★
After moving back to her family home to care for her dying mother, a nurse haunted by her childhood memories must struggle with an evil force in the house.
Classification: 18
An incomprehensible piece of images and sound as it may be an insult itself to call this a film, The Influence has very little if nothing at all to offer audiences beyond a splitting headache from trying to sit through its frustrating plot, boring horror and terrible performances. A viewer who sits through this without their attention being drifting to their phone, a stationary glass of water, or just succumbing to a nap would be unheard of as there is nothing on offer from this boring uncreative horror flick. The mashing of horror tropes, The Influence revolves around a young girl becoming possessed by her grandmother Victoria who is also a witch while her mother and aunt come to terms with the abuse they suffered from Victoria's madness.
While the story seems simple on paper, director Denis Rovira van Boekholt somehow finds every opportunity to make every new development convoluted and confusing. The editing of the film is atrocious with characters and scenes randomly appearing with no discernable reason and maintaining no tension in its storyline. The main issue with the execution of the story is that it has no stakes for the audience to invest in, the characters are flat and one dimensional and their plight is threadbare. There is no emotional investment in the story as leads Manuela Vellés and Maggie Civantos struggle to form believable characters. No urgency, no interest, no intrigue, the film just meanders through boring scene after boring scene, even when the film attempts horror it so poorly executed that it = can't even be interpreted as unintentionally funny.
The film features a lot of gothic and pagan imagery, the main location is a large creepy gothic household but The Influence is unable to create any sense of atmosphere. Everything about the film is boring as it lulls the audience to sleep and in the moments where horror strikes accompanied by loud sudden cues from the score no one cares. Nothing creepy or unsettling about the possession of a child, the demons that haunt the family or the history behind it just an unseemly mess of boring stolen ideas parading as a film. The pacing harms any potential revelations as it remains very unclear what the final goals of the film are, the entire film feels aimless despite the simple premise; a possession story. It drags itself out unceremoniously for far too long and if there is an audience still watching beyond the first twenty minutes they have long stopped caring about anything the film has on offer.
The Influence is atrocious, the type of film cobbled together to trick fans of the horror genre with jump scares and ghosts but is completely soulless. You're either begging for death by the end of it or scrolling through your phone as the nonsensical plot becomes background noise. Repeated over and over, this film has nothing to work with, everything is perfunctory to the worst quality, as characters, motivations and logic are sacrificed all in the service of delivering the most unimaginative story possible. The Influence is an embarrassment to those who worked on it and those who have the unfortunate displeasure of having to view it.
Director: #DenisRoviravanBoekholt
Release Date: October 11th 2019
Available to stream on Netflix
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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