A man believing he may be killed that day gathers his children to protect him or lose their inheritance.
Written by Chris LaMont and Joe Russo and directed by Alejandro Brugués, the film is a clever story with a mix of inheritance, sibling rivalry, and a supernatural situation, some of the proceedings a bit predictable and some surprises here and there. It’s a decently written and directed film with an appeal that will call to the more mainstream audience even though the film is not a major studio theatrical release. This is not a bad thing, but it does mean that some of the sequences are tamer than what this writing duo brought audiences with their previous outing Soul Mates, but this film has a few nastier bits and pieces here that will surprise some.
The cast here creates the family and their dynamics, some good, some not so much. The interloper here is is played by Briana Middleton who steals the show and makes absolutely certain she’s the star here. She’s fantastic and fascinating to watch. She not only sells her character, but also the entire story and film. This is her film, and she makes sure everyone knows it. Rachel Nichols comes in a close second as a favorite performance here, one that the viewer can love to hate and really get into seeing what happens to her in the potentially haunted mansion. She’s fun to watch here and adds some cattiness to the proceedings over what the rest of the cast brings, she’s a boss B and won’t let you forget about it, even when her character shuts up about her accomplishments for a few minutes. The Abernathy patriarch here is played by Bob Gunton who gives the impression that he could do this kind of work in his sleep it comes so naturally. The cast overall works, with some bringing their characters a personality that is just so dislikable ad doing so marvelously.
The cinematography by Vincent De Paula, and the related work done by his team (lighting, etc), is fantastic here, letting the viewer see not only the ridiculous mansion the story takes place in, but also the actors, the action, and well much more (to not spoil it). The work here is clearly done with precision and understanding of what makes a scene work visually. The editing works with all this to give us glimpses of things, just small little moments here and there before going full-blown horror and giving scenes the exact timing they need to work.
The Inheritance is a good take on the subject at hand, a supernatural situation causing a man to bring his brood home to make sure he has the best chances at survival. The creep factor works fairly well, but it will definitely be scarier to more mainstream audiences than to hard core horror fans. It’s good, but it could have been a touch scarier, however scarier would lose some of the audience who wouldn’t be able to take it, so choices were made. The Inheritance is supernatural horror made by folks who know what they are doing and know when to pull back to not lose a more general audience, giving a film that has some elements for horror fans and some that will lose them before the end unfortunately. With this in mind, it is still a fun supernatural film that is easy to watch and digest.