‘Anything For Jackson’ is a reverse exorcism gone wrong | Nightstream Film Fest

Quick cut: Anything for Jackson doesn’t take its premise of Satanists performing a reverse exorcism as far as it could go, however its complex protagonists make it a devilish delight of a film.

If I told you that Justin G Dyck, the director of Hallmark films such as Christmas Wedding Planner, Christmas with a View, and, my personal favorite, A Puppy for Christmas, would go on to make Anything for Jackson, a horror black comedy about satanists performing a reverse exorcism to bring their dead grandson back to life, well, I’d probably think you were possessed. However, Dyck did exactly that and the results are as far from Hallmark Christmas movie as you could get.

Anything for Jackson, a Canadian production that screened at the Nightstream Film Fest this week, opens with an elderly couple, Audrey (Sheila McCarthy) and Henry Walsh (Julian Richings) as they go about their morning routine. And all signs point to the couple being benign, gentle people. However, that is quickly dispelled when the pair rush out of their home and return restraining a pregnant woman who Audrey knocks out with a candlestick.

We later learn this woman’s name is Becker (Konstantina Mantelos), a patient of Henry’s, who the Walshs hope could help them bring back their deceased grandson Jackson—as Audrey reveals charmingly with a grandmother’s glow in a rehearsed speech that she wrote. You see, the Walshs are Satanists and have found an ancient book with a supposed ritual that would allow them to put Jackson’s soul into Becker’s unborn child.

Dyck portrays the couple as endearing and loving, a complete juxtaposition to the horrifying ritual they carry out and the demons they invoke. Still, in someway you root for them as much as you root for Becker. Anything for Jackson‘s greatest strength is it doesn’t let any of its characters fall into stereotypes. There’s complexity there. The Walsh’s motivations are driven by something human, even if what they’re doing is inhuman.

Dyck’s direction is polished, but it works for the pitch black comedic tone that he derives from the story. And while the horror doesn’t quite hit the way that you wish it did—though the creature design is admirable—the compelling story and well-carved out characters are more than enough reason to admire it.

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