Adrian Lyne’s Jacob’s Ladder (1990) is one of the defining psychological horror films of the late twentieth century, not because of jump scares, but because of the way it turns grief, war trauma, and the fear of dying into a vivid and fractured reality. It follows Jacob Singer, a Vietnam veteran haunted by hallucinations and fragmented memories, as he tries to make sense of what is happening to him. The movie blends supernatural imagery with psychological realism, producing a story that is at once a mystery, a horror film, and a philosophical meditation on how people confront death. At the surface level, the film tracks Jacob after his return from Vietnam. He works as a postal clerk in New York City, lives with his girlfriend Jezzie after separating from his wife, and is grieving the death of his young son. Soon, however, his world becomes unstable. He sees grotesque figures in the subway and on city streets. Faces flicker and distort. People around him seem possessed or replace...