problem that I have is that the deplorable stories don’t accumulate to a worthwhile or profound message in the end.

With the director's cut standing at 2 hours and 35 minutes, it holds audiences in this perverse world for too long, and the fatigue gets real around 2 hours in. The movie details five gruesome incidents, but in trying to understand the film, my patience and attention span became the 6th incident of Jack’s depraved terror.

Acting and Casting - 2 | Visual Effects and Editing - 1 | Story and Message - 0 | Entertainment Value - 1 | Music Score and Soundtrack - 0 | Reviewer's Preference - 0 | What does this mean?