I don’t know if the title is supposed to be original or a tribute to James Wan and Dario Argento, but writer/director Calvin Morie McCarthy offers a film unlike either of its namesakes with Insidious Inferno.  This feels like a film made by people who love horror movies, but does not rise to the level of the films it references.

Andre Duvalier (Neil Green) has it rough – his daughter was killed by a drunk driver and the grief and trauma are threatening his marriage to Monica Duvalier (Stephanie Leet), who has it twice as bad as she was abused and traumatized by her recently deceased father whose secluded cottage they now occupy, cleaning and repairing it to try to both sell it and salvage their relationship.  Except Monica is seeing things and becoming unglued and violent, and faster than you can say, “So, you’re a Stephen King fan?”, their puckish Irish neighbor (Steve Larkin) stops by for added color, and Andre meets a girl, Mary (Chynna Rae Shurts), whom he thinks is blind and everybody watching knows is a ghost.

Add in a disturbing inspector who does not think Andre can do repairs to the cottage in any manner worthwhile.  Mary keeps warning Andre that he must take Monica and leave and he keeps expressing concern that she, as a visually impaired person keeps wandering around the woods.  Meanwhile, Monica keeps flashing back to her daddy and his disturbing medical issues and we see how she withheld his medication when he needed it so he would die, we, too, see the spongy demons that seem to occupy the house. It’s less disturbing or scary than confusing and odd.

The writing, especially the dialogue, sadly, is heavy handed (does anyone actually talk like this?), and the performances a bit wooden.  The director aims to be atmospheric, especially in the cottage and the woods that surround it, but the atmosphere never quite gels.  Insidious Inferno features several shoutouts or Easter eggs to other horror films (at least it seems it – with characters quoting but not citing the 1990 Night of the Living Dead, Psycho and its own echo in Scream, Pet Semetery, Creepshow, and a handful of others).  While I am always a fan of homages and shared references, the danger for Insidious Inferno is that, like its title, it keeps reminding me of other, much better films.

4 out of 10