Inbred

I can't decide what scale to judge "Inbred", a 2011, low budget British horror/comedy, against. It's certainly an impressive piece of work, for the budget but, could I honestly say that I enjoyed it, or would want to watch it again? Not really.

Four young offenders, mouthy Dwight (Chris Waller), fashion conscious Zeb (Terry Hayward), troubled Firestarter Tim (James Burrows) and near mute Sam (Nadine Mulkerrin) are taken for an outward-bound experience in the remote Yorkshire village of Mortlake. Along with their caseworkers, Kate (Jo Hartley) and Jeff (James Doherty), the group eventually fall foul of the locals, and the conflict escalates to become a nightmare of death and carnage.

So, as far as low budget films go that are some aspects of this one that are pretty appealing. From a technical standpoint, it's well shot. The wide panoramas showing the North Yorkshire Moors off manage to both look appealing and give a sense of the isolation that the group are faced with. The visual effects are really good too, both the practical ones and the CGI blends are really well done. There's an inventiveness to some of the slaughter as horses and a slurry pipe are put to use, alongside the chainsaws, shotguns and hatchets that you might have anticipated.

That said, the characters aren't particularly interesting - particularly our four lead youngsters. None of the actors do anything particularly bad, it's more in how they are written, James Doherty falls into that cliché too, with his fastidious turn as their trip organiser. There are cameos from Mat Fraser and Dominic Brunt. The films real problem though is pace, with next to nothing happening for the first 45 minutes, followed by a sudden shift up the scale to madness and then the rest of the film plays out much as you might anticipate.

Despite its moments of wild abandon, and the impressive effects, ultimately the film struggled to hold my attention.

It has taken Alex Chandon, the director 10 years to make another horror after the much acclaimed Cradle Of Fear (2001). Was it worth the wait, well on part of the script we all have seen it before, a group of offenders and their workers are out for a weekend to get to know each other much better. That takes 15 minutes into this flick before it all goes wrong. But even then it takes a while before the real horror comes in. But if you have the patient to wait long enough you will be rewarded by gore galore.

If you see the opening with Emily Booth then you know what you will get. But once back in time it takes indeed a while before a small accident becomes an atrocity. It doesn't has a Hollywood ending. What do works are the effects used. For a flick like that they really looked great, okay CGI but you have to do it that way here for such kind of gorefest. A small wink to Texas Chainsaw when Podge is swinging with his chainsaw.

Not bad at all, don't think to see a flick with a great story like Kill List (2011) but a pure delight for gorehounds.

Gore 4/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 4/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

This movie is like an English version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Hostel. Some stupid train workers run into a group of 'Inbred' English hillbilly types out in the fields somewhere and lots of gore and especially lots of YELLING ensue.

I don't think I have ever seen a movie with so much YELLING.

But the gore is FUN. And the end, it was alright.

I would watch a sequel because it was a fun watch. 5/10.

A group of young offenders and their care workers get more than they bargained for when they make an excursion to the aptly named Yorkshire village of Mortlake. On arrival, they receive a less-than-warm welcome from the inhabitants, a shambling, leering assortment of rural Northern stereotypes possessed of suspect genetics and psychotic intentions. Imagine Eli Roth directing The League of Gentlemen, or Eden Lake played for a (gruesome) laugh, and you've pretty much nailed the tenor taken here. Jo Hartley of This is England fame does a decent action heroine turn as one of the two care workers, and Seamus O'Neill's village pub patriarch proves a rather amusing antagonist with his rabble rousing and exaggeratedly provincial patois. Oh, and Emily Booth puts in a short-lived cameo, too! Sure, it's not essential viewing by any means, but, nevertheless, it proves an effective little hundred-minute diversion.

Gory 'film-within-a-film' opening scene aside, Inbred takes a bloody age to get to the good stuff and could never be accused of being all that original, the 'city-folk falling foul of rural maniacs' plot-line borrowing heavily from many sources: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The League of Gentlemen, 2000 Maniacs, Hostel, Wrong Turn, and Straw Dogs, to name just a few.

However, it's all well worth the wait, Chandon finally opening the violence valves and lifting the splatter sluice gates after forty-five minutes to transform proceedings into a gloriously demented, blood-drenched piece of xenophobic craziness that more than lives up to the gory hype. True, some of the CGI is less than perfect, but with the level of nastiness set so high, it really doesn't matter: it's easy to ignore the occasional dodgy effect when people are being hideously mutilated with such regularity, enthusiasm and imagination.

Chandon pulls out the stops to entertain in the worst possible taste, with amazingly twisted characters and a catalogue of carnage that is truly staggering, including a fantastic beheading with a meat cleaver, numerous shot gun blasts to the head and torso, a horse stomping a skull, chainsaw dismemberment, and a really disgusting 'slurry pump body explosion'. The only thing he forgets to include is some gratuitous female nudity; even Emily Booth, who has a brief cameo, keeps all of her clothes on!