If there's a specific demographic that everyone can agree upon disliking, it's religious fanatics. Whether they're religious extremists in foreign countries or ultra fundamentalists here at home, fanatics antagonize those already opposed to their views and alienate the unembroidered believers; all the while tainting the name of the religion they represent. They also make easy fodder for a horror film. At least, writer Brad Keene and cinematographer-turned-director Phedon Papamichael think so. Lambasting Christian fundamentalists, From Withintreads a path exploring the quintessential small town with a dark secret. The stage is set for a movie with a message with some good scares along the way. Unfortunately for the audience, From Within adds nothing to a familiar formula and from beginning to end is a tired and insipid effort.
The serene community of Grovestown is filled with God-fearing men and women. Church is regularly filled, scripture is profusely quoted, and you won't find anything revealing in the local clothing store. The residents of Grovestown are so devout that when a local boy and his girlfriend commit suicide, their deaths are written off as the result of godlessness. After all, the boy, Sean (Shiloh Fernandez), was the son of a woman whose accusations of witchcraft followed her until she was accidentally burned to death. Sean's death brings his brother Aiden (Thomas Dekker) back into the damning public eye and it's only Lindsay (Elizabeth Rice) who feels sympathy for the abuse he receives. Her involvement with Aiden becomes quite a scandal considering the whispers about his family and alienates her from her alcoholic stepmother, Trish (Laura Allen) and her PK boyfriend, Dylan (Kelly Blatz). When the suicides in town become horrifyingly frequent, Lindsay digs deeper to uncover the truth behind the town's secret. In the process she discovers that the deaths are more than just tragic accidents and that Aiden may be the town's only hope for survival.
The little town/big secret angle is nothing audiences haven't seen before, as is the mainstream devout vs. on-the-fringe rebel angle. However, aside from cynicism and some borderline nihilism, From Within doesn't add anything new to the formulas. The story could've used an extra ten or fifteen minutes of development to avoid the disbelief resulting from character's deriving Point B from Point A too quickly. The tone of the film is understandably bleak, but the ending is so irrevocably hopeless that it denies the audience the essential story element for any good film - redemption. Though it's not Lindsay who is necessarily in need of redemption, her character arc is hard to decipher and nobody's eyes are opened because of her journey. In Papamichael's film, there's no hope, only condemnation.
With the exception of lead Elizabeth Rice, the film is also plagued with stiff acting and over the top caricatures. Dekker manages a decent performance but his character's relationship with Lindsay is so forced and so loosely believable that it's hard for any type of empathy. The apparent solution to the bland characters is to kill them; a solution the film seems overeager to apply. It may sound unusual to complain about death in a horror film but for a death to be significant it has to be motivated. At least two deaths in the film are unconnected to the narrative and exist just to raise the body count. The manner of death is also wildly inconsistent. Some of the suicides are actually homicides and that shows a poor sense of continuity and overall understanding of the story.
Though his resume is impressive in terms of the films he's shot (Identity, Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma), From Within doesn't make much of a case for Phedon Papamichael as a director. Though the problems begin with Keene's script, they should end with Papamichael's direction. Unfortunately, they don't.
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-Photos from the Tribeca premiere of From Within courtesy of Monsters and Critics
-Director Phedon Papamichael comments on the film to the New York Observer
-Papamichael writes a statement about the film in the Huffington Post
