Box office
The House That Jack Built has grossed US$5,566,776.[1][4]
Critical response
The film polarized critics, and was described as 2018's "most extreme and controversial" horror film.[36] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 60% based on 138 reviews, and an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The House That Jack Built presents writer-director Lars von Trier at his most proudly uncompromising: hard to ignore, and for many viewers, just as difficult to digest."[37] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 42 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[38]
IndieWire critic Eric Kohn gave the film an "A−" and called the film a "wild masterpiece."[39] BBC.com's Nicolas Barber gave the film four stars out of five and said "Undoubtedly a bold and stimulating film which no one but Denmark's notorious provocateur-auteur could have made."[40] Owen Gleiberman from Variety gave the film a positive review, and stated "It's halfway between a subversive good movie and a stunt. It's designed to get under your skin, and does."[41] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote "The House That Jack Built is definitely something to see. But what's most surprising is that it's just as often inane as unsettling."[42] Armond White says the film satirizes "guilt-free violence" by "rubbing the audience's face in the ugliness it enjoys."[43] The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw referred to the film as "an ordeal of gruesomeness and tiresomeness", though he did praise its closing scene.[44]
Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times criticized the film for reveling in "grisly, in-your-face violence and wan philosophical digressions," concluding, "Von Trier has managed to cobble together just enough of interest — odd moments, pieces of performance, stray ideas and the simple audacity of putting this mess out into the world, that it feels like there may be something there worth considering, a maddening possibility. And that may be his cruelest prank of all."[45] Despite audience backlash toward a scene involving the main character's mutilation of a duckling when he was a child, PETA has defended the film in a statement praising its accurate portrayal of the link between adolescent animal abuse and psychopathy and for the realistic special effects.[46]
The film's protagonist was compared to real life serial killer Ted Bundy.[47]
According to Zinaida Pronchenko, "When the offended viewers who have moved on the wrong track hurry to the exit, von Trier will not without satisfaction show the middle finger at their backs, and those who remain will witness the moralizing finale. Evil will be punished, thrown into the flaming abyss and will never return, as stated in the refrain of the song "Hit the Road Jack", cheerfully playing on the credits".[48]
Accolades
The film was nominated for Art Cinema Award and Hamburg Producers Award at the 26th Hamburg Film Festival.[49] It won Best European Film[50] and was nominated for Best International Feature Film at the Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival. It won two awards in Canary Islands Fantastic Film Festival – Best Actor for Dillon and Best Screenplay for von Trier.[51] The film received the Best Director award at Monster Fest 2018.[52] At the Robert Awards, the film received 11 nominations: Best Danish Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, Best Editing, Best Sound Design and Best Visual Effects. It won two awards, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects.[53][54] Dillon received a Best Actor nomination at the Bodil Awards, where the film won Best Production Design.[55] The film is also nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Gopo Awards, and Dillon was a nominee in the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards' Best Actor category.[56]
Cahiers du cinéma selected The House That Jack Built as the eighth-best film of 2018.[57]
