Because of pacing and a mysterious out-of-nowhere conclusion, Infirmary drags by the end.
Infirmary adds itself to the bloated horror sub-genre of found footage but winds up uncertain on how to capitalize on its promising start. While lingering in various corridors with body cameras creates a murky, atmospheric tension, the film overdoes it in the latter stretch, derailing its steady pace. Still, the attempt to do more with less is admirable, and the film has some tense moments as well as plenty of “couldn’t be me” screen yells. Because of pacing and a mysterious out-of-nowhere conclusion, Infirmary drags by the end.
Nicholas Pineda (Fairy Tales) directs based on a screenplay by Pineda and Katy Krauland. The found-footage flick shows the bodycam and security camera footage from when a guard disappeared on his first night working in a derelict psych hospital. Infirmary keeps the cast at a minimum. Paul Syre Lee (Smoking Tigers, Kill Boksoon) plays the new security guard, Edward; Mark Anthony Williams (The Neighborhood, Abbott Elementary) as his superior, Lester, and Danielle Kennedy (Rock Bottom, Aurora) as another faculty member in this skeleton night crew, Ms. Downey. As Edward learns the ropes from his boss, odd occurrences build up.
Infirmary Utilizes Its Space
At the start, Infirmary builds excitement and creepiness, reminding me of a Japanese horror film where it’s a couple of people tasked with ensuring no one trespasses in the abandoned hospital. Its minimal casting here, with two central security guards as the focus in such a vast, dilapidated building, heightens that initial dread. The frames, especially as people walk around, have a silence that anyone who’s walked through an empty building can recall. It’s chilling yet exhilarating, at least at the beginning of the movie.
Frustrating But Entertaining Characters in a “Couldn’t Be Me” Way
While stilted and at times unbelievable, the cast is fairly entertaining, as is how the story initially unfolds. Lester constant threats, disrespect, and bullying toward Edward feel too exaggerated. But that does not detract from how entertaining it can be at times. There are plenty of early moments that leave you laughing as you recount what you’d do in the same situation. Much of it feels happenstance rather than an intentional performance based upon the plot and dialogue. Still, somehow they complement each other. The cast isn’t awful. They lack enough to work with. The plot in Infirmary began as something simple and forthright like a standard haunting. Then it didn’t.
The Plot Becomes Nonsensical Halfway Through
Even if unexplained, the plot worked. It had a Grave Encounters potential. But then the film pulls together Edward’s past and the hospital’s and settles into a messy finale. In a subdued horror film, an over-the-top finale does not work. It feels too out of place. Honestly, the movie lost its way once Edward started doing some weird stuff in the kitchen. Infirmary does not delve into his past. So, it’s unclear whether this is possession or him having some kind of episode. Either way, it feels strange when that behavior is there one moment and gone the next, creating far too many questions the longer the film goes on.
More Frustrating By The End
Infirmary takes advantage of the eerie quiet and unsettling atmosphere of an old psychiatric hospital at first, but does not cash in that well-built promise at its start, devolving into onscreen gibberish that answers nothing. Because of this, it squanders the potential of its disquieting environment. The cast does what it can, but if the story is not there, there’s no redemption. The plot of the movie goes from questionable choices to a nonsensical free-for-all that seems far too popular nowadays. Despite its atmospheric start building dread, Infirmary winds up a deflated mess by the time the credits roll.
