What happens when you take the disconnected lifestyle of liberalism of upper middle class elites to its logical conclusion?  The answer is the couple at the center of Anything for Jackson (2020), a film in which an affluent couple attempt to bring their grandson back to life through a “reverse-exorcism,” which involves hijacking a young woman’s pregnancy for their own nefarious ends.  Naturally, in the process, the bumbling and desperate couple unleash for more sinister forces than they ever intended, with horrifying (and, frequently, grimly hilarious) consequences.

The result is one of the creepiest, funniest, and most original films I’ve seen in some time.

An aging but active couple, Audrey and her husband Dr. Henry Walsh, are active Satanists.  They meet with a group of other such heathens at the local library.  Dr. Walsh has, through various connections, come into the possession of an ancient spell book that he and his wife believe will bring their grandson, who died in a tragic car accident, back to life.  Audrey tests the book on a dead raven, who rouses from his death slumber to fly again.

In the process of mucking about with this black magic, they inadvertently open up doors that cannot be reclosed—or, at the very least, which they don’t know how to reclose.  Soon, apparitions of the deceased began haunting them.

What’s even more interesting, though, is that they kidnap one of Dr. Walsh’s patients, Shannon Becker, to use as the vehicle for the “rebirth” of their grandson.  Shannon is pregnant and does not know the father.  She is racked with shame and is estranged from her family.  As such, when she puts her trust in her physician, it comes at a near-fatal cost:  she is the perfect target for abduction and demonic rituals.

It is hard to put into words how well-executed this film is.  The acting really elevates the premise, with the Walshes’ deadpan delivery a highlight of the film.  At one point, a police officer, attempting to rescue Shannon, shoots herself as a result of the malevolent demonic forces the Walshes have unleashed.  Her ghost keeps re-enacting the suicide over and over again; when a fellow Satanist asks the Walshes about it, Audrey says, dismissively, “Oh, she’s been doing that all night,” like it’s a child with a cold coughing or the like.

I don’t get the sense that I am “selling” this film well, but I would encourage you to check it out on your own.  It is very good—and extremely creepy.  If it smacks of Rosemary’s Baby (1968), that’s no accident, but its terror is more grounded in what misguided individuals can do in their relentless pursuit of a goal, regardless of the consequences, rather than in an conspiracy to trick a waif into having the devil’s baby.

The Walshes will, surely, do Anything for Jackson—and they might doom the world in the process.  They certainly damn themselves.