IFC snags US rights to ‘The House That Jack Built’
IFC Films has snagged the rights to distribute Lars von Trier’s The House That Jack Built in the United States.
Well-known director von Trier has previously collaborated with IFC on the release of his highly-controversial film Antichrist (2009) starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The House That Jack Built will mark his first feature since Nymphomaniac (2013), also starring Gainsbourg in the lead.
The House That Jack Built follows the development of a serial killer named (you guessed it) Jack, as he commits a string of five murders. Believing that each murder is an individual work of art, we witness the story from his point of view.
“Along the way we experience Jack’s descriptions of his personal condition, problems and thoughts through a recurring conversation with the unknown Verge – a grotesque mixture of sophistry mixed with an almost childlike self-pity and in-depth explanations of, for Jack, dangerous and difficult manoeuvres”, reads a statement issued by IFC.
Production and Release Timeline
Filming wrapped in Trollhättan, Sweden and Copenhagen ahead of the film’s May 2018 Cannes premiere. Actual releases rolled out across multiple territories in late 2018, turning the original forward-looking statements into completed history.
Cast and Additional Roles
The horror’s star-studded cast features Matt Dillon (Crash, Wild Things, The Outsiders), Uma Thurman (Pulp Fiction, Gattaca, Kill Bill: Vol. 1), Bruno Ganz (Downfall, Wings of Desire, Nosferatu the Vampyre), Riley Keough (The Good Doctor, The Runaways, Mad Max: Fury Road), Siobhan Fallon Hogan (We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Negotiator, Men in Black), and Ji-tae Yu (Into the Mirror, Ditto, Oldboy). Sofie Gråbøl joined the ensemble in 2017, adding another layer to the international cast.
Festival Premiere and Audience Reaction
The film debuted out of competition at Cannes on May 14, 2018. More than one hundred walkouts were reported during the screening, yet the audience that remained delivered a standing ovation. The polarized response set the tone for the months ahead.
Release Strategy and MPAA Controversy
IFC mounted a one-night unrated director’s cut engagement on November 28, 2018, followed by an R-rated theatrical and VOD rollout two weeks later. Early plans for wider unrated digital availability drew scrutiny from the MPAA, prompting a delayed release of the uncensored version until the following year.
Critical Reception and Box Office
Review aggregation produced a 60 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic average of 42 out of 100. Worldwide grosses reached roughly 3.1 million dollars, while the domestic total settled at 258,000 dollars. Dillon’s performance drew consistent praise amid the divided notices.
Home Media and Availability
UK audiences received an uncensored Blu-ray in March 2019. In the United States, Shout Factory issued a two-disc set in February 2020 that packaged both the R-rated theatrical cut and the director’s cut, giving viewers the clearest look yet at von Trier’s original vision.
Jonathan Sehring and Lisa Schwartz, co-presidents of IFC Films/Sundance Selects, called von Trier an unparalleled cinematic provocateur and one of the world’s great auteurs. They noted the pleasure of reuniting with Lars, Peter Aalbaek Jensen, and the Trust team. The first image released for the film shows titular Jack holding a scythe, an homage to Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr, released in 1932 and starring aristocrat Nicolas de Gunzburg under the pseudonym Julian West. De Gunzberg agreed to finance the film in return for the leading role, his only ever on-screen performance. The House That Jack Built remains a striking entry in von Trier’s body of work and a notable chapter in IFC’s history of handling his most provocative titles.
