The Inheritance is a horror movie that surprised me. Not because it’s amazing, but because it’s better than expected, especially after the first act’s kind of lugubrious pace. So I’m giving it a bump for the jump… it earns an e few points for being just a little more interesting.

It’s about an old man who invites his four adult children to his house for his birthday. They quickly learn he’s going to die that night unless they can stop it… and if they don’t, they lose their inheritance. It’s not immediately evident, but what’s coming from him is supernatural.

The whole film feels a little familiar. It mixes elements of other recent big old money mansion flicks, though maybe with a little less ambition. Call it The Haunting of Mole Hill House or More-or-Less Ready or Not or even Knives Half-Sheathed (har-de-har-har). It makes it work though, especially borrowing from its mansion interiors. You won’t mistake it for a bigger budget films, but it does enough to service its story, twists, and scares.

It’s a slight spoiler to say its a haunted house movie but it is. And the spooks are well realized, not exactly looking like every other g-g-g-ghosts you’ve seen in similar movies. I was especially impressed by a very Ring-like appearance of one ghost and a very creative creature design near the end.

The acting is generally pretty good, though with only a cast of five characters, it feels like it needed more bodies to give us more bodies, if you know what I mean. But the actors they got were fine… though one of the guys looks distressingly like what happens if you let the air out of Henry Cavill (har-de-har-har).

This flick will not blow your socks off, but if you give it a chance, you might find it better than expected. It’s just a good old fashioned spooky house flick and its low ambition does just enough to earn it a good rating. That and some pretty cool g-g-g-ghosts!

Score: 82