Inoperable
DVD | Digital
Written by Christopher Lawrence Chapman and Jeff Miller
Directed by Christopher Lawrence Chapman
Starring Danielle Harris, Jeff Denton, Katie Keene, Chris Hahn
Studio: Cinedigm
Release Date: February 6, 2018

Inoperable doesn’t cover much in the way of new territory for horror fans, but does add some intriguing twists in a somewhat familiar puzzle. There’s a deadly all-time hurricane about to hit and Amy Barrett (Danielle Harris) is stuck in bumper to bumper traffic”¦ until she’s in the hospital”¦ until she’s back in traffic”¦ You get it. The hospital is filled with strange characters, none of them who seem to have gotten the memo about the hippocratic oath. There’s a rambling priest, doctors and nurses who seem possessed to perform horrific surgeries, and a shadowy ghostly girl who keeps appearing and reappearing throughout the various corridors of the hospital.

To call Danielle Harris a horror veteran at this point is insulting. It’s hard to believe, but she’s been making these movies since 1988 when she starred as Jamie in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. Now in her early 40s (!), Harris can wake up, roll out of bed, and play a confident, believable scream queen. While Inoperable gives off a “straight to DVD” vibe, it’s heightened by her performance and her growing sense of paranoia as she’s joined by a police officer Ryan (Jeff Denton) and a supermodel (Katie Keene) in a race to find an exit to this nightmare before they’re back to square one and time resets.

Inoperable reminded me of Christopher Smith’s highly underrated and under-seen Triangle from 2009. While there were parts like the repeated time skips that became tedious, I think that is the point and it helped identify you with the characters involved. Inoperable is a decent use of 90 minutes, delivers a good Danielle Harris performance, and has a pretty unique ending. The DVD contains trailers and feature-length commentary from writer/producer/director Christopher Lawrence Chapman, writer/producer Jeff Miller, and cast members Keene and Denton. It is available now on DVD/Digital HD/VOD.

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