The Inheritance (I) (2020) User Reviews

Actually Make Me Angry

[Mehki_Girl · 4/10 · 18 August 2021]

I realize that foreign films won't necessarily follow the formula of american-made films.

About three-quarters of the way in, this movie actually just made me angry. It has this bizarre, languid unemotional context and the actors had a very flat way of speaking. So devoid of emotion that I actually thought it was dubbed because often dubbed movies can't reflect what the actors were portraying as far as emotions, so dubbed speech always has a flat quality.

There were points in there where the scene before doesn't make any sense for the scene afterward or the reaction of the characters. For example, when the husband gets beat up and goes missing and she wakes up without a care in the world. Or when the husband is passed out, and instead of escaping right away, she takes time to recover the furniture.

It was just strange and bizarre. You never find out why these people are so afraid. You don't know if it's the Russian mafia after the building. You don't know if the people are afraid of ghosts. You don't know if it's the gateway to the portal of hell and that's why people wouldn't enter the building.

It's very very strange. If you go with the Russian mafia possible aspect, then you have to say, well, they don't want to be seen anywhere near the property because, you know, someone really powerful has their eye on it and waiting for her to sell it to them.

Were they just staring at the couple when they arrive, simply because they were foreigners? Or because the house is haunted? Why the hostility at Central Archives? Why did the woman say that she was surprised she hadn't been arrested yet? Arrested for what? Were they just staring at the couple when they arrived simply because they were foreigners? Hostility nothing more than I don't like Americans who can't speak Russian? Simply that I'm lazy and I don't want to have to go through the archives?

And even when she was supposed to go away with the couple to the airport and you see her standing on the street I actually thought perhaps when her husband hit her in her head, she had actually died and that was simply her ghost going back into the house.

Lots of unanswered questions that didn't create a mystery, just annoyance.

The good about this movie is you get to see the beautiful city and you also get to see this beautiful building and hopefully that was the interior of the building. If so it was absolutely gorgeous.

Good cinematography with a bunch of camera angles that were supposed to be, I guess, innovative or artistic that didn't make any sense, but you thought you would find out later why they had these angles. Overall, it just didn't make a heck of a lot of sense. It could have been so much more. Acting was pretty wooden. Voice acting was flat with little inflection. Questions that you would have asked went unanswered. For example the old woman says well the men they always watch the house now the follow-up question that would have been why did the men stand outside and just watch the house? The woman never asked, why. She never went up to the man to ask why they were standing in the street staring at the house.

Maybe it was meant to be a dream cuz I certainly look like everyone was sleepwalking through this.

Has atmosphere but thats all

[omendata · 4/10 · 18 April 2021]

Started off really well and I do like movies set in eastern europe, it gives them a dark and mysterious quality ever since Hostel came to the forefront but unfortunately although the film has some good atmosphere it lacks any scares and so many questions unanswered...like... who were the men outside? Why were they guarding the house? And who wanted to buy it? And the ending...what the heck was that all about? Even more laughable is the need to insert an extra scene mid or end credits but in this case for no apparent reason whatsoever.

I am afraid the acting was also pretty lame especially the boyfriend although most of the Russian actors beat the main ones into a cocked hat.

If you are going to write a horror movie then at least make it intelligible with a few frights or small scares.

Could have been good but like most low budget horror these days it just has no idea what it wants to be or how to accomplish it!

Unanswered

[akd-974-774081 · 4/10 · 30 December 2021]

I feel like I have too many questions left unanswered. Everything just seemed fishy. The men, the reactions, everything. There was a lot of potential here but a mix of local theater acting, evasiveness in the big mystery and absolutely everything to do with her husband left me wondering why I kept watching. Oh, right, it was all about the excellent location. So location scout gets top awards!

Quite awful in every way

[leesimon-26357 · 1/10 · 3 October 2021]

There is so much wrong with this movie, and none of what's wrong is a mistake. These are all bad choices made by the writers and director.

Firstly, why are our 2 main characters so unlikable? Why give them both a terrible personality, that makes them impossible to root for?? Why have vague and unexplained references to some kind of crime syndicate?

The writing and the dialogue was offensively bad. Here is just one of one thousand examples of stupid, terrible and useless interactions: woman says to man "Are you going to tell me what's going on in this place?" Man replies "sure, you're going to find out sooner or later." Woman angrily replies "what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Man says "Ok, well here are some papers for you to sign." That's it. Absolutely no mention of the previous exchange, or any explanation of what's going on. Everything was like that. Just stupid sentences, one after the other, with no connection to moving a story forward, just falsely creating fake tension. Insulting.

