Reviewed by Geno McGahee
I have been following the work of New York filmmaker Jim Haggerty and the latest flick in his career is “FROM THE INSIDE,” a home invasion film with a few twists. Right from the start, the production value is better than any of Haggerty’s other films and so too are the actors, for the most part. He seems to be branching out and taking better actors to increase the production value and it worked.
We begin with Tally (Amanda Ladd) and her fat hubby, living away from society, but there are people watching the house. Carl (Stephen Alan Wilson) and Bill (Robert Lincourt) are watching the house and taking particular interest in the wife. In the spirit of THE STRANGERS and FUNNY GAMES, the duo break into the house and immediately terrorize.
Meanwhile, Mark (Jae Mosc) and his girl Ivy (Stacey Brook Schwartz) are broken down and begin hiking, stumbling across the house and soon get involved in the madness. It was good to see Mosc back. Out of all of the Haggerty actors I have scene, Mosc has the most personality and is the most amusing on screen. He is a natural, with the exception of his fighting scenes…which needed some serious work.
Bill, the slow guy in the group of criminals, takes an interest in Ivy, and that creates infighting and chaos. The group is really unorganized and has vices that stop them from succeeding in their criminal endeavor. Everything falls apart and the focus shifts to the survivors and some missing money, which becomes the core of this movie. It’s all about greed and 750,000 bucks that are missing.
There has been Haggerty work that I really liked and some that I really disliked. FROM THE INSIDE is the most well done production from nearly every category with the exception of lighting. I thought that the lighting was bad at times. GRAVE DANGER, his anthology seemed to have better lighting, but other than that and some uneven acting at times, FROM THE INSIDE is the best Haggerty production. The story is good and interesting and I really enjoyed the performances by Mosc and Lincourt.
FROM THE INSIDE is a positive step forward for Haggerty. I would like to see some more tight shots when the actors say their dramatic lines, work on the fight scenes, but as his progression continues and that is the most notable thing here, we will see a better production every time out. He’s improving. The point seemed to be that he can make a movie without excessive nudity and still keep viewers and he accomplished that. For the shortcomings, it is certainly worth a watch.
Scared Stiff Rating: 6/10. Best Haggerty production thus far.
Best Haggerty production so far does say a hole lot, but i’m gonna have to try to get this movie, seems like its worth the shot
I enjoyed it. Some of the acting was uneven BUT it is far better than the others thus far. There was a lot of heart and more thought into it. It wasn’t bad.