Jack Be Nimble (film)
1993 film by Garth Maxwell
Jack Be Nimble is a 1993 New Zealand Gothic horror film directed by Garth Maxwell, who later described it as "a stylised supernatural tale". The film stars the American Alexis Arquette and the New Zealand actor Sarah Smuts-Kennedy. It includes one of the final movie appearances of the British/New Zealand actor and musician Bruno Lawrence.
Cast
Alexis Arquette as Jack
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy as Dora
Bruno Lawrence as Teddy
Tony Barry as Clarrie
Elizabeth Hawthorne as Bernice
Brenda Simmons as Mrs Birch
Gilbert Goldie as Mr Birch
Plot
Jack (Arquette) decides to put an end to the abuse he has received from his adoptive parents, and runs away to find his long lost sister, Dora (Smuts-Kennedy). Although Dora has fared much better since their abandonment and subsequent adoption, she is also drawn to use her telepathic powers to find him. Along the way, Jack is constantly pursued by the four daughters of his adoptive parents, seeking revenge for their parents' demise at the hands of Jack and his invention.
Home release
The film is available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Critical reception
Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote that "the film cuts back and forth between scenes of their childhood and adolescence, it evokes their misery and isolation with a feverish intensity that recalls scenes from Hitchcock and De Palma". Dominic Corry of the New Zealand Herald described the film as "one of the strangest New Zealand films ever made" and thought that it "deserves way more of a cult reputation than it currently enjoys". Kim Newman of Empire Online said that Jack be Nimble was, "Not a film likely to please everyone, but strong stuff nonetheless".
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4160092. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1993.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jack Be Nimble (film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.