The Inhabitants
Directed by the Rasmussen Brothers
Starring: Elise Couture, India Pearl, Michael Reed
October 13, 2015
Reviewed by T.A. Wardrope
Fans of ghost stories brought to the silver screen are in as an unenviable spot as fans of zombie cinema. Sure, there are much more zombie flicks still being delivered to the movie going public but the venerable haunted house story is older than cinema itself. So, there’s a lot of previous work to consider, some of it is quite good and deserving of the classic status. This is a tough genre, but it is also easier because people don’t put specters in the same category as “unrealistic” creatures like werewolves and vampires. Many people have had ghostly experiences and will happily talk about it.
All of which brings us to The Inhabitants, a ghostly tale written by the Rasmussen Brothers. The Rasmussens most notable writing credit, as indicated on the poster, is John Carpenter’s The Ward. That’s a matter for another review, but it’s not the best film to hang your hat on and it seems the Rasmussens have head off into indieland since then. Indiegogo made The Inhabitants possible. Worth mentioning that all of the Rasmussens indie efforts have been produced or executive produced by novelist Glenn Cooper so it’s not a desperate indie crowdfunded film, at any rate.
The Inhabitants begins with a fairly straightforward premise for this genre. Something bad happened because a bad person lived in the house a century ago. Angry spirits are rumored to still inhabit the house, but a young, hungry couple with an eye towards flipping the house move in regardless. Creepy things happen but neither of them catch on until they are in well over their heads. The first half of the film is a lot of “suspense” toying with the idea of what might happen to the happy couple. A lot of potential threats are revealed but none of them actually do anything. Once things start to happen, they do happen fast, so it’s almost like this is two movies or a movie half-done. To keep this spoiler-free, I’ll just say that the inhabitants need a living person to do their bidding for an unexplained reason. (To the writer’s credit there is a general nod to having rules for these supernatural goings-on.) As the film accelerates to the ending, it gets better and there are some genuine surprises and spookiness.
Unfortunately, there is nothing keeping it all together. There’s only a suggestion of what is going on in the house, and the filmmakers seem to think we will fill the rest in with our genre knowledge or imagination. Sadly, this isn’t the sort of thing you want to leave to the audiences imagination. There’s a lack of effective backstory framing the entire film, so it feels like an exercise more than a complete project. You need this in a haunted house movie, because it is haunted by the past.
Dialogue and performance is another weak area. Once the actors have to start moving around and do stuff they are up to the job. I don’t know if it is the superficial dialogue or lack of blocking but most of the “character” scenes just fall flat. I have to wonder if the writers have actually ever been in a relationship with another human. You could say it is too “on the nose” but in practice it is more like it takes up the entire nose and forgets about the rest of the face. People always say what they are thinking and feeling, right? Very unfortunate given the “realism” mentioned earlier.
In total, it’s an indie horror film that is respectably ambitious and tries to strike its own claim in the haunted house genre. It’s not The Ward, but that’s just as well. The Inhabitants is not perfect, but it’s enjoyable and offers pleasures similar to a spunky microbrew served fresh from the keg.
- The Inhabitants – Movie Review - October 7, 2015
