With a workable premise and drawing from a strong tradition of haunted house movies you would expect good things from The Inheritance, but Chad Barager and Kevin Speckmaier’s ‘spooky’ new mystery fails to live up to expectations and instead drags its audience on a tedious, plodding journey toward a conclusion you can see coming from some distance despite the gloom.

When Sasha’s (Natalia Ryumina – who despite presumably having various expressions in her acting locker sticks with just one for the whole of the movie) grandfather passes away she is left an impressive house and estate in Kyiv, Ukraine. Arriving there with her irritating husband Peter (Nick Wittman) to sort out the paperwork, Sasha uncovers family ghosts both literal and figurative.

The main issue with The Inheritance is that it never really seems to settle on what sort of film it wants to be, and that leaves you with too many unanswered questions. Who are the mysterious men watching the house? Who is the insidious potential buyer? Why does husband Peter turn into an aggressive thug in the second act? In fact,, what are Peter’s motivations? Where are the scary bits? Why am I still watching this?

So invested is the film in its own apparent cleverness that it fails to satisfy any of the viewer’s needs, such as empathy with the characters or garnering any semblance of intrigue in the story.

There are glimmers in the darkness. The Inheritance is, without a doubt, a stylish, visually engaging movie. With a strong gothic aesthetic, the beautiful, shadowy palate does what it can to aid the flimsy storytelling but sadly there is just too much to do.

The Inheritance is released on DVD on October 10th.