The Inside

A one-man-band Irish horror film, directed, written and acted by Eoin Macken. Unfortunately this gentleman displays an entire lack of understanding of what's involved in the film-making process, and despite the found footage hook on which he hangs his movie, this turns out to be one of the worst in a glut of badly made recent horrors.

Narratives are all about ebb and flow. You start off subtle, build up tension and atmosphere to a climax, then simmer things down before building up again. Things inevitably lead to a final climax which should be bigger and more dramatic than that which has come before. This story, which tells of a birthday party in an abandoned building that goes horribly wrong, gives you precisely 10 minutes of set-up before letting rip with a constant soundtrack of high-pitched screaming.

I'm not kidding: there's no script here, just characters screaming and shouting for what seems like an eternity. Maybe it was done to cover up a lack of acting talent, but whatever the reason it's absolutely horrendous. The director has no understanding of subtlety or how it can be used to make a quietly effective and genuinely frightening movie. THE INSIDE goes all-out early on and stays like that till the climax.

The movie is also unpleasant, featuring defenceless women being terrorised by rapist thugs, at least at first. Things change later on, heavily indebted to the likes of REC and THE DESCENT as the party-goers fall victim to something sinister and nameless. But it's not scary, none of it is remotely frightening. The film also ends about 20 minutes too early and tacks on an extraneous sub-plot which makes it even worse, and I didn't even realise that was possible. This truly is the pits.

This movie is bizarre and abstract. The horror imagery once it gets going is some of the best you will find in the found footage genre and far and away more frightening than most conventional horror films. It has its shortcomings and is uneven. The entire scene with the three guys showing up unannounced could have been replaced with character development as its really poorly done and unnecessary. But dont let that deter you because this movie cranks the horror into overdrive hahaha. Sure its not the witch or the wailing. Its low budget and unpolished. But if you like unexplained expressionistic horror this is for you. Not sure what the is going on except for maybe a demon or vampire mutant. Who knows. Its art house horror and it works if you are into these kind of movies.

7/10 is generous, really it's a 5/10 but the user ratings are unfairly low.

75% of the film is found footage and tbh that's the all the film should have been, the none found footage parts are unnecessary and kind of stupid.

But overall the acting is convincing, and there's some genuinely unnerving parts, uncomfortable watching (which is kind of what you're looking for in a horror). Worth your time, but not a film you'd revisit particularly.

This film is about 80% "found footage" so if Blair-Witch-like puts you off, probably not for you. Shot on video, it has the feeling of low- budget, but much better than many low-budget horrors.

Firstly, although the acting amongst the females is a little too 'screamy' they're in quite an unpleasant situation almost from the start, so it's understandable. The script is fairly realistic, and the antagonists that arrive are suitably menacing and unpleasant - this isn't a film full of nice people, and it's definitely worth its rating, more for the scenarios, than for any graphic blood-letting.

The story itself is fairly interesting, and the suspense quite gripping. It feels as though there's a prequel story to be told which would hold my attention.

Not a stand-out movie, but evidently a "one-man" show (written, directed, produced by same guy) that is far better than similar ones in this genre, and you definitely feel it has merit.

There are more than a few 'huh?' moments in terms of what the main characters do, but there is much left untold - and I feel it's okay for not every aspect of the events to be tidied up and given a neat explanation.

In summary, much better than I expected. Professional looking, and well executed. A film-maker to encourage and look out for.

Not the best film ever set in an abandoned warehouse (aka cavern, aka old asylum etc.), but not the worst.

The girls do overact it a bit, the psycho lads can act and give real menace to some of the scenes.

The supernatural or horror aspect is something that may have been seen as original (shaky camera and odd angles) some years ago. It comes across to me as getting a bit in the way of what could be a better film.

The 'hero' character, for want of a better description, makes the last twenty minutes drag a little with frustration that he, the character, seems to have no common sense in going into the situation he does, an unnecessary dragging out of the end. I enjoyed it, but it's quirky and not an A class entertainment at all.