Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: A woman awakes in a hospital where time can shift and the staff is out for blood.
Review: This isn't the first time I've said this but...I only watched this for Danielle Harris. The annoying part is that "Inoperable" could have been a good movie by itself, and I almost gave it an average rating until the nonsensical and stupid ending ruined everything. I get it...this movie is super low-budget, however, when I compare something like, say, "The Void" to other indies I expect filmmakers to up their game. This movie was right at the cusp of delivering a worthwhile experience but lacked scope and efficient delivery. We never know what's happening or how anything connects despite the movie trying to pull off twists.
So, at it's core, "Inoperable" has an interesting premise. Danielle's character, Amy, wakes up in a hospital during the middle of a massive hurricane where the staff is insane and are killing the patients. Amy comes to realize her consciousness transports back and forth between a traffic jam and this hospital in some kind of time loop. Other characters at the hospital suggest that the hurricane destroyed a military research base that caused some kind of time displacement spliced together with the movement of the hurricane. I actually thought this could have worked if better explained, but, alas, the movie fails to delve deeper and, in fact, disregards this plot point by the ending.
Amy realizes that there is only a specific way out of the hospital that connects to her starting point of being in a traffic jam--the implication that she was in some kind of car accident that led to her coming to the hospital. After finding a specific room in the hospital, Amy and crew seemingly escape this time loop and everything is normal afterward. We then come to learn that a background character was Amy's sister who committed suicide. But then we come to learn Amy is actually insane and imagining everything in a mental institute. Wowwee...a double twisteroo! Oh, wait, that's completely fucking retarded. That's like "Jaws" ending with Brody waking up in the bathtub with a shark toy. Good lord.
"Inoperable" fails because it doesn't understand it's own story or that audiences will want a satisfying conclusion to the mystery presented. More so, the story lacks reflection, no sense of wondering who the characters are or how they came to this predicament. Rather than giving the audience answers to the questions presented, we are given idiocy coupled by a final twist that made everything prior useless. Why not make Amy's arrival to the hospital relevant to the plot? Was she actually in a car accident or what? Why not explore this idea that the time jumps are actually parallel worlds? Go deeper with this idea that the characters have been trapped for years and are degenerating mentally. That would explain why the staff is murderous! This idea that everything is connected to the hurricane almost worked if we could understand how the movement of the storm worked. Hell, throw in a countdown of sorts: when the hurricane ends they disappear with it. Have some level of stakes for fuck's sake. I hate to see ideas like this squandered readily when there was real potential to deliver an epic sci-fi/horror. The entire ending should have been scrapped! End it with something along the lines of Amy going to bed and zoom in on her TV statically cutting to the broadcast about the hurricane.
Overall, "Inoperable" is a mediocre experience worsened by a terrible ending that not only fails to deliver, but makes you angry you even wasted your time in the first place. I went a bit soft on the film as it is, because I understand low-budget restraints, appreciated the base concept to the story, and love Danielle; I don't imagine general audiences will be as forgiving. While there was potential here, "Inoperable" ultimately can't be recommended due to sheer incompetence in the direction, writing, and pathetic ending. The editing was respectable given all the continuity issues at hand, but it could be seizure-inducing from a different perspective. Unless you really love Danielle Harris, or are intrigued by the story line nonetheless, I'd say this is an easy pass.
Notable Moment: When we come to realize the other main characters were just models in a magazine Amy had. Stupid.
Final Rating: 4.5/10
