Director: Alec Gillis
Writer: Alec Gillis (Screenplay)
Starring: Lance Henriksen, Matt Winston, Camille Balsamo, Giovonnie Samuels, Mick Ignis Winston James Francis
Plot: A group of grad students have booked passage on the crabbing boat Harbinger to study the effects of global warming on a pod of Belugas in the Bering Sea. When the ship’s crew dredges up a recently thawed piece of old Soviet space wreckage, things get downright deadly. It seems that the Russians experimented with tardigrades, tiny resilient animals able to withstand the extremes of space radiation. The creatures survived, but not without mutation. Now the crew is exposed to aggressively mutating organisms. And after being locked in ice for 3 decades, the creatures aren’t about to give up the warmth of human companionship.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: The Thing Rip Off
Story: Inanimate starts when Sadie (Balsamo), Stephen (Winston) and Ronelle (Samuels) join Sadie’s grandfathers Graff (Henriksen) crabbing ship as they look to work on tag whales for their research. What the team finds is a crashed Soviet space craft with dead astronauts.
As the team investigate the find in greater detail they discover that certain parts of the bodies have led to mutations. The group on the ship find themselves trapped on the ship with a parasite that can get into anything leaving us in the middle of what feels like The Thing on water.
Inanimate brings us what can only be called The Thing on Water because the concept is all about finding something from space that is frozen only for it to get defrosted and being able to shapeshift into anything to kill or take over anyone on board. We keep meeting different human villains that all come and go before we really get to see enough of them to truly hate them with their decision making. The parasite shapeshifting creature is a very good creation but we see what it is very early which will take away the suspense of not knowing fully what they are up against. This really doesn’t give us enough for what it is meant to be giving us.
Actor Review
Lance Henriksen: Graff is the captain of the ship who brings his grand-daughter onto the ship for her college research. When they discover an object in the ocean he allows it to be bought on-board where the team investigate what it is only to find themselves having to face a monstrous parasite searching for food. Lance gives us the performance you would expect without being stand out.
Matt Winston: Stephen is the professor with the research team, he lets them do their thing until they make the discovery only for him to want to use his name to become famous, he fast becomes the human villain of the film. Matt does a good job making us hate his character early on.
Camille Balsamo: Sadie is the grand-daughter that joins the ship to help her research at college, she finds the object, brings it on board and researches what has been discovered. She is the one that learns about the parasite and just what it is capable off. Camille is good but doesn’t become the dominate character you need here to be.
Reid Collums: Bowman is the trusted member of the team that takes a shine to Sadie as he helps her with her research, he becomes the gunslinger with the only protection against the parasites. Reid gives us a safe supporting performance that just doesn’t make the impact needed.
Support Cast: Inanimate has the generic supporting disposable characters who really don’t get time to make an impact in the story.
Director Review: Alec Gillis – Alec gives us a thriller that just doesn’t capture the tension required for the subject involved.
Horror: Inanimate has good horror elements but just isn’t scary when it comes to the final product.
Sci-Fi: Inanimate has the idea of a sci-fi film with where the object and creature has come from but that is it really.
Settings: Inanimate keeps all the action on the ship making our characters feel trapped with nowhere to run.
Special Effects: Inanimate has good special effects at times with the creature creations but then we do have a couple of bad moments too.
Suggestion: Inanimate is one to try, it is short which makes it an easy watch but it doesn’t reach the tension levels needed. (Try It)
Best Part: It is short.
Worst Part: ‘We’re gonna need a bigger bucket’
Believability: No
Chances of Tears: No
Chances of Sequel: No
Post Credits Scene: No
Similar Too: The Thing, Thaw
Oscar Chances: No
Runtime: 1 Hour 22 Minutes
Tagline: Terror is just beneath the surface.
Overall: Disappointing thriller that just doesn’t capture our attention.
Rating
