Lights, Camera, Action! | Infernal (DVD Movie Review)

Infernal (UK Rating: 15)

After receiving an eight year time-skip, they (Sophia and Nathan), have a daughter named Imogene who shows erratic and strange behaviour. She becomes obsessed with a comb and uses it on her hair frequently. She also randomly wanders off and has seizures. She becomes diagnosed with autism, and the parents are told to record every moment of her life to watch for progression. They take to recording her often, mostly when she's playing or sleeping. Strange, creepy things start happening during this time in her bedroom, like the closet door opening on its own or shadows dancing on the wall. Everyone knows the drill by now.

Written and directed by Brian Coyne, Infernal seeks to offer up an interesting tale about demonic possession. What it actually offers up is a boring movie with some demonic activity, terrible acting, and little character development. Before anymore negatives are mentioned, the very few redeeming qualities should be brought up. Infernal is a 'found footage' horror flick - a genre definitely on the rise these days - that plays out like a home video of two parents recording their daily happenings and their daughter's strange actions. It also looks like most, if not all, of the effects are practical, which is beneficial to fans of that sort of thing. There are also some parts that seem to build tension well and exude eeriness, but the pay-off is normally lacking.

The plot is pretty straightforward and easy to comprehend but there are so many others of this ilk that are better, some of which this movie has actually ripped off. Acting is probably one of the most atrocious flaws apparent right from the start. It's laughably bad at times, so that could be considered a positive towards the movie if there are people that like bad movies, such as Troma Entertainment releases. It's as if these actors weren't putting forth any effort at all. When serious things happen, such as when Imogene is screaming while a demonic voice was laughs maniacally, Nathan runs upstairs, the closet door in the daughter's bedroom shuts on its own, and his response is just "Oh."

The movie barely focuses on the star, Imogene, either. The viewer is meant to learn all about her and the mystery behind what's happening, but instead gets a tale that focuses on the parents arguing almost constantly, with random creepy scenes thrown in. Also, it's worth noting that the background noises used through the film are the same. At night it's always the cliché wolf howl and cricket chirps, and when suspense is building it uses the same overbearing bass noise that Paranormal Activity used.

2/10

Very Bad

The suspense in Infernal, when it happens, is great. It could legitimately be a creepy movie if it focused more on the suspenseful atmosphere and the creepy daughter rather than the melodramatic family issues. Fans of practical effects will be glad it decided to use them mostly; it helps add to the realism of the movie and looks like something that could actually happen. However, despite these positives, the lack of character development, the very bland rip-off of a plot, and laughably bad acting (which could potentially be seen as a positive for some people) kill this movie. It is also way too long, running at just about 100 minutes; there isn't enough substance to grab or garner attention. Overall, Infernal is not a movie that could be recommended.