#horror – #horrormovies – #horrorreviews – #Inoperable –
Director: Christopher Lawrence Chapman
Writers: Christopher Lawrence Chapman, Jeff Miller
Starring: Danielle Harris, Jeff Denton, Katie Keene
When I first heard about Inoperable and saw the trailer, I was honestly looking forward to seeing it. It sounded and looked interesting. The concept seemed new and fresh. It also didn’t hurt that lifelong scream queen Danielle Harris was in the starring role. Unfortunately, all of these elements combined still resulted in a film that is slightly above mediocre. That’s not to say it was completely unwatchable; it just wasn’t the movie I had psyched myself up for.
We begin in the first person perspective of someone clearly waking up on a moving stretcher in a hospital. The hospital has been evacuated due to an oncoming major hurricane – images of which create a backdrop throughout the main credits. The next scene brings us to a bridge that is inundated with traffic. Lo and behold, the camera slowly brings us to the car which Amy (Danielle Harris) is sitting in. While checking her watch, she suddenly wakes up in the hospital with little explanation as to why.
As she begins to explore her surroundings, Amy realizes that the hospital is nearly empty and that the hurricane is still bearing down on her with relentless force. Furthermore, the longer she explores the hospital, the more unexplainable occurrences befall her. The most common of these experiences is that after a certain period of time, the entire situation resets with Amy ending up in her car again before waking up in the hospital reliving each event. Along the way she befriends Jen and Ryan, trying to solve the mystery as to what is going on in this hospital, while encountering increasingly confusing twists and turns.
…And that is basically the biggest downer for me with regard to this movie. There were far too many twists that it seemed almost as if the movie didn’t know what kind of movie it wanted to be. It was like Groundhog Day meets “The Twilight Zone”, but felt like the viewer was actually meant to be included in the “Twilight Zone” aspect. Thus, for a movie that clocked in at just about 80 minutes, it seemed to drag on forever.
That aside, not everything about Inoperable was a letdown. There were certain contributions to the movie that should be given their due respect. First, the acting was pretty good. From the minor characters to the leading role, the people were believable. Second, the special effects department deserves a collective pat on the back. Visually speaking, Inoperable was on point. Another aspect of the movie that I thought was done particularly well was the cinematography. With each “reset”, the way the camera approached Amy’s car changed dynamically and that’s just something which I can appreciate it. It added to the forebodingness that the movie was attempting.
That’s basically Inoperable in a nut shell. Had the plot not been trying to reinvent itself every 10 minutes or so, I would have probably enjoyed the movie much more, but the execution just wasn’t there, at least for me. I’m sure that somewhere out there a fan base exists for this film so hopefully it finds its place there.
Rating: 6/10