In a world where we are expected to play a variety of conflicting roles, in which our lives are all interconnected, broadcast and dissected, we invariably develop situational identities. We are not one person, we are many people who go by the same name.

Despite its somewhat lurid imagery, Jacob’s Ladder is not horrifying because of what it shows, like Hellraiser, not even because of what it doesn’t show, as with Hitchcock’s Psycho. It is horrifying because you never know how solid the ground beneath you is.