The Horror Show
Inhumanity
by Joe McReynolds
Everyone loves a good conspiracy. They make us think that the world is more mysterious and underhanded than face value would imply, and they can often be unsettling ideas. This is why conspiracies are prime subjects for horror. The higher up the strings are being pulled, the more unnerving it all is. Can we really believe what we are told? These questions stem from murder and mayhem when it comes to the 2018 film Inhumanity.
Jessa (Darcel Danielle) is not having a good time. She finds herself kidnapped by a vicious serial killer nicknamed Six Pack Sam and narrowly escapes with her life. After waking up from spending several months in a coma, she learns of further tragedy: her father has committed suicide. Understandably, Jessa refuses to except this reality. But is it a reality? It just doesn't add up and Jessa refuses to take the word of those around her. With the help of her father's friend Sergio (Ford Austin), Jessa puts her feet to the pavement and starts asking the hard questions, but that doesn't sit well with a lot of people. Jessa's father was a cop and she has reason to believe that his coworkers, friends, and even the doctor that performed his autopsy are not being straight with her. And they can do her a whole lot of harm.
I wouldn't call Inhumanity a straight up horror film as it has an overwhelming feeling of the procedural suspense film. However, it has a dark tone and more than enough slasher-level murders to make it have a healthy dose of the spooky. I'm not saying these moments always pay off or are memorable, but they're there. Ideally, a film will find the balance between having enough to keep the viewer engaged while being clear enough to follow. Inhumanity has a lot of moving parts and requires a lot of close attention to keep from getting a bit lost. That could just be me and I can only blame the film so much as all the elements feel needed. There was a character or two that could have been sliced out without much effort, but everyone is utilized, and I wouldn't call any cast member wasted. They all have their roles to fill.
The movie puts a lot of effort forward and in the end is what I would call a relatively solid film. There are some questionable choices, and when all is said and done I didn't care about characters that I'm pretty sure I was supposed to at least be interested in. By the end I was without anyone to root for and didn't have any desire to see anyone continue with anything. But there are enough interesting plot turns and twists along the way to make the journey worth it overall, even if the impression of the film itself comes across a bit muddled.
I wanted to avoid going into too much of how it all works because that's really where the film has its strength; making the viewer wonder where it’s all going and how things fit together. I had my issues with it, but everyone seemed committed and the film is certainly ambitious. I think the project would have been well served by a more B-movie feel and having a little more fun with itself, but that's not the movie that the creators wanted to make and in the end, what we are left with certainly isn't that bad at all.
PJ Griffin, HMS
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