From Within (2009)

Review by Sean Patterson



"You can't worship something you don't believe in. Satan's a creation of your religion."

After a few weeks of sub-par horror, it's refreshing to stumble upon a winner. From Within was a part of the third After Dark Horrorfest, an annual film festival featuring independent horror. The movies chosen for the festival are usually ones that didn't get picked up by major studios, which is a shame since they are, from what I've seen, usually of much better quality than the horror movies Hollywood puts out. And the festival's posters are worthy of any horror fan's wall space.
The movie begins with an emo kid shooting himself right beside his girlfriendt at a make-out spot above a small town. From there, we're treated to idyllic scenes of small town america for the opening credits. The girlfriend (Rumor Willis) proceeds to kill herself, as does her father. One by one the citizens of this small town commit suicide, each seeing a creepy, menacing version of their dead self just before they creatively off themselves.
A young girl named Lindsay (Elizabeth Rice) sees the people she's known all her life killing themselves, but is also dealing with her own teenage angst. She's not the goody-goody she appears to be, or at least she doesn't want to be. She doesn't appear to like her boyfriend Dylan (Kelly Blatz), the son of a mega-church pastor. When she meets bad-boy Aidan (Thomas Dekker), there is instant passion and the two set off to undo the curse.
It's been a while since a horror movie scared me, made me feel that little tinge of adrenaline in my stomach. Sudden flashing images and screaming or creepy dopplegangers confronting and commanding their counterparts to kill themselves get me, evidently. Or perhaps it's simply the quality and care with which the movie has been made. It looks lovely, lit dimly but with excellent camerawork. The story is every asian curse movie I've seen, but done right.
The actors are fantastic, a who's who of up-and-coming Hollywood. Off the top of my head, there are two actors from Mad Men and the kid who played John Connor from the Sarah Connor Chronicles. The rest are culled from various other network television successes.
Dylan sees Lindsay pulling away from him and turns to his God, rallying a congregational posse to stop what he sees as the work of Satan in the town. He leads them in a very hands-on campaign to dispense their Lord's fiery wrath. They beat up Aidan, and kidnap Lindsay to give her an exorcism. When the suicides continue they determine they have no choice but to arm themselves and take literal aim at whom they perceive to be tools of the Devil. Small town secrets and cover-ups are soon revealed.
Despite all the blood and hate the movie is tinged with dark humor. It is perfectly plotted, moving effortlessly from suicides to religious debate to veiled criticism of small town ethics and back to the suicides. It's one of the best horror films I've seen in years.
The ending was a wonderful surprise that I honestly didn't see coming. The movie is bookended by another view of many of the same scenes of the small town that were seen in the title sequence...with a dark twist.