Chained to the Desk
Annabelle Hale (Kelly Paterniti) was there on the day Thomas Reddmann (Nicholas Hope) aka "head-hunter" murdered his colleagues and she gave evidence at his trial. Now with news coming out that he died in a fire in the asylum he was place in Annabelle feels a little more at ease although hates her job as an online stripper. That is until one night she is knocked out by an intruder and when she comes around she finds herself chained to a desk next to 5 strangers all in the same boat and all shocked to see Thomas Reddmann when he walks in as they were all involved in the court case. Redd as he likes to be known makes them work to find the real "head-hunter" as he ways he is innocent and if they don't help they get a cut on the forehead as a warning and after 5 they are out... forever.
I have a question for you. What makes you cringe more, seeing two people wake up connected to a mechanical machine which will kill them or seeing someone getting a finger nail pulled off or a hook used to cut a mark in to their forehead. For me it is actually the latter as it is easier to connect with, to sense that pain especially if you have ever had a fingernail or toenail removed yourself than imagining what it must be like to know you are going to be dragged in to the machine. It is that which makes "Inhuman Resources" such a wicked movie because whilst it has aspects of "Saw" the torture aspects are more powerful because they are realistic.
Now the horror side of "Inhuman Resources" is a big part of the movie and it is sporadic in its delivery because we will go from seeing a slash cut into a forehead to something bigger like a head being hacked off and the blood running from the decapitated body or someone's eyes being gauged out. But there is also the actual story of Thomas telling his prisoners to find the real killer using the files and computers he has chained them to. Now it seems obvious but the writing of this is very clever with aspects which make you think well maybe there is something about his curious claims of innocence.
All of which makes "Inhuman Resources" entertaining but the performances add to this with Nicholas Hope making Thomas Reddmann both frightening yet also unsettlingly comical. And then there is Kelly Paterniti who starts off quite timid but ends up delivering a strong performance and a surprisingly commanding one, much better than you expect from this sort of movie.
What this all boils down to is that "Inhuman Resources" ends up a fascinating horror movie with so many entertaining touches including a ticking clock system with the number of cuts which end up on each captives head. Maybe those who see it as a "Saw" rip off will be disappointed but for me the more personal aspects of the horror makes it all the more powerful.
