Customer Reviews

Inhabited

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I first picked up this DVD I thought it would be original. Little did I know it was really a remake of the 1973 classic Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.

A young couple with a small daughter move into a new home. The house is an old wreck that needs work and an old handyman shows up to help out. He seems to know more about the house than he lets on.

Meanwhile, the daughter has been telling stories of playing with "the fairies" who are her friend. This ties in with the head psychiatrist (McDowell) who is treating a patient who told similar stories when she was young.

How it all ties together is something you will have to watch. Few movies have ever raised the hackles on the back of my neck but there were a few scenes here that did it. The movie relies on atmosphere and quick glances to build the fear and not flashy effects and piles of gore.

McDowell turned in an excellent performance as a doctor who truly cares (an unusual role for him lately as he is usually the villain). The rest of the cast did a good-enough job and the little girl was very believable (I have a young daughter).

If you are looking for flash, gore, and lots of monsters, this one is not for you. If you liked the original 1973 film, the original The Haunting, or other atmospheric horror films, this one is right up your dark alley.

Synopsis: A family of four, husband, wife, son and daughter move into a house in a nice, seemingly quiet suburban neighborhood only to later discover the dark and mysterious history of their new abode. The previous owners were also a family of four with a little daughter the same age as their own. Both parents died in a tragic house fire which according to the little girl was started by a group of malicious fairies she had befriended. Was the little girl insane? If she wasn't was there the possibility that the fairies would contact the new girl and attempt to destroy her family as well?

Critique: Released in '03 the low budget production `Inhabited' successfully avoids the expected poor acting, flat storyline and cliché dialogue that other features within the same genre tend to be known for:

1- The cast delivers surprisingly strong, believable performances, especially the little girl.
2- The film does a superior job of establishing a mood and feel that draw the audience into the story.
3- The presence of the diminutive, malicious "little people" is well done
and somewhat unnerving. You never know when they might come jumping out at you.

Certainly not a classic but I think most viewers will find this film more than enjoyable enough to stay with it until the end.

My Rating: -3 ½ Stars-.

INHABITED is about a family that moves into a nice suburban home, only to find out that the place is overrun by evil little trolls called Huldre. At first, these creatures seem friendly, quickly gaining the trust of the little girl in the family. But soon enough, they reveal they're true nature as evil little jerks who are intent on killing anyone who moves into the house except the youngest member of the family, making them seem like seriously desturbed children.

INHABITED is creepy, has some good actor in it, and is just fun and cool. It makes a good weekend rental, and it contians very little mature content, so you can watch it your kids if they want to see it.

Relying heavily on the oddly perverse fairy tales of our youth, INHABITED is a fairly good thriller that collapses at the end. The Russells move into this old house that needs restoring after a fire in the fifties. They have a darling little girl of course and a prepubescent son. The little girl has imaginary playmates she calls "fairies" and Mom and Dad humor her for a while. Then a mysterious handyman appears claiming that these so called fairies are actually horrifying little creatures out to claim the little girl. Mom and Dad consult the local shrink and ask him to confirm that their daughter is merely enjoying an active imagination.
Of course we know the fairies are real and dangerous, and soon the little girl does too but it may be too late because the little trolls are planning on wiping out anyone who stands in their way. Early in the movie, the trolls or fairies are shown quickly and briefly and they have a rather menacing effect. However, at the climax, one can tell that we now have actors in funny suits and clothes pretending to be trolls and the movie descends into a rather "Puppetmasterish" type of horror..it's no longer frightening, but funny.
Megan Gallagher doesn't rise to the challenge of the mother; she always seems to be looking around for something---maybe her lines? Eric Lutes as hubby Brad is strong and supportive, but his role is more of a necessity than an addition; Malcolm McDowell starts out as a kindly old gent but then turns malicious when he realizes the potential for a major "psychological" breakthrough; the children do okay, but it's the durable Patty McCormack (The Bad Seed) whose quiet presence as the mentally challenged Olivia who brings the movie its finesse in the acting department.
This certainly isn't an awful movie; it just could have been so much better had they kept their focus instead of trying to overwhelm us with made up little people.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS MOVIE TO ANYONE WHO REALLY ENJOYS FAIRY TALES.
THIS FILM MAKES US THINK ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT SOME CREATURES ARE REAL OR ONLY PART OF OUR IMAGINATION!!
THIS FILM HAS A LOT OF SUSPENSEFUL MOMENTS, BUT HAS VERY LITTLE VIOLENCE.
IT IS MILD AS COMPARED TO MANY OF THE FLMS OF TODAY!!

IT STILL MAY BE WISE TO SEE THIS FILM BEFORE SHOWING IT TO A YOUNG CHILD BECAUSE IT MAY BE THE CAUSE OF MANY A NIGHTMARE!!
IT WAS QUITE ENJOYABLE TO SEE A FILM THAT PAYS HOMAGE TO THE FAIRY TALES OF LONG AGO, AND AT THE SAME TIME, GIVES US A NEW FILM THAT MOST OF US SHOULD REMEMBER FOR YEARS TO COME!!

