Insane (2016)
Gareth Jones
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Starring Greg Chandler Maness, Terry G. Reed, Vincent Rivera, Marcella Rodriguez
Directed by Massimiliano Cerchi
Lovebirds Michael (Rivera) and Sarah (Rodriguez) can’t believe their luck when they bag a great deal on their new mansion-like home, but things take a dark turn in Massimiliano Cerchi’s found footage horror Insane.
As they settle in and Michael (naturally) decides to record everything with his camcorder, neighbour Davis (Reed) fills them in on the blanks regarding the property’s history. It seems that in the past, an escaped mental patient killed the owner – and the next occupant went nuts, claiming interaction with an unseen clown that led him to murder his own family.
Intrigued, Michael begins looking into the mystery and quickly becomes obsessed – developing an infatuation with a creepy Jack in the Box which he randomly finds in a closet and, as you do, sitting down for some Ouija board action in an attempt to contact the previous owner(s).
With things later going bump in the night, Michael kits the house out with the requisite swathe of CCTV cameras to give us all those static found footage angles we love, and the stage is set for inevitable madness as he eventually catches his own glimpses of a monstrous clown.
You can guess where Insane goes from there – especially given the clown’s late-game appearance – and, well, in all honesty that’s about all there is to see here.
The script is threadbare throughout, offering little more than on-the-nose dialogue that flatly serves to drive things forward. Leads Rivera and Rodriguez play well together, but regularly struggle to make their lines sound like natural conversation, and the same can be said about the painfully expositional nature of Terry G. Reed’s Davis, who might as well be a walking storybook. It all feels incredibly stilted, lacking in flow and authenticity, and the characters aren’t developed anywhere near enough to make the ending the devastatingly horrific cherry it’s supposed to be.
Hell, for most of the movie the primary role of Rodriguez’s Sarah is to stand in front of the camera in various states of dress and happily bounce up and down as often as possible, treating the audience to the mesmerizing movements of her impressive mammaries. It’s appreciated, sure… but it’s not exactly what we’re here for.
On the positive side of the fence, late in the game director Cerchi throws in some nice ideas – such as the footage Michael views appearing completely different to him than it does to others – and the clown himself, played by Greg Chandler Maness in supremely freaky makeup, manages to generate chills.
While Michael’s descent into madness isn’t so much a measured crumble as it is a completely free-falling plummet, the chills do manage to work their way into the finale also, which Cerchi stages in silence with an unsettling style that truly stands out.
But it feels like too little too late – a smattering of promise hiding out at the back end of yet another lifeless found footage flick with a central plot straight out of the creative bargain bin. Points for the superb sinister clown and regular focus on Rodriguez’s chest… but everything else is too stiff, rote and predictable for Insane to deliver a satisfactory genre experience at this stage in the game.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
