Grief-Stricken Grandparents Venture into Satanism in ‘Anything for Jackson’

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The horror genre is a good starting point for any aspiring filmmaker. From a financial standpoint, you will likely attract more investors if your low-budget film happens to be a horror film. Most of them aren’t that expensive to make, and there’s a wealth of people who are aching to see something spooky, disturbing, or downright gruesome.

But setting aside the market value of a horror feature, the genre is also a perfect playground for arthouse aspirations. A horror film doesn’t just have to be about a maniac hunting down busty coeds — not that there’s anything with that — it can be about so much more. Several exemplary horror films have explored important themes in powerful ways. Genre filmmakers like George A. Romero and Wes Craven have explored many facets of social injustice. One of the most interesting films about race relations was actually a horror film, Jordan Peele’s Get Out. Recently, Netflix released a fantastic horror film, His House, a haunted house story where the tenants are Sudanese refugees.

But even when we are talking about films that delve into the universal condition of grief or aging, there’s been films like The Babadook, Hereditary, or 2020’s Relic. Three films that are just as powerful for their emotional content as they are for their use of genre conventions.

Streaming services like Shudder exposes a lot of people to small independent horror films that would otherwise not get the attention they deserve. Such is the case with Anything for Jackson, which premiered on the Shudder earlier this month.

Anything for Jackson is another stellar horror film exploring grief, and just like the aforementioned films, the emotional journey of its characters is just as effective as its use of scares.

Anything for Their Grandson…

In the opening, we are introduced to an elderly couple, Audrey (Sheila McCarthy) and Henry Walsh (Julian Richings), who after congenial breakfast conversation regarding the shortness of Henry’s trousers, kidnap a pregnant woman named Shannon (Konstantina Mantelos) — this scene is presented in a glorious two-minute, one-shot take.

Their motives are soon revealed: they yearn to revive their deceased grandson, Jackson (Daxton William Lund) by performing a satanic ritual that would transport his spirit in the unborn child of Shannon.

In the beginning, they are hopeful as the spirit of Jackson appears excitedly before Shannon — a promising sign of things to come. Using texts from an ancient book, they perform the ritual.

But soon after, the three main characters are visited by terrifying spirits, all of them desperate to inhabit the body of Shannon’s yet unborn child. As the old couple is trying to solve the problem, the many obstacles that follow lead to much unfortunate bloodshed.

But the couple will do whatever it takes, just to give their grandson a chance for living again…

No One Has More Time Than a Grieving Family…

What makes Anything for Jackson so interesting as a horror film are its morally dubious protagonists’. The Walshes are committed to doing a terrible thing: kidnapping a pregnant woman and, depending on circumstances, murdering her if it means resurrecting their grandson.

But it’s impossible not to sympathize with their plight. Their motives aren’t all selfish. The result of their monstrous act can lead to resurrecting a child’s life. They aren’t wicked, they are grieving. These people are in pain, and as the film progresses and we understand more of their backstory, we only begin to feel more sympathy for them.

They are in turn the film’s antagonists too. Shannon is the victim here. They choose her because of her lowly position in society. She doesn’t deserve anything that’s happening to her but unfortunately, if she disappears, not that many people will miss her.

But that makes Anything for Jackson great. We know it’s impossible, but we want all three people to find some peace and happiness in the end. The Walshes are made desperate by grief. It’s the most painful of human experiences. The couple understands the suffering they’ve inflicted on Shannon, but they’ve come to accept it. “Believe me when I say that we thought of everything,” says Sheila to the captured and gagged Shannon, “no one has more time than a grieving family. No one…”