User reviews

INHJ fascinates me. As a media student having studied the horror and thriller genres, the codes, conventions and clichés are expected, blatant and eradicate all suspense film-makers aim to achieve from their use. This film tip-toes around nearly every single one of them and creates something entirely fresh.

The main character, Stanley, is a writer who pens novels based on murderers; such as Harry Jensen who killed 37 people prior to his execution. Finding this particular murderer hard to write down, Stanley's agent Tom sends him on a trek deep in the New Zealand scrub, reachable only by helicopter. After the trek's first night in the bush, one of his fellow travellers is dead and anyone could be the killer.

Stand-out performances from Gareth Reeves, Renato Bartolomei and excellent editing and sound take the film from beginning to end with no hesitation. The climax is to be seen to be believed.

INHJ is an excellent first film from the directors, I certainly hope to see more films in this class from the NZ film industry.

I enjoyed this film immensely and believe that as a first film effort it's pretty outstanding. The script was tight, casting generally excellent, although the character of Marrisa felt a little under developed. Cinematography was great, perfect choice of colour tones and gritty edges. Very effective editing and some cunning use of flash forward and backwards at crisis points. I was locked into the 'it could be anyone' for a healthy length of time, and didn't pick up on the final twist until right at the end, which was great. The closing sequence was perhaps a little wordy, could have been minimised or stylised rather than presented as a whole new scene, it did seem to make the film drag a bit at the end. It also could have been cut by about 15 minutes overall without losing important tension building footage. Unfortunately, I believe it lacks the requisite X factor which could have taken this creepy and sophisticated who done it to cult status. None the less, it is a highly polished, evolved piece of work that bodes well for the future of this writer/director. I felt I got my money's worth and will definitely keep an eye out for further work.