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.

If John Irving and Stephen King had collaborated to give us Garp and Carrie as twins separated at birth, they might well have come up with this strange New Zealand offering . . . it certainly has a nightmarish, disjointed feel, but writer-director Maxwell, aided by excellent lead performances, also manages to make this at once affecting, funny and horrifying.

– British horror expert Kim Newman mistakes the main characters as twins, in a four star review in Empire

Key Cast & Crew

Donald Duncan

Cinematographer

Grant Major

Production Designer

Alexis Arquette

As: Jack

Sarah Smuts-Kennedy

As: Dora

Bruno Lawrence

As: Teddy

Garth Maxwell

Director, Writer