You just knew Lars Von Trier was going to stir up some drama with his grand return to Cannes (the filmmaker was banned for seven years as a ?persona non grata? after making Hitler jokes while promoting Melancholia). And guess what, the reactions to his latest piece of provocation, the gruesome serial killer drama The House That Jack Built, did not disappoint.
The film premiered at Cannes today and apparently theater-goers just weren?t having it. Cannes audiences are known for being, let?s say passionate, prone to booing and standing ovations, but the social media reports out of The House That Jack Built describe a next-level sea of walkouts. This is not surprising considering it?s a serial killer movie directed by the guy who gave us Antichrist, which might just be the actual grosses, hardest to watch movie of the 21st century. Or at least it was, because it sounds like this one is even rougher. Those mass walkouts were trigged by brutal sequences of mutilation and torture, including children, and of course women (it?s Von Trier, after all). Von Trier told The Guardian ?The House That Jack Built celebrates the idea that life is evil and soulless,? so yeah, it?s probably not going to be super fun to watch.