I THOUGHT THAT THE STORY WAS QUITE INTERESTING AND I THOUGHT THAT FOR THE MOST PART THE FILM WAS DONE RIGHT.
THERE WERE LIMITED AND QUICK SHOTS OF THE SAID CREATURES THROUGHOUT, UNTIL TOWARDS THE END OF THE FILM.
ALSO, FOR THE MOST PART, THE ACTING WAS CONVINCING.
YOU SEEMED TO SENSE THE FEAR THAT THE CHARACTERS IN THE FILM WERE FEELING!!
I RECOMMEND THIS MOVIE ONLY TO THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE A SPECIAL PLACE IN YOUR HEART FOR FAIRY TALES OF LONG AGO AND I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS TO FANS OF BLOODY GORE AND VIOLENCE!!
SEE THIS FILM WITH AN OPEN MIND THAT JUST MAYBE SOME THINGS ARE NOT QUITE AS THEY SEEM.
WHO KNOWS? IS IT OUR IMAGINATION OR IS IT REAL?
I FEEL THAT MANY ASPECTS OF THIS FILM CAN BE COMPARED TO THE 1986 FILM, TROLL.
SO IF YOU ENJOY THIS, YOU MAY ENJOY THAT MOVIE ALSO!!

A family move into an old house with a bad history. No, not ghosts. a little girl claims to have made friends with fairies that only she can see. Her family shrink says she is delusional, but eventually her mother believes her and decides it is time to leave the house. The fairies have other ideas.

Not bad, just not great. It's all been done before.

Honestly, I only own this because my husband did the illustrations in the beginning title sequence. It was one of his first jobs as an artist (he has since gotten MUCH, MUCH better...which I'm sure he'd want me to mention).
But, other than that, this film is actually very entertaining. Some of the props and makeup are really great. I love the hand-crafted quality of it (no CGI here). It's a bit cheesy, but one of the better "B" movies I've seen lately.
It's a campy treat with the added bonus of scene-chomper Malcolm McDowell!

Synopsis: A family of four, husband, wife, son and daughter move into a house in a nice, seemingly quiet suburban neighborhood only to later discover the dark and mysterious history of their new abode. The previous owners were also a family of four with a little daughter the same age as their own. Both parents died in a tragic house fire which according to the little girl was started by a group of malicious fairies she had befriended. Was the little girl insane? If she wasn't was there the possibility that the fairies would contact the new girl and attempt to destroy her family as well?

Critique: Released in '03 the low budget production `Inhabited' successfully avoids the expected poor acting, flat storyline and cliché dialogue that other features within the same genre tend to be known for:

1- The cast delivers surprisingly strong, believable performances, especially the little girl.
2- The film does a superior job of establishing a mood and feel that draw the audience into the story.
3- The presence of the diminutive, malicious "little people" is well done
and somewhat unnerving. You never know when they might come jumping out at you.

Certainly not a classic but I think most viewers will find this film more than enjoyable enough to stay with it until the end.

My Rating: -3 ½ Stars-.

Note: The original review has been rewritten due to my mistaken assumption that `Inhabited' was a remake of the '73 made-for-television film `Don't Be Afraid of the Dark'. Thanks to film writer R. Drew for the correction ( see comment at bottom of review).

The movie was fairly interesting but I wouldnt want to watch it again. It wasnt interesting enough for me to want to watch any of the special features on the DVD. You could tell it was a low budget movie but it was done pretty well. At first I thought oh no, this is going to be another Doll movie like Puppet Master (those were so/so I thought but I guess a lot of people enjoyed them otherwise there wouldnt have been so many sequels) but the fairies were actually real people more like Gullivers Travels. Rodney McDowell was in it so it was nice to see a familar face. My 13 year old son really enjoyed it and thats part of the reason Im giving it 3 stars. Dont get it if your not a fantasy buff and want a truly scary movie, instead pick up Trilogy of Terror which I deem one of the truly scary movies to have a doll in it.

I was bored the other day and was flipping through some movie titles on my instant play queue and decided to watch this. It revolves around a family of four - mom Meg (Megan Gallagher), dad Brad (Eric Lutes), teenage son Tyler (Greg Cipes), and six-year-old daughter Gina (Sofia Vassilieva). The family has just moved into a large new home which they got at a bargain, and the bonus is the cute little cottage playhouse in their backyard. Young Gina spends hours and hours occupying herself in this little cottage, but her parents get concerned when she begins telling them about her 'fairy' friends, creating elaborate stories around these creatures. Then a strange old handyman turns up offering to help Meg with odd jobs, but she realizes something is up when it turns out her ad for a handyman did not even run in the local paper.

When strange things start happening around the house - the family pet cat gets killed in a grisly manner, and little accidents start befalling members of the family, Meg decides to dig deeper into the history of the house, which was unoccupied since the 1950s after a terrible fire. Meanwhile, the psychiatrist treating young Gina (played by Malcolm McDowell) is disturbed to find similarities between Gina's stories of the 'fairies' and an older patient at the local psychiatric hospital.

Fans of fairy tales and folklore might be interested in this story that deals with malignant little folk called the huldre, an ancient race of ground-dwelling creatures bent on harming the humans they encounter. Their depiction in the movie was quite well-done, with ugly, evil-looking visages (which makes you wonder how a young child ever got to be friends with them in the first place). This kept me entertained for the length of time it ran, and the action moves along fast enough.