Horror Movie Review: The Jack in the Box: Awakening (2022)

Jack’s back and here to collect another load of souls.

Released in 2019, The Jack in the Box looked to do for ‘jack in the boxes’ what The Conjuring and Annabelle did for dolls. To the point where it seemed to be nothing more than a copy and paste horror movie. The end result was a passable but bland movie that was almost instantly forgotten about. You can read our full review here.

No-one was asking for a sequel. So, imagine my surprise when I stumbled across a sequel released this year (2022).

Once again, Lawrence Fowler returns to write and direct, and once again offers up little more than an OK movie that you’ll promptly forget about.

Olga Marsdale (Nicola Wright) is a rich, terminally ill woman who has gotten hold of the jack in the box from the first film. This box, if you’re coming into this sequel with no knowledge of the first film, holds an ancient demon. One that likes souls, so Olga makes a deal with it. She will deliver it six souls and it will cure her illness.

Olga is far too ill to collect the victims though so she tasks her son, Edgar (Matt McClure) to do it for her. Something he is willing to do because he is devoted to his mother and can’t imagine life without her.

Who to give to the demon though? Thankfully, the estate they live in has staff and he has recently hired Amy (Mollie Hindle) to assist. Now, all he has to do is make each death look like nothing more than a disappearance.

As the said disappearances begin to rack up, Amy begins to suspect Edgar has had something to do with it. Finding out about the box and its inhabitant. While she be able to stop it or will she just become another captured soul?

The Jack in the Box: Awakening does nothing really wrong. Its story is decent and told well enough, the acting is good, the blood and guts are solid, and the ending is delightfully dark. So why is not being given more credit?

Simply because, it’s barely trying. There’s plenty that makes The Jack in the Box: Awakening a decent movie but it never tries to do anything above that.

It lacks inspiration, it lacks excitement and it lacks a killer hook. It’s better than the first film, just because it has a bit more backstory to the demon but they’re both as unremarkable as the other.