‘Inherit the Witch’ Review
Stars: Max Dimitrov, Maddie Crofts, Elizabeth Arends, Hugo Wilkinson, Cradeaux Alexander, Christopher Sherwood, Imogen Smith, Rohan Quine | Written and Directed by Cradeaux Alexander
Inherit the Witch opens with video from 1984, it’s footage of the party celebrating the 14th birthday of Cory (Max Dimitrov) and his twin sister Jessie (Maddie Crofts). It looks like a typical kid’s party until Pamela (Elizabeth Arends; Abruptio, Alone), who claims to be a witch creates a birthday spell for Corey and his older half brother Rex (Hugo Wilkinson) asks for one too.
Thirty years later, the family has gathered again, this time due to the death of Cory’s father. Cory (Cradeaux Alexander; Terror Firmer, Director’s Cut) is attending with his boyfriend Lars (Christopher Sherwood; Some Adult Content, Suburban Coffin). Pamela (Imogen Smith; Between the Silence), now old and near death is there, accompanied by Rex (Rohan Quine; The Beasts of Electra Drive, Zoolander) who has joined her in her occult practices.
But the biggest surprise is the presence of their estranged sister Fiona (Heather Cairns, Jim Morrison: Rider on the Storm, Time Rewind). Her presence brings out Corey’s long repressed memories, memories that were repressed for a reason.
Writer/director Cradeaux Alexander offers up a fairly conventional story of dark secrets, magic rituals and eternal life, ground he previously covered in the web series Doctor Theatre. The story switches back and forth between the present and the events of that fateful birthday party. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of mystery as to what’s going on, and any suspense in the early part of the film isn’t about where the plot is heading so much as how it will get there.
The other problem I was having with Inherit the Witch was a lack of someone to care about. Corey is our main character, and he is, to put it politely, obnoxious. He’s a jerk to Rex when he calls, he’s nasty with Fiona, and suspicious of Lars’ motives as well. Fiona comes off as annoyingly eccentric, with Rex and Pamela as the film’s blandly evil antagonists. By the forty-five minute mark, I was so sick of listening to Cory I would have happily paid someone to cast a spell of silence on him.
Finally, in the last half hour, Inherit the Witch brings on the actual witchcraft, and there are a few creepy scenes of people creeping around in the dark. But the big reveal is hardly a surprise, anyone who has seen more than a handful of genre films will have figured it out back in the opening act. It’s not much harder to guess how the film ends either, because we’ve seen it all before.
Unlikeable characters and a plot that is entirely too predictable is not a good combination, and that’s what Inherit the Witch has to offer. And it’s made worse by the fact that there’s nothing in the way of effects or interesting kills to help distract the viewer, just seemingly endless dialogue about how dysfunctional their family was. And, just to add insult to injury, that dialogue frequently feels like it was lifted from a bad soap opera.
I will give Inherit the Witch’s cast credit for turning in decent performances, they do try their best with what the script gives them. Sadly, it doesn’t give them much to work with, and there’s only so much they can do with a script that needed major work to insert a few surprises before it was filmed. There was the potential for a decent bit of modern folk horror among the witchery, family secrets, estate in the middle of the woods, etc. But rather than take advantage of that potential, Cradeaux Alexander is content to recycle the same old plot points into a film that viewers won’t be so content to sit through.
BayView Entertainment will release Inherit the Witch to Digital Platforms on September 24th.
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