Inbred Review


Movie: Inbred
By: Orlok666
Date: April 26, 2012

British inbreed

Alex Chandon might be known to most for his video for Cradle of Filth and the feature length "Cradle of Fear" he made with them -at least that goes for me. After that he made "Pervirella" but then there was a long, long silence. After about a decade Chandon returns with "Inbred". For those who only saw the first teaser and might think Chandon went for a more atmospheric, "Wicker Man"-like horror: guess again! "Inbred" is a treat for all gore hounds!

Welcome to Mortlake, Yorkshire

After the initial engaging and gory intro we follow a bunch of urban offenders and their two care workers on their way to do some community service in the little village Mortlake. A town that likes to keep itself to itself. Literally of course. The youngsters are there for a weekend of extreme house makeover -and the ‘extreme’ here stands for the state of decay the house is in. It doesn’t take too long before the city folks get into some incidents with the local youths, starting off a whole lot of nastiness...

Inbred

Village of terror

I saw the film during Imagine Fantastic Film Festival’s the Night of Terror, a night filled with films for the avid horror lover (for a full review about that night follow the link at the end of the review). So I quickly dispersed the silly thought of a new "Wicker Man" that still lingered somewhere in my head and got ready to explore the rural side of Yorkshire.

After the intro Chandon takes quite some time to set up the scenery and have the characters play around a bit. This part took a bit of the pace out of the film, picking up when the first gruesome kills start. From there on the film is relentless in its rural absurdities and displays of graphic violence.

Inbred

Of plot holes and shotgun holes

Nothing new here but sometimes the characters make some weird decisions like going back to their makeover house after being held captive -a place each Mortlake villager knows- and then decide to wire the van they came with. Why not immediately wire some car in the village instead of running off to a remote place just to find the van to escape? But in the end, who cares about things like this? The amount of holes shot in heads and bodies exceeds the number of plot holes by far and that’s what the real gore hounds come for. And there’s plenty of that.

Next to that the special effects are really nicely done and very, very visceral. Bodies are mutilated beyond recognition, faeces splatters around (in 3D!) and Chandon serves it all with sardonic pleasure. The film reminded me at some points to the Belgian "Calvaire" (aka "Ordeal"), also set in a remote village filled with villagers who have their own way of doing things. But while "Calvaire" goes for a bit more of an arty approach, Chandon goes for full frontal brutality.

Inbred

A fun trip

"Inbred" provides enough (sick) laughs, with Mortlake’s pub named "The Dirty Hole" to a real 3D show for the villagers, the inbred way. The film is photographed in Thirsk where Paul Shrimpton -who co-wrote the film with Chandon- comes from. They couldn’t have picked a more suitable place to set their film. Sure, the film threads a lot of paths that are very familiar to the viewer but most of the nasty scenes we see here are a bit refreshing in their goriness. I haven’t seen Alex Chandon’s "Pervirella" but compared to "Cradle of Fear" "Inbred" is a huge step forward with a coherent story and a fine group of actors of which mainly Seamus O'Neill steals the show. With some luck we don’t have to wait another decade to have a new film of Chandon see the light of day.

Official site: Inbred

Night of Terror 2012 special


3.5/5




Movie

Inbred

Title

Inbred

Director

Alex Chandon

Country

United Kingdom

Year

2011

Cast

Jo Hartley, Seamus O'Neill, James Doherty and Nadine Rose Mulkerrin