The ending is so profoundly stupid, it made me want to throw a brick at my screen... The forced tenderness of the line "Babushka" was incredibly disingenuous. This is a woman this character has never met or interacted with. Her whole life was with this 'other' grandma (the maid.) Why is she so loyal and intent on avenging a woman she has never laid eyes on or interacted with? And then, why go down to the car with your luggage, only to stay on the street and then go back in the house. Also, what kind of visa does this stupid American have? She's just going to live in Kiev now? What the hell?

Everything was stupid. Definitely don't waste your time or your money.

Horrible, kakoy uzhas

[redinnevada · 1/10 · 13 September 2021]

The acting is so bad it's painful to watch. The editing is equally as terrible. At one point, they had edited her in the clothes from the scenes for the next day right into the middle of the current day's scenes. (she was wearing khakis, then suddenly jeans in the kitchen then back to khakis for the next 10 mins). That's how SLOPPY this movie is.

And it doesn't know what kind of story it wants to be. Horror? Russian mafia? And when did it become popular for the female lead to be a b*tchy person right off the get go? She's so unlikable I don't care what her problems are.

Boring, but beautiful

[zamboni-36633 · 2/10 · 13 May 2021]

The mansion this is set in is stunning, as is the country in general. This gets that extra star for that. Then we get to the plot which never really satisfies. Things are hinted at, but not resolved. The three men guarding the house, the "one" who has to be the buyer, that absurd mid-credit scene. What?! The husband is a jerk. I couldn't stand him from the get go. Don't bother with this mess. And what's with the constant revolving front door scenes?! I guess it's supposed to be artsy. It ain't.

Bad acting = bad movie

[zhivago97 · 2/10 · 24 August 2021]

In what could have been an interesting and atmospheric horror movie, fell apart due to the truly bad acting. I mean it's really, really bad. Not even "funny" bad just annoyingly bad.

The storyline is decent (but nothing new), camerawork is ok (not great), the setting is interesting and there is some moderate suspense. Some cheap surprises you can see a mile away and, again, nothing fresh.

Overall a pretty bad movie, mostly due to the acting. Strong actors could have saved this movie from itself.

I... It had so much potential

[kiramarie · 5/10 · 12 August 2021]

It had a good premise, there was a decent twist but... I'm so confused? Some of the acting (*coughcoughPETERcoughcough*) left a lot to be desired. But... Maybe it's I'm missing some important Russian aspect? I don't understand why it was so imperative for her to sell other than Peter had amassed some serious debts. To the Russian Mafia? I guess that's to be assumed. Then is that who she was selling to? Or supposed to? My mind went on this crazy trip that it was the maid's family that desperately wanted the property but then how does that work out? Maybe it was her babushka's family? That would make sense, in a way. Does the murder tie in with the people offering all this money and scarily desperately wanting this place? What does one have to do with the other? If it was just the mob wanting their piece of a potential cash pie, why did they leave her unscathed after demolishing Peter? Why did it end with her packed to get in the car only to be going back in? Was this set up for a sequel? Again, it had a really good premise and promise but failed to deliver. Five stars for being mildly entertaining, at least more so than some of the other recent horror scum that I've been coming across. If you've got a wild imagination, you'll make up at least four different scenarios as you wait for things to play out to an unsatisfactory end.

So Dull

[katrinatiebel · 2/10 · 28 September 2021]

There were so many subplots that brought up question after question but no answers. The female leads actions or lack of actions made her quite ridiculous and unlikeable. The spouse character was a jerk right out of the gate and just randomly leaves her alone and hardly talks to her for days knowing she is in an uncomfortable situation. And the whole archives scene made no sense at all. Actually nothing much about the movie really made any sense, especially the ending. I kept waiting for an explanation to tie ever and was disappointed and equally dismayed I had wasted my time.

Slow, confusing journey

[nickb41 · 2/10 · 8 September 2021]

After searching through Prime Video I came across the trailer for 'The Inheritance.' My wife and I thought the trailer looked decent enough, and figured it would be a good way to pass an hour and a half. The premise seemed solid, a tried and true thriller/horror setup. Maybe this film would break the mold a bit.

Well...it didn't.

The story of Sasha and her husband Peter was a very slow and eventually confusing series of things happening without much reason or setup.

Peter leaves Sasha alone in this strange, huge manor in The Ukraine and basically disappears for days without explanation. Sasha's reaction to this is barely concerned or upset. Where did he go?

