Jack Be Nimble

In this dark fairytale, siblings Jack and Dora (American actor Alexis Arquette and Kiwi Sarah Smuts-Kennedy) are separated as children. Years later they reunite. Battling a traumatic past, they are pursued by Jack’s sadistic stepsisters. Writer/director Garth Maxwell aims for a "lush and terrifying" vibe, complete with retribution, ESP, and a steam-driven hypnosis machine. New York Times critic Stephen Holden praised the movie for achieving a “feverish intensity that recalls scenes from Hitchcock and De Palma”. Actor Smuts-Kennedy and Maxwell's script both won awards at Portuguese festival Fantasporto.

The gothic horror film Jack Be Nimble has a hallucinatory power and psychological refinement that you won't find in any number of movie adaptations of Stephen King novels, including Carrie . . . What makes Jack Be Nimble a superior genre film is that it never loses its focus on childhood trauma and obsession and their tragic repercussions.

– Reviewer Stephen Holden in The New York Times, 10 June 1994

Key Cast & Crew

Sarah Smuts-Kennedy

As: Dora

Bruno Lawrence

As: Teddy

Grant Major

Production Designer

Donald Duncan

Cinematographer

Alexis Arquette

As: Jack

Garth Maxwell

Director, Writer