Writers: Michael Rasmunssen, Shawn Rasmunssen
Directors: Michael Rasmunssen, Shawn Rasmunssen
The Inhabitants is real a kitchen sink of a movie: an uneasy mix of techno-voyeurism, haunted house, witchcraft possession and a couple of other subgenres.
The movie starts with a young couple spending the night at the 350 year old March Carriage guest house. Unknown to them they’re being secretly filmed. And on film, something happens…
Move forward some years and the house is now taken over by Dan (Michael Reed) and Jessica (Elise Couture). Previous owner Rose (Judith Chaffee) is unhappy about this and urges them to “Take care of the children”. Strange occurrences soon begin and there’s clearly Something In The House.
It’s a traditional ghost story setup, however the Rasmussen brothers try to do more. Too much more. As with their script for The Ward (2010) they throw in a whole bundle of stuff and none of it really gels; it just becomes a jumble of hints, ideas and cliches.
The first half of the film is full of foreshadowing and what should be tense moments, but all we get is little snippets. Nothing comes together and every time it looks like getting interesting the film cuts to something else.
The main narrative really starts about half way in. But again we keep jumping from one thing to another, there’s no flow. Once the actual story becomes clear it’s not a bad one, but the telling is extremely muddled.
The cast all do a great job, but it’s not enough. The plot is too disjointed, the script messy and the direction patchy. The result is movie which had potential but ends up being fragmented and lacking in either narrative or atmospheric cohesion.