The acting is emotionless and tired. I'm sure the actors involved gave their best, but no one stood out. There really was nobody to root for. Even Sasha, the lead in this film, was hard to get behind. Peter, the husband, was totally useless.

The cinematography was fine, the the interior shots of the manor were beautiful. The external shots were pleasant, highlighting the lovely filming location.

Overall, a very forgettable movie that left me with more questions than answers. Questions like "How was this movie greenlit" and "Did anyone involved actually watch the movie" bounced around in my head.

I guess it wasn't a total waste of time. It helped to cast a light on things that I DON'T enjoy in a movie, so there's that.

I liked it

[didifa · 8/10 · 14 April 2021]

I have to say its not scary at all but it is refreshing to see a movie with a story for a while but still keeps his loose ends sadly but i liked it.

ukranian kinda guardians

[ops-52535 · 6/10 · 15 April 2021]

Its a slowpacing horrorthriller about the ghosts of the past in a brick and concrete building in kiev ukraina.its a house just inherrited by a young american/ukranian women. Not knowing about the house at all, she leaves the safe states of america to explore the fields of her family past.

Its a slowburning story, loads of ''broken english'', its plotted like a psychological horror thriller, and the technical production is of high level, especially the filmography, and experimental film angling. But it suffers from the ''dark filming nsyndrome'', where what lurks in the dark just stays in the dark. A headlight wouldve given the viewer a far better opportunity to explore the premises with the woman instead of a candlelight worthy cellphone light, that the woman use in her exploration.

Acting is at average, and no more than direction and script allows, not much improvisation or spontanious acting, rather stern and with the complete absence of romantics nor comedy. Jumpscares doesnt appear at all, just that tense sound throughout the whole story. I will award a 6 for a good technically made film, nice choice of location,and nice production management. The already halfzheimered grumpy old man wont remember this film too long, so run for it while its still out there.

not a horror movie and boring

[yamahapic · 1/10 · 16 April 2021]

Not a horror movie but a sow and boring movie without any script..stay away or watch a documentary.

Disappointed

[arapa-26517 · 3/10 · 15 September 2021]

I wish there were more details as to whether they killed her husband or just beat him. Ending many lose ends; did she go back into the house or her ghost ? Did husband reappear ? Did she fix the house and rent ?

Absolutely NO

[miranda-jefferson · 2/10 · 26 August 2021]

This movie took forever to do anything. You are ment to empathize with the main character, but you don't, because she is kinda a snot. I really did not like anything about this move. Wait ... nope nevermind.

Waste of time.

[Primrose1 · 2/10 · 15 April 2022]

I only gave it two stars because the mansion setting was so atmospheric.

Everything else was execrable. The dialogue was appalling and there were so many non- sequiturs I stopped paying attention.

The money spent making this film was utterly wasted.

The House was the Best Actor out of the Bunch...

[shoppsi · 5/10 · 8 November 2021]

...the humans? Awful. Except for Sasha. Maybe it wasn't their fault, as the script was nonsensical. Or maybe it was just translated poorly? I don't know.

Other than Sasha, the characters were unlikable, wooden, almost robot like.

The secondary characters were bizarre, rude, or lazy.

The house, though, was gorgeous. Whoever filmed it did a nice job.

It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't very good either.

Terrible. Don't bother.

[charlotte-63748 · 2/10 · 24 April 2022]

Probably one of the most frustrating films I've ever watched. It literally has no coherence or plot. A lot of it makes no sense and no explanation for so many events. It leaves too many unanswered questions to be considered likeable. So I just wouldn't bother wasting your time!

Boring and dumb

[phenomynouss · 1/10 · 1 May 2022]

Right from the start this film seems to go out of its way to be antagonistic in as many different directions at once; starting with yelling and screaming, then with a quintessential upper class "Ugly American" couple, Sasha and Peter, making asses of themselves to their driver in Kyiv and antagonizing him for not speaking English.

They then proceed into an apartment building inherited from Sasha's grandmother. No idea why they're basically moving into the place that has been supposedly uninhabited for years, possibly decades. Peter then brings in their lawyer Roman, a guy who absolutely looks, sounds, and dresses like a human trafficker, presenting Sasha with a bunch of paperwork all in Russian that she can't read and is being pushed into signing so she can acquire the building.

