Film Review: THE INFLICTED (2012)

Let me tell you what I liked about the film The Inflicted (2012).  It stars Bill Mosely, Sig Haig, and Doug Bradley.  That is all that is good about this film. David O’Hara (Matthan Harris who also wrote and directed the film) is a medical student who also happens to be a serial killer trying to make up for the mistakes of his murdering father (played by Mosely).  David has been plagued by the death of his sister when they were young by his father who drowned her.  Now he is trying to create his own perfect family by kidnapping Melissa Daniels (Lindsay Hightower) and impregnating her and forcing her to have his child. 

The only bad thing is that David isn’t all that good of a serial killer as despite the fact that he has killed many people before kidnapping Melissa.   The cops discover him very quickly and he becomes a simple killer on the run for most of the film.  Once Melissa escapes from David’s clutches she is haunted by his memory and the fact that she is carrying his unborn child.  She seeks help from her psychiatrist Dr. Gardner (Haig) but she can never forget her tragedy.  David has managed to stay on the run due to the help of his father but the local cops and special agents are after David who seems to be able to get out of every scrape with the law by killing a few people.  Oh, and Doug Bradley (Pinhead of the Hellraiser films) is Agent Wilson who is quickly killed by David in a thankless cameo.

The film is seriously hampered by a really bad directing and overall acting.  This is a small gripe as the writing is what really kills the film as it portrays David as a serial killer that can get out of any mess by killing a few people despite the fact that if he was as good a serial killer as written he would’ve never been caught in the first place.  This film truly is one of those films written and directed by an actor who wanted his own starring film and who wanted his own character to be better than all the rest despite the huge jumps in logic audiences would have to make to find any of it believable in the slightest.  This was a really badly done film whose only redeeming quality is Mosely who surprising gets more screen time than Bradley and Haig put together.  Even though his performance is all over the place (something I’m attributing to the bad direction of the film), Mosely does the best that he can with what he’s been given and I can commend him on that.