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INSIDIOUS INFERNO REVISITS LUCIO
FULCI'S GATES OF HELL
by Thomas M. Sipos,
managing editor [August 10, 2023]
[HollywoodInvestigator.com]It's a customary (and shady) practice to deceptively title
horror films so as to imply that they're part of a popular franchise.
Calvin Morie McCarthy is making a career of this. His oeuvre
includes
An Amitiville Poltergeist,
Conjuring The Beyond, and now,
Insidious Inferno, which is not in any way related to the
Insidious franchise or to Argento's
Inferno.
Insidious Inferno is an arbitrary
title. It could as easily have been called Evil Portal, or
Sinister Forest, or Dark Cabin, or anything. But
those titles don't hint at a popular horror franchise. Actually, it's
a shame McCarthy didn't choose a distinctive title, because
Insidious Inferno is quite good,
despite its hackneyed setup of an urban couple in a lonely cabin in
the woods.
Monica (Stephanie Leet) inherited the house from her dad. She hates
the house and wants to sell it ASAP. But the house is in poor
condition and needs repairs before a realtor will touch it. Monica's
hubby, Andre (Neil Green), regards himself a handy fixer-upper, and
insists they not waste money on professionals. He can do the repairs
himself.
Monica is also wracked with guilt and resentment about her dad. Well,
she says she hated him and is glad he's dead. Which is
unfortunate, because the house sits on or near one of the seven gates
to Hell, and this gate has released an "evil" that taps into Monica's
turbulent emotions and pushes her over the edge.
If that "gates to Hell" concept sound a bit
Lucio Fulci, it's intentional. Although
Insidious Inferno has nothing to
do with the
Insidious franchise, McCarthy borrows heavily from Fulci's "Gates
of Hell trilogy," especially
The Beyond. His mysterious blind girl, Mary (Chynna Rae Shurts),
looks a lot like the blind Emily (Cinzia Monreale) in
The Beyond (multiple people go blind in both films when touched by
the evil beyond the gates.) Mary also says, "We cannot stop the
forces that dwell beyond from influencing Monica." And
the film's poster proclaims: "The Gates of Hell Are Open!"
Compare Mary from Insidious Inferno
(top) with Emily in
The Beyond (bottom).
But as ripoffs in low budget horror filmmaking are commonplace, I'll
forgive McCarty because his B movie copycats are so enjoyable. Really,
the only thing that sets McCarthy apart is that he signals his
"influences" so explicitly.
Leet gives an extraordinary performance as a nice but troubled woman
whose suppressed anger erupts into madness. Green is less effective as
her hubby. Early on, he comes across as goofy and jokey. But as Andre
(his character) says he wants to inject "levity" into their
predicament, I assume his jokeyness was a choice (either Green's or
McCarthy's). A poor choice; it didn't work for me.
Andre is also poorly written in that, when he first meets Mary, blind,
barefoot and babbling in the forest, he thinks nothing of it. It's
only when he meets her the second time that he remarks on the
oddity of her presence, exclaiming "What are you even doing here?"
Andre should have been surprised the first time.
Green's performance does improve in the film's second half.
I also wonder what year we're in. Andre calls a colleague (Marcella
Laasch) on a GTE pay phone. She talks to him over her landline phone.
Andrea asks her to "Stay near your phone," in case he needs
to call again. Don't either of them have cell phones? I'm guessing
that McCarthy is trying to place us in Fulci's universe, but if this
is a period piece, I don't recall being informed at the start.
Like Fulci's work, Insidious Inferno
relies more on imagery than logic. McCarthy also acted as
cinematographer, and he makes captivating, if unoriginal, use of the
nondiegetic colored lights popularized by
Argento.
The sound design is admirable and effective. Ominous bass tones unify
the film, signifying dark undercurrents flowing from scene to scene,
waiting to explode. I wish I knew whom to credit. The film credits Kai
Pacifico Eng for "sound mixer/boom operator" and the IMDB credits him
for "sound," so I assume he did the sound design. No other sound
person in any capacity is credited.
The makeup effects are a mixed bag. The monsters are nicely done,
jittering in that fashion invented by
Jacob's Ladder. Monica's murder of the realtor (Erik Skybak) is
less effective. The hammer bounces off his forehead (clearly a foam or
rubber hammer). The blood pooling under his head is also unrealistic.
I was bothered by the direction of the police doing their welfare
check. If they suspected trouble afoot, would they have parked beside
the house, with the front door out of their range of view? And I think
they drew their guns too quickly. But I suppose that filmmakers think
drawn guns are more exciting than leaving them holstered.
Ultimately, Insidious Inferno is
an homage to Lucio Fulci. Not too original, but well crafted and
entertaining.
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