All Jacked Up and Full of Worms Explained

I hope you have a strong stomach. You’re going to need it for All Jacked Up and Full of Worms.

Motel maintenance worker Roscoe comes across a cigarette case full of hallucinogenic worms left behind by a prostitute after her session with a man named Benny. From there, the movie goes places that, if you’re able to predict, means you’re either psychic or have somehow also come across a cigarette case full of hallucinogenic worms.

There are of course other characters, but they don’t bear much on the plot and are kind of just there. That is until the third-act kicks in, which we will get to later.. So for the sake of clarity, we’ll keep this focused on the misadventures of Roscoe and Benny.

Have you ever watched a movie that made you feel like you were going insane? Not in a David Lynch type of way, either. There is a method to his very particular brand of madness. I mean more like in a Tim and Eric style, where, at just about every moment, you feel the need to ask yourself if what you’re seeing is real or some sort of fever dream cooked up specifically to push you to the edge of sanity.

I spent a solid part of the movie’s 71-minute runtime with my mouth agape, audibly asking to no one other than myself, “wtf?” Trying to decipher what I was seeing was like attempting to play Sudoku drunk after spinning round and round in one of those teacup rides at an amusement park. A task I’m usually more than up for, but the surplus of repulsive imagery made it all the more challenging.

This is a disgusting movie, and I’m not even saying that because of the whole eating, and at one point snorting, worms thing. That is honestly relatively tame when compared to other parts of the movie. To describe in any sort of detail some of the stuff you will see would be beyond unsavory. Suffice it to say, you do not want to eat before or after watching it. I literally stopped to take a shower midway through.

I won’t lie, though; the movie is pretty funny. There’s one scene in particular where, after Roscoe and Benny have their first worm’s experience together, a real sentence I just wrote, they return to the motel and ask a total stranger, Dennis if he’d like to partake. Instead of reacting as any normal person would, he enthusiastically joins in. The trio then embarks on a night of debauchery where in which Dennis is just straight-up dressed like Guy Ferrari. It’s a small thing, but it is a perfect example of the movie’s unique brand of comedy.

Despite being equal parts confusing and sickening, the movie is oddly sweet, or at least attempts to be. The relationship between Roscoe and Benny is one between two broken people looking for solace in a broken world. They don’t find it or do momentarily before it slips through their fingers, but their joint desire for purpose together is still there.

Contrasting this, however, are some acts Benny commits, primarily toward a baby doll. These things don’t happen often, but they do happen enough to where they certainly taint the image of Benny, souring the sweetness. Roscoe is an all-around alright guy, at least up until around the last twenty minutes before he goes totally off the rails, but as for Benny, there are just some lines you don’t cross. Even towards inanimate objects.

Speaking of the last twenty minutes, if what has been described so far makes me sound like an inmate at Arkham Asylum, then trying to explain the depths Worms goes towards the end would make me sound like someone who has ingested a handful of hallucinogenic worms. It doesn’t just jump the shark here but leaps over the entire aquarium. I’m not going to spoil anything, but I will say that the practical effects are astounding. If you’re a fan of gore, goo, and all that good stuff, you’re in for a treat.

All Jacked Up and Full of Worms is a prime case of why number ratings aren’t a sufficient way to declare a movie’s quality. Is it a three out of ten? A seven out of ten? Is it good? Bad? Man, it’s just a ride that mostly succeeds at what it’s aiming for. Depending on your tastes and what you can take, it’s a ride you’ll either be glad you took or resent yourself for not hopping off when you had the chance.

While I’m not all that sure what the real point of the movie is, what I can tell you is that it is unabashedly original. It never once loses sight of its identity, always staying true to itself, and that is something worth congratulating.

Remember kids, if someone asks you to do worms with them, always say no.