Sensibly, she refuses to sign for now, asking for a translated copy of the papers. For some reason this becomes a major hassle that requires Peter to leave for days at a time, leaving Sasha to roam the apartment building hearing shouting and thumping and screaming each night. All the while there are a bunch of nondescript men dressed like Russian mobsters standing outside the house all hours of the day every day doing nothing.

Virtually nothing happens for huge portions of the film save for the constant noises and musical stings that lead up to nothing. There's no jump scares, not even any slow burning or creepy moments. Sasha is just wandering around the apartment, hearing noises, and that's it.

At one point she finds a book that supposedly belonged to her grandmother, and she starts piecing together a story of what actually happened with her grandparents and their servant girl before they moved to America. Along the way, everyone she is encountering is almost cartoonishly menacing, devious, or out-right threatening her and she seems completely unfazed by any of it.

At one point the greasy leather-jacket wearing lawyer Roman basically threatens her to sign it, saying something like "you're going to find out sooner or later" what's going on in the place, and when she latches onto that he's like "relax, it's nothing". Multiple characters basically say this or something similar to it to her at various times, and she is completely blissfully unfazed by any of it.

About the only rational and reasonable thing she does is refuse to sign when Roman and Peter act cartoonishly devious and suspicious around her, although there is no reason for her not to sign it. There's no reason for her to even be there in Ukraine, completely alone most of the time, not able to speak Ukrainian or Russian, and wandering around with menacing looking Ukrainians glaring at her in multiple locations while she just wanders around aimlessly.

So much of the film is just this that by the time anything actually starts to progress with the main plot, I had gotten so bored I tuned out what was happening. The ending was long overdue despite making absolutely no sense.

Dint go as expected

[raviit-86986 · 4/10 · 12 August 2021]

Only thing good about this movie is a small twist in the end otherwise ridiculous acting (Peter) , no explanations to sub plots, no scary scenes.

Beats many!

[liinapakarinen · 8/10 · 22 March 2024]

Rated 8 on my scale. Theres many with the same storyline, but this was better than most I've seen.

Didn't get all the answers, but should you though?

This movie is dated 2021 and settled in Kiev, capital of Ukraine. We all know that early next year Russia attacked to Ukraine. Now there's been more than two years of suffering with war between Russia and Ukraine.

Now we are having another crisis. Israel is bomming Palestinians more than ever. In few months there's been more deaths of children and civilians than the whole time in Ukraine. Israel is bomming hospitals which is against all international agreements.

Interesting but muted

[m_hope85 · 6/10 · 28 August 2021]

Interesting setting. I loved the interactions with the locals - the guardedness and hostility felt authentic.. It moved slowly though and I watched it over two sittings. Peter was lacking. I liked the twist at the end and feel it was a decent movie.

Ghosts are Forever

[nogodnomasters · 5/10 · 2 July 2021]

Sasha (Natalia Ryumina) of Chicago inherits a mansion in Kyiv, Ukraine. She visits the mansion with her husband Peter (Nick Wittman) and discovers it makes noises that wake her up. She sleeps through the El in Chicago outside her apartment. She discovers a photo book and asks questions revealing a dark family secret.

The mystery aspect was better than the horror which was non-existent. IF you go into the film expecting a scare, it wasn't here. They really needed a cat to help the plot along.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

Great bones of a story that had so much potential, but never got going

[mommyplum · 4/10 · 25 January 2022]

