The House That Jack Built

The House That Jack Built centres on Jack, an American man in the 1970s who wanted to be an architect but instead became a serial killer. Over twelve years he commits a series of murders, treating each one as a work of art and pushing himself toward greater complexity and risk. The story unfolds from Jack's own perspective, told through five incidents and framed by a conversation with a mysterious figure named Verge, to whom Jack recounts his life, his frustrations and his methods. As the killings accumulate, the police close in, and Jack's behaviour grows increasingly reckless.

Lars von Trier wrote and directed the film, the seventeenth of the seventeen features he has directed in chronological order, following Nymphomaniac in 2013. Matt Dillon plays Jack, with Bruno Ganz as Verge and Uma Thurman, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Sofie Gråbøl and Riley Keough among the cast. Louise Vesth produced; the production involved companies from Denmark, Germany, France and Sweden.

The film was released in October 2018 and runs 152 minutes. Made for about 10 million USD, it returned roughly 6 million USD worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.8/10 from around 105,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.1/10 from roughly 3,000 votes. A critics' rating of 6.2/10 from 138 reviews places it below both audience scores.