Mass Walkouts for ‘Vomitive,’ ‘Torturous’ Lars von Trier Serial Killer Movie ‘The House That Jack Built’

Cannes 2018: “Vile movie. Should not have been made,” one early critic tweets

Lars von Trier’s latest film “The House That Jack Built” just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival — and audiences were walking out in droves, according to several critics on the scene. One even said the director had “gone too far this time.”

“Just left Lars Von Trier’s The House that Jack Built. Gross. Pretentious. Vomitive. Torturous. Pathetic,” wrote one critic.

“People are walking out of the new Lars Von Trier movie,” tweeted another. “Like they didn’t know exactly what they were getting into.”

“Walked out on LarsvonTrier [sic]. Vile movie. Should not have been made. Actors culpable,” tweeted another.

Some rushed to the defense of the filmmaker, writing, “I mean, it’s a Lars von Trier movie, what were they expecting?” and “can we talk about the cluelessness of the Cannes audience expecting to be mildly entertained by a lars von trier film about a serial killer lmao.”

Much has been made of von Trier’s return after being declared persona non grata by the festival in 2011. Ahead of his Monday night premiere, IFC Films dropped a teaser trailer for the Matt Dillon film. The ’80s heartthrob appears to be a haphazard serial killer in the throes of an existential crisis. Uma Thurman and Riley Keough make Hitchcockian blonde cameos as von Trier seems to be commenting on his own body of work through Dillon’s character.

In the official Cannes program, a warning appears next to the film’s schedule times: “Certain scenes are likely to offend the sensitivity of the spectators.”

See reactions below.

https://twitter.com/OscarPredictor/status/996152868590714881

https://twitter.com/andrewshaigh/status/996154998613577735

https://twitter.com/sexykropotkin/status/996158075743555585

https://twitter.com/kylebuchanan/status/996158672375083009

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