Review: Inbred (2011)

Review by Disgruntled Monkey

Director: Alex Chandon

Starring: Jo Hartley, Seamus O'Neill, James Doherty

Writers: Alex Chandon, Paul Shrimpton

Beautiful green fields set in the English countryside greet us; yet dark clouds immediately begin rolling in as an ominous musical shift arises. It’s only the credits and already the tension and atmosphere are being cranked to creepy heights. Abruptly we cut to a scene of an English gentleman and lady being brutally murdered by one of their man servants. This in turn proves to be a movie that some of the main characters are watching but it perfectly encapsulates Inbred. It’s a film of two halves that while excellent on their own, don’t work together.

I completely adored the first half of the movie. Locations were used to maximum effect and the camera work was beautiful. All the build up housed really creepy touches, from children beating up a scarecrow that seemed a little life like, to one of the leads finding pornographic books which had some interesting paste jobs. It all works very well and I wish the movie would keep this style up, but it inevitably changes.

The film truly goes down the rabbit hole when the villains of the piece finally reveal themselves; all manner of depravity hits the screen. It becomes exceptionally disturbing - but in the good kind of way – a form of twisted horror that so many movies seem to miss the mark with. This may sound weird but it also manages to do torture right. It’s not about violence but about mentally breaking someone and in its’ way Inbred does a great job.

However this plunge may not be everyone’s cup of tea. We have a butt tonne of animal porn, the lead villain in black face for the last third, some cruel as hell deaths and probably the closest representation of the Aristocrat joke on screen we’ll ever see. It also wraps these atrocities in the veil of very dark humour which while I enjoyed may leave a bad taste in people’s mouths.

A disturbing future vision of 3D movies.

While some may decry this as nothing more than an exploitative bit of trash there seems to be a real love in this movie. Everything is not only done with care but an effort has been taken to make this a really good film. The acting is decent, the camera works is marvellous, special effects are a nice blend of practical and CG and the music is extraordinarily creepy. My hat comes off to Alex Chandon who seems to have put his all into this piece.

What it all comes down to is how much can you stomach? Inbred is not a movie for people who don’t like dark humour or entertainment that plays in some disturbing territory. However for fans of the horror genre this is a little gem that I’m really happy to have discovered. Time to move to the English countryside.