Flesh for the Inferno

Director - Richard Griffin (Accidental Incest, Normal)
Starring - Anna Rizzo (Accidental Incest, Future Justice), Michael Thurber (Killer Rack, The Disco Exorcist), and Jamie Lyn Bagley (The Sins of Dracula, Frankenstein's Hungry Dead)
Release Date - 2015
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "You'll burn for this"
Format - Streaming (Online Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     There is a handful of directors out there that I follow intently.  These directors have yet to release a film that has let me down and there is no words to properly sum up the amount of excitement I get when these filmmakers announce a new film.  One such filmmaker is Richard Griffin who has brought us so many indie classics like The Sins of Dracula, The Disco Exorcist, Frankenstein's Hungry Dead, Normal, Exhumed, and I will just just stop there because I can go on for awhile.  Early this year Griffin announced a new film he was working on titled Flesh for the Inferno.  Griffin is known for blending humor with horror but he promised to deliver a more straight forward horror film with Flesh.  This really interested me so I waited patiently and as soon as the film became available I had to see it.  Thank you Richard for sending the film my way!

     The film begins in 1999 when a group of nuns confront a priest and accuse him of touching little boys.  At first the priest denies the claims but soon pulls a gun on the nuns.  He shoots one of them and then takes them to the basement where he walls them in.  We jump to now and the church has been abandoned.  A church group as agreed to go into the church to clean it up as a project.  They meet with a caretaker (not an actual caretaker but he has the key) who warns them that the place is not safe.  They ignore his warnings and split up into teams to work on different parts of the church which proves to be fatal when they run into the nuns who has made a deal with the devil.  Now they all have to pay for their own sins as well as the sins that took place inside that church.
     Director Richard Griffin is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to indie cinema.  This man has an eye for film and can take on any genre he applies his mind to.  If you don't believe me then you have not seen his amazing comedy Accidental Incest.  Griffin is known for his unusual blend of sub-genre cliches, humor, and horror but Flesh for the Inferno is unlike any other Griffin film I had seen before and there was nothing I could do to prepare myself for the hell on film that I was about to witness.  The acting in this one is fucking fantastic.  Griffin has assembled one hell of a cast that offers a variety of characters.  The film's leads are great and really work well with each other.  The chemistry is there and Griffin has a knack at finding people like this and putting them together.  Jamie Lyn Bagley is great in her role as the religious bitch with self-righteousness shoved up her ass.  Her character was written as one to hate and she was able to get that reaction out of the audience.  Michael Thurber, a man I have praised in every film I have reviewed that he has appeared in, once again shows why he is one of my favorite indie actors.  This man can take on any role you throw at him and this film is no exception.  He does an amazing job in his role as the film's father figure and leader of the church group.  He genuinely feels kind and sincere.  We also get a small role from one of the hottest young ladies in the horror business and that is Sarah Nicklin.  With all that being said, the real star of the show is Aaron Andrade who plays the Devil.  Once his character appears the film switches to him and he delivers one hell of a performance.  His version of the devil is so fucking charismatic that I could watch his scenes for days.  The story for this one is, sadly, not something that original but for fuck's sake is it raw and fun.  The story of a group of teens or twenty-somethings going into an abandoned building, house, or cabin that is haunted by it's past is something we have seen so many times before but we have never seen a film that combines so many elements from other films into one offering a very original spin on an old story.  The film is able to combine several elements from other films that I love.  The film has several supernatural elements that remind me a lot of the mostly unknown 1990 film Demon Wind which then collide with films like Lamberto Bava classic Demons and Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead.  The story is able to combine several of these elements with stories made famous in the 70s with classic Italian horror films with the cinematography and lighting of a giallo film.  Finally, this film has several on screen kills ranging from gunshots to the dome to heads cracking against a door.  We get several amazing kills that use a mix of practical and visual effects.  The practical effects look great and are some of the best I have seen to date in a Griffin film.  The visual effects do enhance some of the kills but in others they are very noticeable.  Overall, Flesh for the Inferno is one hell of a film.  It proves that Griffin can deliver the horror with or without the laughs.  This is one of the best films I have seen this year and it packs one hell of a punch.  As soon as you can you will need to check this one out!