Director: Matthan Harris
Year: 2012
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: The Inflicted; The Infliction
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Attempting to start a new family, a troubled medical student begins kidnapping and torturing several female victims until one gets pregnant with his child, but when she escapes and takes the potential family away from him he sets out to reclaim it at any cost possible forcing the police to stop everyone involved.
Review:
Overall, this was a highly problematic effort. One of the more enjoyable aspects here is the somewhat intriguing and rather dark storyline here exploring the need for capturing women in order to recreate a dysfunctional family life. Regardless of the execution that entails, the idea of the entire rampage being carried out in this manner with plenty of fine work here to explain the psychological mindset he has towards wanting it, based mainly on the relationship with his psychotic father that we see peppered throughout the film. These manage to make the torture scenes all the more intriguing based on the implication of him trying to fulfill his wish with the various women he comes across, focusing not only on the sleazy aspect of impregnating them but also featuring the brutality present in the kills when he finally snaps and begins killing provide some solid and sleazy moments as it goes through the rampage he commits to getting back at her as she tries to get away from him. These are fun and quite enjoyable, making for some enjoyable aspects to be had here.
There are some issues with this one. Among it’s biggest drawbacks is the complete lack of sympathy or interest generated by the main character, who is neither charming enough to go along with his psychosis nor chilling enough to be terrified of. There’s very little about him her that makes us care about his deranged desire for family and to see it through, making the fact that the vast majority of the film is focused on him feeling quite bland and drawn out. Despite the fact that everything makes sense, the fact that it’s not brought out into any kind of manner for us to care about it makes what happens here wholly uninteresting, tying together with the focus the rest of the time on the police investigation. This is even blander with an ineffectual and near-useless series of scenes involving the detectives tracking people down or speaking on the phone about what to do next and there’s very little excitement raised due to the ineffectual and unrealistic manner this comes across as. In fact, these manage to undo so much of what happens here that it’s the most detrimental aspect of the film as a whole.
Overview: */5
While it’s generally not really that enjoyable save for a few areas here and there which do raise this one up somewhat, the fact that the vast majority of this one is either dull or not interesting enough to get invested makes this quite a troublesome effort. Really only go into this one if you’re intrigued by these kinds of films or are a fan of these low-budget psycho/thrillers, while those looking for more impressive genre fare or not interested in this style should heed extreme caution and reservation.
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