Following the mysterious double murder of a couple of teenagers, followed by the murder of her father, a wave of deaths hits the community of Grovetown, sparking panic among the inhabitants. Each death is identified as a suicide, and alarmism spreads in the city, with some thinking of a curse and others clinging to their faith. Lindsay, an eighteen-year-old with a very precarious family situation and a special connection to the Christian community, decides to investigate these mysterious suicides along with her friend Aidan, who is viewed with suspicion by the local religious congregation.
The introduction of "From Within" is stunning: two emo-like teenagers hugging at sunset by a lake who utter disjointed phrases in an unclear language and then BAM! A gunshot, a flash in her mouth, and blood on her face. The following minutes promise quite well, with another suicide, this time the girl who witnessed the previous death taking her own life with a pair of scissors plunged into her jugular. In short, watching the first ten minutes of "From Within" gives the impression of being in front of a well-orchestrated teen movie that perhaps also has some original cards to play. Never was an impression more wrong, because as the minutes go by, the third film directed by cinematographer Phedon Papamichael reveals itself for what it is: a tedious teen movie without ideas or rhythm.
The idea behind "From Within" is based on two key concepts: the religious bigotry of some teocon congregations and youth malaise, here represented by the act of suicide. If the first concept is treated superficially and with all the clichés you can imagine, the second tries to steal visual suggestions here and there to explain banal and well-known reflections that seek their own dimension in the supernatural. The condemnation of American Christian fundamentalism has found safer grounds in the sharp sarcasm of a film like "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil" or, if you will, "Donnie Darko," here we travel more on the boring strings of movielets like "Camp Hope," only with more superficiality. At the same time, the analysis of the American youth universe is uncertain, confused from the initial intentions: there is the emo couple that takes their own life (cliché, of course), the son of the religious leader with a marked propensity for violence, the handsome and doomed guy ostracized by the community but who acts as a magnet for the virgin hormones of the protagonist, and the protagonist herself who is as cliché as you can imagine. Lindsay, however, well played by Elizabeth Rice, is the usual well-behaved teenager raised in a problematic family (dead father, alcoholic mother, and a new partner who behaves like a jerk), full of uncertainties, pretty, and strictly a virgin, fascinated by the town's outsider hunk who, however, feels close to her because he too has lost a parent and blah, blah, blah. We are widely immersed in the cliché and the already seen at all costs, there is little to add.
When Papamichael wants to touch the horror strings—because let's not forget that "From Within" is a horror!—he throws in some splashes of blood that actually work and a ghost story aura that works on and off. In representing the threat, he uses a presence that takes on the appearance of the victims and pushes them to suicide in a sort of chain, reminiscent at times of the modern Asian/americanized ghost tendency. In particular, affinities can be found, especially in the staging of the sequences that anticipate the deaths, with the contemporary "Mirror" by Alexandre Aja (which was indeed an adaptation of the Korean "Into the Mirror"), as well as some thematic references, perhaps unintentional, to "The Sixth Sense" by Shyamalan.
In the cast of unknowns, the faces of the unpleasant Thomas Dekker ("Nightmare"; "Kaboom") and the daughter of art Rumer Willis ("The Girl Next Door"; "Pact of Blood") stand out, while the already mentioned Elizabeth Rice emerges.
Formally speaking, "From Within" has no flaws: orderly direction, careful photography, varied and often accurate soundtrack. Overall, however, it is a hollow and boring film, visibly undecided about which path to take. Avoidable.
Add half a pumpkin to the final score.
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