Inheritance (reviewed by Lisa Marie Bowman)

In the 2017 film Inheritance, Ryan (Chase Joliet) is informed that he has inherited a house from his recently deceased father.  This takes Ryan by surprise, largely because he thought his father had died a long time ago.  Ryan and his fiancee, Isi (Sara Montes), move into the house.  Ryan and Isi think that the house could be the place to start their brand new life but, no sooner has Ryan moved in, then he starts to act strangely.

The house has a dark history and it turns out that the same can be said of Ryan’s father.  Ryan is soon having disturbing dreams and visions.  He starts to see menacing people in the house.  His personality starts to change.  Is Ryan being possessed?  Are the ghosts just haunting him for fun?  Is it all in Ryan’s mind?  Your guess is a good as mine.

Listen, I love obscure films just as much as the next girl but even I found myself getting frustrated with Inheritance’s difficult-to-follow plot.  There’s a difference between being surreal and just being incoherent.  And it really is disappointing that Inheritance is so difficult to follow because it does have some things going for it.  I liked the performance of Sara Montes.  I liked some of the film’s visuals.  Director Tyler Savage definitely has a good eye.  There’s a recurring shot of a surfer looking out at the ocean that is beautifully composed and rather haunting.  Some of Ryan’s visions are frightening.  There was definitely some talent behind and in front of the camera but the film itself is still too slowly-paced and difficult to follow.  Inheritance inherited a lot from The Shining but even Kubrick’s famously surreal film established and followed it’s own style of dream logic.  Too often, Inheritance just feels obscure for the sake of being obscure.

Oh well.  It’s a horror movie and I do love watching horror movies, even the ones that don’t really work.  And with October coming up, I’m going to be reviewing a lot of them on this very site!  Come back and check every day.  I haven’t gotten a chance to post much this year but I’m about to make up for it with this year’s horrorthon!