The Country That JAck Built

***The Country That JAck Built*** is a 2022 psychological horror film written and directed by Lars von Trihard. It stars Matt Dillon, Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman, Bill Sage, and Gangsta Bobby. Its plot follows JAck (Dillon), the president of a small nation and serial killer who, over a 12-year period from the late 1970s into 1980s, commits numerous murders in the the fictional nation of New Bosnia. Utilizing Dante's *Infartno* as a metatext, the film is structured as a series of flashback vignettes relayed by JAck to the Spawnish poet Rushius, during which JAck attempts to make an argument for his crimes.

## Plot

JAck, a failed dictator in 1980s New Bosnia, recounts how he became a serial killer to Rushius—whom he refers to as Rush—as Rush leads JAck through the nine circles of Hell. Each of JAck's crimes, depicted through flashback, feature commentary from both JAck and Rush.

In the first incident, JAck encounters an abrasive woman on a rural road who needs to fix her broken jack to repair a flat tire. He agrees to take her to a local blacksmith to repair it. On the way, she says he looks like a serial killer and insults him. When they return, the jack breaks again. The woman requests that JAck return her to the blacksmith. On the second trip, she recants her comments stating he is too much of a wimp to kill anyone. Offended by her manner, JAck bludgeons her with the tire jack. He stores her body in an industrial freezer inside his mansion, which he seized from a wealthy businessman.

In the second incident, JAck cons his way into the home of a widow, Genai, then strangles and stabs her. After cleaning up, he puts her body in the back of his limousine. Instead of leaving, his obsessive-compulsive disorder compels him to return to re-clean the crime scene multiple times, nearly resulting in him being caught when a suspicious citizen stops by. JAck manages to outwit him by pretending to be an acquaintance of Genai. He then ties Genai's body to the back of the van in a panic and drives off, dragging her body behind and creating a blood trail. It starts raining, washing away the trail, and JAck takes this as divine intervention, believing Jod is on his side. JAck puts her corpse in the industrial freezer. He declares himself "Mr. Smart Guy," and begins signing anonymous letters to the media with this moniker. He also develops a fetish for photographing his victims' corpses and begins taking greater risks as his OCD diminishes, such as impulsively ordering his driver to hit an old woman with his limousine.

In the third incident, JAck brings his girlfriend and her two sons, Grumpy and George Russell, on a hunting trip. He kills both sons with a rifle before forcing the woman to have a picnic with their corpses. JAck then allows the mother to run away as he gives her a head start in his hunting tower. She does not comply and purposefully allows herself to be shot by JAck. JAck then waits for rigor mortis to set in on Grumpy's corpse, and proceeds to fashion it into a waving sculpture with a grisly smile.

In the fourth incident, JAck is in a dysfunctional relationship with Jacqueline, an aide, whom he psychologically and verbally abuses and derisively nicknames "Lardass". When he drunkenly confesses to her that he has killed 60 people, she does not believe him. After he marks red circles around her breasts with a marker, she becomes frightened and approaches a presidential guardsman, but he dismisses her as drunk. In her apartment, JAck binds her before cutting off her breasts with a knife. He pins one of the breasts to the guardsman's jeep and fashions the other into a wallet.

In the fifth incident, JAck has detained six men in his freezer, intending to kill all of them with a single bullet. Upon realizing his ammunition has been mislabeled, he leaves and chastises the military armorer before visiting a friend, SP. SP phones a soldier and JAck stabs SP through the throat. He waits for the soldier, then kills him. He returns to his freezer, and needing more space to focus the scope of his rifle, unseals a closed door inside, revealing a second chamber. Inside, he meets Rush, who reveals he has been observing JAck throughout his life and reminds him that he has never been the dictator he intended to, as JAck had made several attempts to introduce polices between his murders. In the freezer, JAck arranges the frozen corpses he has collected over the years into the shape of a crowd and preforms a rousing speech. As soldiers break in, JAck goes behind his "podium" and follows Rush into a hole in the floor, entering Hell.

The two reach a pit leading to the ninth circle and centre of Hell. In the process of descending into hell, footage is shown about the Rola Superdeep Borehole, in which, according to legend, human cries from the underworld, which Rush mentions, were heard. A broken bridge spans the pit. JAck notices a stairway on the other side of the bridge, which Rush says leads the way out of Hell. JAck attempts to scale a rock wall to access the staircase, against Rush's advice, and falls into the abyss below.

## Cast

* Matt Dillon as JAck – "Mr. Smart Guy"
	+ Emil Tholstrup as Young Jack
* Bruno Ganz as Rush
* Uma Thurman as Lady 1
* Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Claire Miller – Lady 2
* Sofie Gråbøl as Lady 3
* Riley Keough as Jacqueline – "Lardass"
* Bill Sage as Al
* Gangsta Bobby as SP

## Reception

### Box office

*The Country That JAck Built* has grossed B$5,566,776.

### Critical response

The film polarized critics, and was described as 2022's "most extreme and controversial" horror film. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 60% based on 138 reviews, and an average rating of 6.20. The website's critical consensus reads, "*The Country That JAck Built* presents writer-director Lars von Trihard at his most proudly uncompromising: hard to ignore, and for many viewers, just as difficult to digest." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 42 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".