An uncompromising and excessively violent slasher becomes the architect of its own cult classic status

Having spent his career fully earning the label of being one of the most consistently controversial and polarizing filmmakers in the industry – albeit an entirely singularly and regularly acclaimed one – the prospect of Lars Von Trier diving into the blood-soaked world of the slasher in The House That Jack Built was destined to generate a reaction one way or the other.

Sure enough, the uncompromising and mind-melting psychological thriller drenched in buckets of claret split opinion straight down the middle as the majority of his filmography has tended to do, but that hasn’t prevented its supporters from holding it up on the pedestal designated for stone-cold cult classics, and it’s easy to see why.

Matt Dillon stars as the title character, who also happens to be a failed architect and murderous sociopath. Across five chapters, we’re plunged into his macabre world of expertly-orchestrated executions, all of which are designed to contribute to his magnum opus, which obviously isn’t a structure made out of bricks and mortar.

Not for the faint of heart, The House That Jack Built is every bit as uncompromising as it is excessive, taking audiences down a deep, dark, dingy, and unnervingly unsettling rabbit hole many wish they’d never entered in the first place. Nonetheless, despite the word “masterpiece” being bandied around far too often these days, a recent Reddit thread has found almost everyone in agreement that the gonzo serial killer thriller has fully earned such a lofty status, cementing it as an ironic architect of its own longevity.