Nothing prepares you for when a movie trailer dares to ask real questions—then almost answers them. That's the uneasy space Jackknife occupies. Directed by Adam Jack (yes, really), this Canadian-made, U.S.-set indie thriller arrives wielding a jagged moral compass and a jackknife to match. Its story: A young Black brother and sister defend themselves in the woods, and a fatal act turns them into fugitives. But can a trailer this raw deliver more than shock value?
Let's talk about it.
What the Trailer Gets (Mostly) Right: Urgency and Unease
From the jump, the trailer screams discomfort. Not just from the violence—though the premise is brutal—but from the implications. A child forced to kill to survive. A justice system that doesn't flinch when the accused is Black and young. Sound familiar?
It should.
The echoes of 2012's Beasts of the Southern Wild (minus the magic realism) and even 2018's The Hate U Give are loud here, especially in how Jackknife frames Black youth as both vulnerable and dangerously powerful. That duality is rarely explored in survival thrillers—but here, it's the emotional spine.
And let's be real: Tivon Charles carries the trailer. While some supporting performances feel one rehearsal short of convincing, Charles's eyes alone tell a story of shock, fear, and reluctant violence. No small feat.
But Here's the Uncomfortable Truth: Not All Tension Is Earned
For all its ambition, the trailer can't hide a few indie-film cracks. Dialogue wobbles. Editing choices feel jagged (and not in a “we meant that” kind of way). And while the premise brims with potential, it sometimes veers into PSA territory. Like it's trying so hard to be about something that it forgets to be cinematic.
This isn't new. Indie films tackling race and trauma often get trapped between message and movie. Think of Monsters and Men (2018) or American Skin (2019)—films that sparked conversations but split critics and audiences. Jackknife looks ready to follow that pattern: bold, messy, and not for everyone.
History Repeats—But Why Does Jackknife Still Feel Different?
Unlike its predecessors, Jackknife doesn't center on courtroom battles or public protests. It strips the narrative down to its primal core: survival. A fishing trip. A forest. A weapon. In doing so, it brushes up against the same raw nerve touched by Winter's Bone or even Room—only this time, filtered through a racialized lens rarely seen in this subgenre.
And that lens matters. As film scholar Dr. Racquel Gates has written, “Representations of Black survival often carry a heavier symbolic weight—because survival itself is coded as resistance.” Jackknife knows that. Whether it explores it fully is still TBD.
This One's Gonna Divide People
You'll either love this or hate it. Jackknife is not slick, not polished—and not pretending to be. That's part of its honesty. But can a trailer full of jagged edges still carve a place in the crowded landscape of trauma thrillers?
We'll find out April 29th when it hits VOD. Until then—would you risk everything over a single, split-second decision? Watch the trailer. Then tell us what you would've done.