Spoilers will follow. I saw this listed in my recommendeds on Amazon Prime video for free and since I tend to often like more indie, lower budget scary movies, I decided to watch. The premise starts off interestingly enough. A married Chicago couple, Peter and Sasha, find out Sasha is the sole heir to her recently deceased grandfather's surprisingly extensive holdings in Ukraine. It's hinted her grandfather wasn't a very demonstrative or effusive man with his family and neither Sasha nor her late mother were particularly close with him. Her grandmother, his wife, passed away more than 12 years prior. Sasha and Peter are off to Ukraine to sort through the legal issues of the estate, with Peter seemingly having an agenda that they should sell everything quick and return to the states. They're staying at an enormous and frankly gorgeous stately old house, still partially furnished, that they're told was once the residence of her grandparents in Kiev and that she has now inherited. Sasha discovers her grandfather was once a high-ranking, powerful and well connected Soviet officer more than 40 years before (Ukraine being under Soviet control then) who seemed to have amassed wealth and property (despite a communist state) due to what we can only surmise were nefarious connections and windfalls. The first night in the house, Sasha hears noises above them, even though there's no one else there. Screams, the sound of an argument, thuds, crying. Her husband hears none of it. In the morning he's brought round a jumpy looking local lawyer who wants her to immediately sign all papers selling every last bit of her inheritance to a buyer she never knew existed. When she balks, the lawyer leaves looking scared and her husband suddenly announces he's going out to "check on their options," or something to that effect. Only he doesn't return for days and keeps phoning her with enigmatic tales of being stranded somewhere and waiting for a taxi or bus. Here's one of my issues with the plot - Sasha is mad he's not back, but never specifically asks where he, in fact, is. Wouldn't that be your first question if you were her? In the meantime, alone, she decides to look into her family history, especially with the house. Everywhere she goes to find info, she gets menacing road blocks. I thought this meant something, but, ultimately it never really does (a bit more on that later). She does manage to find a woman living nearby who once worked at the house for her grandparents and talks to her on the phone. The woman tells her she always liked her grandmother, Olga, who was usually very sweet and quiet, but says her grandfather was a bit of a sadist to his wife. He enjoyed making her cook, clean and sew for him even though they had a house full of servants. He also like to hurt and humiliate her. The woman goes on to tell a shocked Sasha that the only time she heard her grandmother stand up for herself and get angry was when she discovered the new maid that was hired, Irina, was, in reality, her husband's mistress. The woman also tells Sasha that very suddenly the servants were all let go one day by her grandfather with no explanation, but when she went to inquire later after Olga, she was told by some of the grandfather's personal guards/henchman still guarding the house that they'd moved away. That night, with Peter still MIA, Sasha hears more ghostly noises and eventually by morning has found a hidden door that leads to what must have been the rooms for housemaids at one time. Her grandmother's name, Olga, is scratched into the floor of one of them. This leads Sasha to deduce her grandmother must have first locked up Irina in this room and then killed the mistress/maid in a fit of pent up rage and her grandfather covered it up through the help of his connections and left the country with his wife and toddler daughter for the states, maintaining his wealth abroad. No sooner has she leaped to this conclusion than Peter has reappeared and now drunkenly is strong arming her once again into selling up quick. She slaps him and storms out, heading to see the former caretaker in person. Through looking together in a family album, the caretaker shockingly reveals that the woman Sasha knew as her grandmother, was, in fact mistress/maid Irina and produces a photo of the real Olga. Now Sasha knows what must be the awful truth, that her grandfather killed the real Olga after beating her up and imprisoning her in Irina's room for a time, then had Irina assume her identity and beat a hasty exit with her and his child using all his corrupt connections to start over in America. She rushes back to the house only to get ambushed by Peter, who assaults her and reveals prior to all this he borrowed a bunch from people connected to a Ukrainian mobster, and if they don't sell everything to him immediately at a cut rate, with a bit of profit leftover for them, he's as good as dead. They begin to struggle, and then men who have been seeming to watch the house bust in, beat him senseless and basically disappear him, leaving her unscathed. I think we're supposed to deduce these men were not actually connected to her husband's shady dealings, but are, in fact, still the shadowy henchmen/guards (a couple generations later) who have been paid for by her grandfather's holdings all this time. Weirdly, we as viewers can sort of intuit this, but Sasha doesn't seem to, and also doesn't seem to care about her husband likely being hauled to his death, who did it, or what his outstanding debts to underworld characters might mean for her. She just dusts herself off and proceeds to have a brief goodbye encounter with the ghost of her murdered real grandmother. The next day she's packed and headed to the airport. Only 10 seconds later we see her walking back into the house. Why? Is she staying? Did she forget something? Did she actually leave, but is now back again? Are we to think no authorities in the US or Ukraine will ever wonder where her husband went? And why were the people in records and archives so aggressive towards her? They were literally telling her most of what she knew - about her grandfather owning the property, and no current generation more than 40 years removed could have been anyone in these bureaucracies who might have helped him forge documents for Irina by the looks of their ages. Why do the estate agent for the house and her husband hint that everyone in the neighborhood avoids the whole section of the street the house sits on? I mean, it's sat unoccupied but kept up at the grandfather's behest all this while and no one outside of the house knows of his crime. Too many plotholes really sink this and too little is actually spooky to make this really enjoyable, in the end.

What? Was the overall feeling after watching this

[chrisgregory-57880 · 2/10 · 16 April 2022]

The film dragged on, way too long. And the film ended with too many questions rather than answers. Who are the men? Why does she have to sell? Where did Peter go? Who was Peter? Why was the dude wearing tracksuit bottoms and a leather jacket? Most of the film made no sense.