Nerdly » ‘Inhabitants’ VOD Review (Miracle Media)

26th Jan2026

‘Inhabitants’ VOD Review (Miracle Media)

by Phil Wheat

Stars: Anna Jacoby, Josh Andres Rivera, Ana Auther, Todd Robert Anderson, Kevin Nealon | Written and Directed by Matt McClung

Inhabitants, not to be confused with The Inhabitant, is the story of Olivia (Anna Jacoby; Finding Carter, Stranger Things) and her boyfriend Francis (Josh Andres Rivera; The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, West Side Story) have just started a new chapter in their lives. They’ve fallen in love, left their home in Nevada, and set up a new life together in California.

Despite their vastly different backgrounds, Olivia, being a New Age girl who’s into crystals and sage and Francis, being a lapsed Catholic with a conflicted past, they seem to make things work. They settle into their new home, trying to leave behind their families and their judgment of their choice to forgo marriage and simply live together.

Francis’ mother is still deeply religious and does not approve of this arrangement. She sends them nasty letters and postcards condemning their choice to “live in sin.” Meanwhile, Olivia’s own parents refuse to even pick up the phone when she calls, clearly unsupportive of her choices. Despite this, Olivia and Francis seem to be adjusting to their new life in California, except for one seemingly minor issue: Francis has started to suffer from nightmares.

This being a horror movie, we know that’s just the start of something worse. First, their gas heater has an explosive malfunction, which nearly causes him to castrate himself. And as bad as that is, things only go downhill from there.

Writer and director Matt McClung (The Mad Whale, Virtual Morality) crafts a slow-burning horror film that brings the viewer through the usual stages of a haunted house story. Francis begins sleepwalking and seeing a figure that Olivia can’t, and his cryptic apologies suggest that something is very wrong. His comment, “He sees us, we shouldn’t be doing this,” hints at an ominous connection between Francis’ past and his former faith. It’s clear early on that Francis is hiding something, and that this haunting is tied to a deeper, darker secret from his past.

McClung knows how to set up a film like this, and it doesn’t take long before he and cinematographer Pearce Healey (Gentlemen’s Fury, Winner) are prowling through the darkened house while objects fly around and threatening messages appear on the wall. It’s all very familiar, but it’s well enough staged that, initially, it works.

Unfortunately, as the haunting escalates, Inhabitants’ story begins to come apart. Way too much time is devoted to a New Age vs Christianity angle as Olivia attempts to deal with the haunting herself. It also seemed like her family and their hostility were going to play into the plot, but after telling us how nasty they are, the whole angle is dropped, and they turn to Francis’ judgmental mother, Lillian (Ana Auther; Curse II: The Bite, Tribes), for help.

Although Lillian plays a key role in the rest of the story, the film struggles to make sense of her presence. Her relationship with her son is antagonistic, but after a few moments of harsh judgment, Lillian’s character seems to have a rapid, unexplained shift in her attitude. Her sudden acceptance of Olivia and her role in Francis’s life feels forced, undermining what could have been an interesting character arc.

When we do find out the origin of the haunting, it’s not only cliched but begs the question of why Vernon’s (Todd Robert Anderson; Devil in the Flesh 2, Fuzz Track City) spirit waited all these years, until after Francis had moved away, to come looking for revenge. I also have to question how dangerous someone who couldn’t find their way out of a tent when they were alive would be as a ghost.

Much of the last half hour of Inhabitants feels like a commercial for Catholicism, making Olivia out to be an intolerant heathen while her New Age beliefs are framed as dangerous and misguided. That’s despite the fact that Francis was the one keeping secrets and lying about his past. It’s hard not to feel that the story becomes somewhat preachy, turning what could have been a subtle commentary into an annoying screed.

What the film does have going for it are solid performances from Jacoby and Rivera, who are believable as the young couple. Auther does well as Francis’ mother, although the script doesn’t give her the help she needs to sell her character’s sudden acceptance of the situation and of Olivia’s presence. Kevin Nealon (Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday, Cecil B. Demented) also stands out in a supporting role as Denny, Olivia’s boss at the crystal shop.

Despite its flaws, Inhabitants still lands a handful of solid jump scares and showcases some striking visual ideas. The shadow work and darkness play do a lot of heavy lifting, building tension even when the script doesn’t. If the writing matched the atmosphere, this would be an easy must-watch. As it stands, it’s more of a cautious recommendation — worth a look if you’re in the mood for a ghost story and aren’t feeling too picky, or if you can catch it for free.