Frightfest: Inbred (2011)

In a “give back” style care operation; two carers take four youngsters on a weekend retreat in the small Northern village of Mortlake. But upon arriving they all find the locals a little less than “normal”, and when two of the kids find animals being burned alive they feel the need to intervene, an action that becomes their undoing.

Interestingly enough Inbred was one of the least anticipated movies of this years Frightfest, for days I heard people talking about how they planned to give it a miss and using the same reason as an excuse “Have you seen Cradle Of Filth?” (A deliberate mis-wording of the movie Cradle Of Fear’s Title), it seems that director Alex Chandon’s 2001 movie was going to take a lot of getting over. Thankfully for Chandon, he now will have a new accolade, the term did you see will now be met with praise rather than disgust.

Maybe to ensure the movie was well received, Chandon committed the perfect entrance to a movie, delivering something that every horror movie fan wants to see, he killed Emily Booth. A general dislike of this horror “figure” bought cheers from an audience, as mutterings of “thank God” and similar made their way round the surrounding rows like a wave.

Inbred is a really screwed up, but enjoyable movie. It’s very tongue in cheek feature that perfectly balances the mix of horror and humour, appealing to the largest possible audience it could. Making much use of the “local” aspect of the movie, Inbred plays on popular conceptions and heightens them with a heady mix of over the top residents.

Clearly a movie with a limited budget, the effects are absolutely fantastic. Mainly opting to go the tried and tested route of make up to provide the effects, the film does go someway to add a little CGI in order to create one of the more impressive demises, and as Chandon told a packed auditorium, this one effect took a considerable time to complete.

It’s the attention to detail on the movies villains that should get the best praise, using a lot of cliché which includes a man with a ferret, a northern singing minstrel, and a snappy punch at education up north, Chandon has created a perfectly formed stereotypical look at small town northern life.

The movies performers especially Seamus O’Neill, Jo Hartley and James Doherty are the icing on an almost perfect piece. Hartley’s timing of her sometimes too upright dialogue, which includes her reaction to the village pub name “The Dirty Hole” sent childhood style titters throughout the audience, in some ways it seems as if her character is put their to draw attention to the things you might otherwise miss.

If I was asked to make a comparison to Inbred it would have to be Mum & Dad meets Bad Taste, and with such movies held in such high regard, the only thing left for me to say is stop reading, get out there and see this film, the day it’s released.

I cannot as yet find a release date for Inbred, which is not surprising as Chandon told the audience it was only finished three days prior to its world premier. Fingers crossed it gets the release it deserves.