The Inhabitants
Directed by the Rasmussen Brothers
Starring: Elise Couture, Michael Reed, India Pearl
October 13, 2015
Reviewed by Jess Landry
I literally just finished a review for the haunted house flick (We Are Still Here) so starting a review of another one (The Inhabitants) is a little tricky, especially when We Are Still Here left a good impression. Both movies follow the same formula: grieving couple + old house in the country + new start on life = bad news bears. The difference between the two flicks is that We Are Still Here is atmospheric, emotional and spooky. The Inhabitants, well, not so much.
Jess and Dan are looking to start fresh. They purchase an old bed and breakfast in the country with big dreams for their future. Right off the bat, things don’t seem right. Does the creepy former owner give it away? Or is it the ghost lady that pops up every now and again that’s throwing things off?
When Jess (great name, by the way) heads to the library to research the town, she discovers the gruesome history of their house. Turns out it was once the home of Lydia March, a midwife accused of witchcraft who ended up being hanged. After her death, some kids went missing, thus beginning rumours of the house being haunted.
The Inhabitants has a bad case of the hurry-up-and-waits. The movie is so eager to get to the bumps and jumps that it shoves a good chunk of the spooky behaviour into the first half of the film without proper build up, leaving the last half to drown in the shallow end until the big reveal (which turns out to be more of a ‘meh’ reveal). During that first half, not even the main characters are aware that anything is amiss – they’re asleep while the ghosts open doors and tug at sheets and moan and do whatever else ghosts do. That takes away from the viewing experience. I mean, if the main characters don’t even know what’s going on, why should I be afraid?
One big qualm I have with a lot of horror movies is the lack of logic, and the story here leaves a lot to be desired. In the case of The Inhabitants, I was left with some (spoilery) questions after watching:
-Why did the previous owners not meet the same fate as the current ones?
-Why use a flashlight when the overhead lights seemed to be working just fine a day ago?
-Why come across something like, say, a secret cubby hole monitoring system with live camera feed into basically every room and not report it to police?
-Y U NO STARTLED BY GHOSTS?
-Why, if someone is chasing you with a pair of ye olde cutting tools, don’t you run outside?
-Why, if someone stabs you with ye olde cutting tools, do ye not scream in pain?
-Why can’t anyone react appropriately to the situations at hand?
-Why? Just…why?
It gets incredibly frustrating watching people continuously make the wrong choices for the sake of stretching the runtime even a minute longer or to ultimately end up dead. Audiences are smart, they can tell who’s going to live and die without having it so blatantly spelled out.
Some of the direction seems a little off as well. There’s more than one instance where the camera is just way too close to the back of the actor’s head. If the movie was in smell-o-vision, I’d be able to tell you what brand of shampoo they used that morning.
There is one good thing about this movie, and that’s Wiley the dog. Though his screen time is limited, he makes the most of it and hits his marks like a seasoned pro. You go, Wiley.
Much like zombies, the haunted house trope’s been around the block a few times. Coming up with something fresh and exciting is a huge undertaking, and The Inhabitants, unfortunately, falls short.
