After being released from a psychiatric hospital, a young man (Rory Alexander) returns to his rural village in Gloucestershire where he is taken in by Dunleavy (Mark Rylance), an old family friend, and finds work at his garage. However, his attempts to readjust to a normal life are disrupted by hallucinations of his missing mother and his experiences of a nightclub that he is taken to. Could these issues be a result of a traumatic childhood incident?
First-time writer-director Fridtjof Ryder provides an impressive contrast between the main character’s dreamlike childhood memories and his attempts to adjust to a normal working life. This is helped not only by the ways in which they are depicted narratively, with the flashbacks being shown as fragmented images in comparison to the more fleshed-out present day sequences, but also in Ravi Doubleday‘s cinematography, which emphasises the saturated green colours of the forest in which the main character’s mother is said to live. In addition, the scenes in the nightclub that the main character is taken to serve as an effective bridge between these two narratives, merging both of their stylistic and naturalistic aspects in a way that reflects his perspective.
Ryder also elicits impressive performances from his cast, with Rylance obviously excelling as Dunleavy, capturing not only the character’s accent but also his nuanced personality that encompasses concern for the main character as well as a laid-back flippancy. Alexander also impresses as the protagonist, expertly conveying his mental struggles in a naturalistic manner that hints at something deeper that is otherwise unexplored in the main narrative.
This lack of exploration, and explanation, is unfortunately the central problem with the film, with Ryder’s enigmatic approach to storytelling resulting in the third act coming across as more confusing than tantalisingly ambiguous. Whilst this perspective can work well in the right hands, it ends up leaving the viewer frustrated and disappointed. Had there been more central coherency, Inland would have enough substance to match its style. As it is, the overall film just comes across as a missed opportunity to provide a realistic interpretation of folk horror tropes.
Screening in selected cinemas