Review - Inside (2007 - Dir. Alexandre Bustillo)

Crikey. Where to start with this one? Pregnant ladies in films are generally exempt from being stalked and stabbed by some total nutter. You can see where this is going.


If you've come to this review because you've enjoyed some of the gentler films on obscurendure like This Happy Breed or The Girl Who Leapt through Time, then it might be an idea to give Inside a wide birth. It is definitely anti-gentle.


Sarah (Alysson Paradis) is the pregnant lady in question. She is involved in a nasty car accident very early on in the proceedings and her partner is killed to death. Some months later, the pregnancy is going well (by some miracle). Then a suspect woman turns up at her house who knows her name and knows all about the accident. For some reason she wants to get into the house.

The initial part of the film is quite tense. It is shot in cheapo-budget-o-scope-o-vision, but even so I was looking at the shadowy areas on screen to make sure that nothing jumped out and made me soil my pants (well, a mild spattering maybe, enough to warrant wipeage). Then there is an incident with a fella's chicken nuggets and a rather large pair of scissors. All tension is lost and it descends into a blood bath (not necessarily a bad thing, but in this case it is). 

The special make-up effects are serviceable but the CGI baby is shocking. It's not that Inside is very gory, it's just very bloody. By the end Sarah's house, and the other occupants, are drenched in the red stuff. 


At two points in the film, I was completely speechless. One point is where what can only be described as a supernatural event takes place. Everything else in the film could feasibly happen, but this bit... it's just completely bonkers. The other moment is one of those 'I can't believe they've filmed that' moments. Not pleasant. I'm not entirely sure whether they were just being shocking for the sake of it, trying to outshock Martyrs (very possibly). Whatever reason they had, it doesn't lend the film an endearing quality and it would have been better without it. 

After all that, I did vaguely enjoy Inside (maybe too many vodkas helped - adjust the rating accordingly). You could never accuse it of being boring. So if you're not faint of heart, and not pregnant, then drink some serious quantities of pop and give it a go. You have been warned though.
3/10
evlkeith




If you like this you could also try:
Martyrs, Frontiers, Switchblade Romance, Three Men and a Baby.