The Movie:

From Within starts off interestingly enough. When the movie begins, two teenagers, Sean (Shiloh Fernandez) and Natalie (Rumer Willis), are hanging out and reading select passages out of a strange old book. Suddenly, Sean takes out a pistol and shoots himself in the head, much to Natalie's surprise. This sets the core storyline into motion and before you know it, the small, quiet town of Grovetown is suffering from a rash of teen suicides which seems to be spreading like a contagious disease. It seems that anyone who gets too close to one of the bodies will be the next victim, stalked by an evil doppelganger until they finally snap and take their own life.

As the townsfolk wonder what to do about all of this and how to put a stop to the madness, Lindsay (Elizabeth Rice) starts to notice the divisions tearing the town in two. The local pastor holds a deep secret about his past and is the father of a son, Dylan (Kelly Batz), who might have something to do with all of this, while a strange family that doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the townsfolk are labeled as the scapegoats by the more conservative members of the community. When Dylan beats up the late Sean's brother, Aiden (Tomas Dekker), Lindsay winds up taking him home to help him, putting her smack dab in the middle of the controversy, leaving her to try and figure out why all of this is happening.

A strange combination of the Japanese cult favorite Suicide Club with elements borrowed from the more recent The Happening mixed in with a healthy dose of teen angst and television soap opera dramatics, From Within is a pretty mixed bag. It won't be violent or frightening enough to please more seasoned horror movie fans, as there isn't a whole lot in the way of splatter nor is there much tension or shock value. On the flip side, it's probably a little more than the teen drama crowd are going to appreciate, resulting in a film that doesn't quite seem to ever really find its footing.

Things start off promisingly enough by quickly setting up a decent and interesting concept, but once we move on to the town and its bickering factions, the film gets a little too mired under its own various subplots. The message, which has no qualms about pointing its fingers squarely at the more conservative side of the town, seems to want to speak to us about the importance of being true to yourself and about the merits of individuality but it paints a fairly bleak world for all of this to play out in. This could have worked had the film actually bothered to say anything, but really, yeah, we get it, religious fanatics are bad and don't people who don't share their point of view. We're not treading any new ground here.

To the film's credit, it has a couple of suspenseful scenes and one or two worthy scares. It's competently made in that it looks nice, it's well shot, it's well lit, and it has a good score. The performances aren't anything to really write home about but neither are they completely terrible, instead the cast comes across as simply adequate. The movie does have moments that work but can't be bothered to give the characters enough meat on their bones, and the key players wind up feeling very one dimensional - and that's what's really missing from the film.

The Video:

From Within is presented in nice 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen progressive scan transfer. Color reproduction looks nice and natural, particularly the greens of the trees and the reds of the bloodshed and scenes of carnage, while skin tones look lifelike and healthy. Black levels stay pretty strong throughout the movie though shadow detail is a little washy in spots. The source material was obviously very clean as there aren't any problems with print damage, nor are there any obvious issues with mpeg compression artifacts. Some really mild edge enhancement pops up once or twice but if you're not looking for it, you're probably not going to notice it. Overall, the movie looks very good on DVD.

The Audio:

The English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound track sounds pretty decent and it comes with optional subtitles in English (in case you have trouble with the Aussie or Irish accents) and Spanish. Channel separation is good, even if it could have been a little more aggressive during some of the more intense scenes. Dialogue is clean and clear and the track is well balanced without any hiss or distortion rearing its ugly head. Bass response is good and the score sounds very nice.

The Extras:

This disc is pretty light on extras, containing trailers for a dozen or so other Lionsgate horror and action DVD/Blu-ray releases, an episode of the Ms. Horrorfest competition (a dull hour of moderately attractive goth chicks screaming, drinking wine, and goofing off), animated menus and chapter selection.

Overall:

A moderately entertaining but nicely shot film, From Within isn't likely to send you running to your mother in terror but it's an okay time killer with some inspired moments. Lionsgate's DVD looks and sounds quite nice even if the extras are nothing to write home about. This one would make for a solid rental - it's worth seeing for the highlights, but not likely something you'll want to watch more than once.

Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.