In some ways this could be the most realistic found-footage film of all that I have seen – in that it's often impossible to work out what's going on. Equally, the depictions of the group of teenagers getting drunk and swapping embarrassing stories is immediately tiresome.
As the story goes, a man (Eoin Macken, who also writes, produces and directs) gains possession of a second hand camcorder, and on it he finds footage that appears to depict the final hours spent by a group of currently missing Irish girls. Spending an evening in an abandoned warehouse isn't everyone's idea of a good way to celebrate a birthday, and tempers are frayed from the outset. These are flawed people. When they are attacked by vagrants, however, it comes as a relief the camera-work is shaky and obfuscates the resulting raw abuse.
When it is revealed there is a bigger, supernatural threat at large, the pace of the film slows. We are treated to quite slow scenes involving the characters reacting to barely glimpsed creatures not dissimilar to those in 'The Descent', and some unexplained sounds of a baby crying.
The found footage formula ends when 'The Man' has reached the finale and we return to more coherent, slick direction of regular film-making for what I feel is the least convincing part of the story. Having seen a group apparently slaughtered by demonic forces in a location that is familiar, would you then take it upon yourself to investigate that very area, unarmed and alone? Because I wouldn't. Yet that is exactly what the man does. Would he not hand over the webcam to the police? I justify his actions in this way: we saw him pawn his ring for cash. Perhaps he has a drug habit and is reticent to contact the law? I wouldn't suggest for a moment that people who pawn their goods are addicts, but it's the only reason I can imagine he doesn't contact professionals to deal with this. Much as this lapse of logic happens in horror films, I found it difficult to get past here, which mars an otherwise very effective feature.
The Inside
2012
Action / Drama / Horror / Thriller
The Inside
2012
Action / Drama / Horror / Thriller
Plot summary
Horror Thriller film about 5 young girls and their boyfriend who go partying in an abandoned warehouse to celebrate one of the girls birthday. Things begin to go quickly wrong however as they are subjected to a terrifying attack before succumbing to a supernatural horror that has no compunction between good or evil. The girls try to escape but are trapped in the building, with the only question left being, is there any way out?
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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Enjoyable found footage ...
Betrays a total lack of understanding of how film-making works
A one-man-band Irish horror film, directed, written and acted by Eoin Macken. Unfortunately this gentleman displays an entire lack of understanding of what's involved in the film-making process, and despite the found footage hook on which he hangs his movie, this turns out to be one of the worst in a glut of badly made recent horrors.
Narratives are all about ebb and flow. You start off subtle, build up tension and atmosphere to a climax, then simmer things down before building up again. Things inevitably lead to a final climax which should be bigger and more dramatic than that which has come before. This story, which tells of a birthday party in an abandoned building that goes horribly wrong, gives you precisely 10 minutes of set-up before letting rip with a constant soundtrack of high-pitched screaming.
I'm not kidding: there's no script here, just characters screaming and shouting for what seems like an eternity. Maybe it was done to cover up a lack of acting talent, but whatever the reason it's absolutely horrendous. The director has no understanding of subtlety or how it can be used to make a quietly effective and genuinely frightening movie. THE INSIDE goes all-out early on and stays like that till the climax.
The movie is also unpleasant, featuring defenceless women being terrorised by rapist thugs, at least at first. Things change later on, heavily indebted to the likes of REC and THE DESCENT as the party-goers fall victim to something sinister and nameless. But it's not scary, none of it is remotely frightening. The film also ends about 20 minutes too early and tacks on an extraneous sub-plot which makes it even worse, and I didn't even realise that was possible. This truly is the pits.
*sigh*
I just saw this film at Monster fest Melbourne, and must say when it started I was already annoyed by screaming girls and shaky camera work, which i was expecting as it is another "found footage" film that i am getting very tired of. But then the vagrants come in and I'm thinking, this is messed up this could be really sinister and nasty, and then it dragged on, and on, with silly little cliché glitches of the camera extremely similar to the tall man series on you tube. then the over used baby cry that is never fully explained or reasoned and also chuck in some witch craft and satanic symbols on the wall, and I'm just thinking. "what is this film." people ended up just laughing through out the movie screening. I think a movie where you never care about the characters to begin with then you are made to feel a bit scared for them, then hate them again, and then I just wanted the film to end, but it just kept going. A number of people walked out on this film screening, I stayed as I will try to give everything a chance and this is sadly just bad.