The Jar (1984)

Pretty Good

Instant Favorite.

hyped garbage

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Many people seem to hate this movie... well, I love it! Caught occasionally on Telecapri (a regional, Italian TV station that used to show a lot of b-horrors 10 or 15 years ago), this strange film obsessed me for years, becoming a sort of legend: even talking to my friends, it looked like I was the only one who had seen "The Jar"! The strange images of this obscure flick had become part of my fantasy. Last year, I subscribed to an internet horror fans' forum and opened a post there, in which I described all the scenes of this movie, I had been recalling for years; there where other people in Italy who knew it! Obviously, they hated it too; but I finally got that film's title! I bought it on VHS on Amazon, despite the reviews found on this site. Yes, the dubbing was terrible (but it couldn't be worse than the usual Italian dubbing this sort of films get), the editing approximate and the story confusing; but all these elements, helped creating the odd atmosphere that this strange film surely has. Hallucinations, suspension between dream and reality, mystery, non-sense (I admit the candy store scene's a "WTF!?" candidate), isolation, terror and probably some inadvertent qualities too! I consider it as a bad dream: incoherent, maybe incomplete (according to another user's comment, "The Jar" was heavily cut for distribution's reasons), but fascinating and leaving my mind full of inspiration and weird memories. I still like it after all these years and I think it's not worse than many other B (or Z-grade) films that attempted to obtain a 'cult' position after years.-Dario-

I rented this movie for a little thing me and some friends do every other weekend called "B-Movie Night". Basically, the goal is to find the worst movie you can find and put it up against another person's find. This particular movie won me the title of "Survivor of the B-Movies". While I was looking for a bad movie I saw a movie with no cover art simply called "The Jar". So I grabbed it. This movie was so weird, so stupid, so badly acted, and so long that the choice was clear... I had found the worst B-Movie ever. The plot made no sense, the effects were crap, and the budget was hilariously low. I still cant believe I watched the damn thing. So, unless you plan on hosting your own "B-Movie Night" and totally blowing the lid off bad movies, please, don't waste your time with this movie... my friends and I have already done that for you.Josh

Ths Jar, released in 1984, follows the day to day life of Paul as his life changes for the eerie after picking up a creepy old hitchiker. The old man vanishes but not before he leaves a mysterious object in a paper bag,hence-the jar. Paul then starts to experience strange illusions, one of which has his bath tub fill up with blood in which we get to witness some really cheap camera-trickish special effects. Paul then meets a new female neighbor, who seems to take an instant interest in dating him, despite the fact that she barely knows him and that he acts extremely quiet and creepy. This film is a complete mess from start to finish.There are so many meaningless points of this film-a part when we watch from the outside as Paul goes into a candy store and buys candy, we do not see him inside, but watch the door for 30 seconds.Its as though the filmmakers were just to lazy to get permission to shoot a scene inside.The female lead is a character that contributes absolutely nothing to this movie.All we know about her is that she has an attraction for schizophrenic single white males and bad movie roles(this movie). The acting is worse than "cue card reading" acting, the characters are shallow and out of place, the camera work is so much off its pathetic, and the special effects look like something out of a bargain bin.I do not recommend this film. This movie makes the countless slashers with masked killers look like masterpieces.

... and those are probably the nicest adjectives I can think to describe this flick. One of the most boring movies I have ever seen. And believe me, I've seen some dull pictures in my time. NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, RENT THIS MOVIE. I can appreciate a bad horror film (heck, I even like some Troma movies), but trust me on this. I cannot imagine ANYONE, ANYWHERE finding this enjoyable. On a scale of 1-10, it's a one. Boy, I wish I could rate it lower.