Sep 10 2009
AFTER DARK HORROR FEST: FROM WITHIN
Not a theme you see a lot in horror movies.
PLOT
A teenage couple are out enjoying the day when the boy pulls out a gun and shoots himself in the head. His girlfriend sees a woman following her and runs to her dad’s shop where he puts her in a room with a girl Lindsay from her school. Lindsay walks out and the other girl stabs herself in the neck with a pair of scissors. From there we learn that whoever gets to the body first becomes “infected” by something that makes them commit suicide. Nearly the whole town belongs to the same church and Lindsay starts having doubts, which makes her an outcast. When she starts researching, she learns that the church and the curse is somehow connected to the murder of a non-believer a few years earlier.
TRIVIA
Immediately after filming, the buildings where the movie was filmed were demolished.
Part of the 2008 After Dark Horror Fest.
THOUGHTS
I really, really liked this movie, in part because I found myself yelling at the screen so often. I’m not a big fan of organized religion so that probably played a big part in it. Some of the characters were a little too stereotypical for my taste: the hypocritical, alcoholic step mom who screwed her boyfriend and then went to church with a smile, the secret keeping preacher, the “alternative” kids, etc, but I could deal with it. I’m also a big fan of the twist, of which there are two. I didn’t expect to see either one of them coming so it was definitely a surprise. I’ll go out on a limb and say From Within is the After Dark Horror Fest 2008 movie to watch if you just watch one.
