Inside

One of my favorite extreme french horror films was the original film this movie was based on, Inside (2007). Browsing through Hulu the night before I spotted this American remake. My expectations were low based on prior experience with many American horror remakes, but this particular remake sunk far lower than my already low expectations.

The story isn't an exact copy of the original. They did make changes and the biggest changes were in the last third of the film. Unbelievable beyond belief and the producers having seen the original which should have given them an excellent template to base their remake seem to totally ignore it.

Before the opening scene and immediately after the opening credits, a statistic is shown on the screen literally giving away the twist in the plot that the original film doesn't unveil until the very end. By doing that, they literally killed any chance of developing a sense of suspense and surprise that the original was so great at doing. In the original film, the audience doesn't understand why the killer is doing what she does until the very end, but this film constantly reminds us of what the plot is as though the audience has a 30 second attention deficit.

I would NOT recommend this film to a friend at all. Anyone who has not seen the original, I highly recommend you watch the original film, even if you do not like subtitles. If you see this film first and uncover the twist, it will ruin the original for you and you will miss out on a highly rated french extreme horror original.

Inside (2016)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

After the death of her husband, Sarah (Rachel Nichols) is a day away from giving birth to their baby but that night a mysterious woman (Laura Harring) breaks into her home with plans on taking the baby.

This here is a remake of the 2007 French film INSIDE and apparently it has been sitting on a shelf for a couple years before finally being released. I will admit up front that I enjoy watching remakes as I find it interesting to see someone take a different take on a familiar story. The original INSIDE is known for its vile and at times shocking violence and it doesn't take a brain scientist to know that what we saw in that film wouldn't make it to this remake.

Let me just say that everything in the original movie was a lot better than what you get here. As you'd expect, the violence and gore has been toned down to the point where you have to wonder why they even bothered to remake the film. But wait a minute, whereas the original film went for gore and violence, perhaps director Miquel Angel Vivas could take the material into a different direction and make a winning picture. Nope, that doesn't happen either and what we're left with is a watered down version of the original and even on its own this remake just doesn't work.

There are all sorts of problems with the movie including the fact that there's nothing good here. I guess you could say that Nichols' performance was good but Harring is so watered down and so bland as the killer that there's just no tension between the characters. The lack of any sort of real suspense is another major issue. It also seems as if the director is familiar with the original movie and he thinks that the viewer is too so he hints at stuff that fans of the original will remember but he just never goes through with it here. For example, when the pregnant woman is in the bathroom. Remember the scene with the scissors? Watch how it plays out here.

With no gore, no violence and no tension what are we left with? Not much. There aren't any surprises here and especially if you've seen the original. Even if you haven't seen the original this film just doesn't offer us anything. It's as if they simply didn't know what they wanted to do with the material so we're left with some hacked up version of the original. I'm not going to spoil anything but the ending is rather embarrassing as is the sequence with the cops. In fact, one of the cops here has to be the dumbest cop from any horror film I've ever seen.

INSIDE is an all around bad movie that at least manages to make the original seem even better.

Acting terrible. Cinematography may have been. I'm getting really sick and tired of idiots who can't be bothered to turn a gd light on at night... The woman who was having the baby was stupid from start to end. From her first weapon of choice, a broken mirror shard, which she should have wrapped in a towel or face cloth, to when she was using the back of the toilet... the woman put her arm through the door, best option she chose was to give her a small slice, rather than shatter her arm with the toilet back. Made no sense at all. Cops show up. The lady stabs one IN THE DOORWAY WITH the door open.. his partner is too stupid to be watching, despite him seeming real cagey about something 2 seconds prior. The whole movie was just dumb. I can't imagine anyone who didn't work for it would actually rate it higher than a 2. It was that bad.

Ok....if the original never existed, this might be considered a crazy and fun over-the-top flick. However...the original does exist and this remake is just sad. The level of horror and surprise was far superior in the original and you really should just watch that one instead. But if you've never seen the original, you may find some guilty pleasure in this sadly undercooked remake.

Most of the reviews that gave this film 1/10 are from persons who have seen the original. I have not seen the original and I enjoyed the film.

I actually thought that this movie would be crap after I saw the rating but I ended up enjoying it. Its not the best movie in the world and there are definitely problems with it but to give a movie 1 star because it doesn't live up to the original is a bit unfair.