INCISION *** USA 2020 Dir: Ali Zamani. 76 mins
Alexa (Korina Rico), her boyfriend Matt (Lee Kholafai), troubled sister straight out of rehab Becca (Caylee Cowan) and record producer friend Calvin (Jonathan McDaniel) with girlfriend Trinity (Olga Safari) go to a creepy house to retrieve Calvins stolen laptop and friend Kenny (Tristan Tales) who they first sent to go and get it but neither returned. Greeted at the door by a sweet old lady, things swiftly go downhill as the friends get drugged, bound and gagged by the crazy family residing within. Dr. Gene Cunningham (James Allen Brewer), the man of the house and a deranged plastic surgeon soon sets upon “beautifying” his victims. One by one the group of friends are changed beyond recognition with a varying mortality rate. Alexa manages to escape by making a pact with Dr. Cunninghams youngest son Timothy (Marik Knight) but things don’t quite turn out the way she had planned.
This spends rather a long time introducing the ever increasing group of friends, their past history and connections to each other that it is a bit slow to get going. Once it does though it does have a few wince inducing moments and bloody scenes. I would have preferred more as it doesn’t quite go as far as it hints it does. There is one great scene where one of the characters wakes up in an ice bath having had both his feet removed. The acting isn’t great to start with but I did warm up to them fairly quickly and once the Cunninghams were introduced and things started to get a bit more crazy you don’t tend to notice it as much. Elaine Partnow as Grammy comes across as such a sweet old lady with her freshly baked brownies but she seems to have an unhealthy obsession with a random soft porn doctor sitcom where she spends most of the time calling the female actors horrible names. James Allen Brewer is pretty creepy as the sick Dr. Cunningham yet never takes it far enough but its the weird, freakish older son Phillip (John Wallbank) that steals the show, he certainly is an imposing character. Unfortunately this is nothing new and goes through the same motions as others in its genre with a predictable twist and a not-so-shock ending but it is entertaining enough and a good watch if you are not expecting too much from it.
Review by Sarah Budd
INCISION IS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON