The Inhabitants

The psychological chiller ‘The Inhabitants’ may unfairly be dismissed as yet another atmospheric haunted house frightfest for consideration. It would be a shame to automatically assume that this daunting horror gem was anything but creepily imaginative and stimulating. Thankfully, the filmmaking siblings Michael and Shawn Rasmussen put an ignited and distinctive spin on the conventional ghost story formula with their taut homegrown New England-based fear fable. Absorbingly chilly, methodically intense and suggestive, ‘The Inhabitants’ succeeds with its bare-bones blend of gory mythology that taps into the realm of nostalgic ghouls, witches and possessed sacrifices.

What makes ‘The Inhabitants’ so ambitious in its harrowing presentation is the eerie ambiance that the Rasmussen Brothers bring to the table that showcases the historic and regional flavor of its colonial New England-set naughty narrative. There is an innate appreciation for both the historical setting of the skin-crawling exposition as well as the enthusiasm and borrowed influences of other revered spooky spectacles that ‘The Inhabitants’ skillfully incorporates into its morose mindset.

The Rasmussens (credits include their screenwriting credentials for 2011’s John Carpenter’s ‘The Ward’) craftily dishes out a hauntingly rich and robust sophisticated edgy sideshow that surprisingly has a freshness to its subtle jolting twitches and turns. Sure, the occasional and obligatory horror-induced conventions are applied due to the nature of the genre (ie false alarms and sudden jump cuts, hysterical music cues, shadowy imagery, intrusive video feeds, etc.) Still, the Rasmussens manage to deliver the gruesome goods despite the frequent clichéd sinister techniques. If anything ‘The Inhabitants’ is a breath of welcomed air in comparison to some of the big-budgeted mainstream Hollywood horror flicks that hide behind empty grandiose gestures of seediness without concentrating on the instrumental boundaries of w...