Inbred (2012)

The title alone should elicit some sort of response from a viewer. The word “inbred” conjures up various images and ideas for most movie-goers, who might instantly think of The Hills Have Eyes, Wrong Turn, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and that awesome X-Files episode “Home”.

Some may find the word “inbred” deeply offensive and might balk at the idea of another mutated-human cannibal holocaust in which innocents are eviscerated for fun by genetically demented hillbillies.

Is Inbred just another film about a family of sick inbred weirdoes? Nope. Far from it. Inbred is a hilarious, vicious, raucous, chaotically-insane horror/comedy that feels like the product of a radioactive orgy between The League of Gentlemen and Emmerdale.

When four city-dwelling young offenders are sent to the British countryside on a ‘character-building’ retreat they find themselves in the weird little village of Mortlake, a place so backwards it makes The Slaughtered Lamb look like Starbucks.

Unfortunately the silly urbanized youths upset the locals and set-off a cataclysm of kidnap, torture, death, violence, chainsaws, racist facepaint and a lovely – if completely fucking deranged – country singsong (all together now; Ee By, Ey By Gum! It’s the British “Gobble Gobble One of Us”!)

This is great work from writer / director Alex Chandon (who co-wrote Inbred with Paul Shrimpton) the man behind the less-compelling Cradle of Fear. Clearly made with love and madness, Inbred also features a great turn from Seamus O’Neill and some genius cameos from Emily Booth and Dominic Brunt.

Again, Inbred is one of those movies that delivers us “Byronic” protagonists – basically scumbags and dingbats who you *might* grow to love. Essentially you have to like the collection of idiotic young offenders and their useless social workers to really invest in the story, and if you’re the kind of person that hated Attack the Block, Doghouse and Tower Block for this very reason then you’ll probably despise Inbred.

Bizarrely Inbred also features antagonists akin to Rob Zombie’s bunch of rapey miscreants in The Devil’s Rejects. Despite being utterly depraved, psychotic and perverted, you might find yourself rooting for the inbred folk of Mortlake. Why? Because they view the world with a beautiful simplicity… and it’s horribly wonderful to behold. Yeah, they’re more disgusting than a pie made of poo and teeth, but they’re oddly compelling.

Inbred is a morally reprehensible deathfest with a childish sense of the grotesque that will greatly offend some people, but if you love your horrors deliriously sick and utterly mad, then Inbred is certainly for you. I fucking loved it and this little sound-bite will probably be used against me in a courtroom one day…

Gloriously sick and utterly hilarious, Inbred is an incredibly violent laugh-riot that will split audiences wide open. You might loathe it or you might adore it, but whatever the case I absolutely loved it.

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