What is the plot?

The Conley brothers live in a rural area of Ohia, a place with a deplorable economy, so they follow the family criminal tradition and are dedicated to the trafficking and sale of opiates. Josie and Kip are in charge of the business, but the younger brother, Boots, wants to get involved. The death of one of the customers who bought the pills from Josie and a business organized by Boots that is going badly, will trigger a series of violent events, where loyalty to the family will be tested and they will have to do horrible things to get out of trouble.

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A criminal drama about three brothers who will have to make difficult decisions, with a good direction and setting, but despite its raw history, without sentimentality, there is something that does not just consolidate the final result.

The story is not new, but the conflict of the three brothers has enough appeal for us to take an interest in the story. The film also has a solid cast, an excellent image that takes us directly to that poor people, but despite all this, I think the story could have been exploited a little more.

The script is by Andrew Crabtree, who has written the scripts for two other films: Companion and A Little Bit Crooked. He is a young screenwriter and writes stories about the criminal world that he does well, uses the genre codes perfectly, but I think the script of Inherit the Viper could have been improved.

Josie Conley is the older sister, the one with the most patriarchal personality in the family. She is a strong woman, determined to preserve the business and protect the family. But that determination and self-confidence will make her do horrible things with devastating results.

Kip Conley, the brother who is a soldier stationed in Iraq and who has a pregnant girlfriend, is also willing to protect his family at any cost, but deep down he wants to leave the drug business because it is becoming more and more dangerous.

Boots Conley is the younger brother, who doesn't remember how difficult his relationship with his father was. He is the typical young criminal who is not prepared to do business, but who is determined to do so, doing something foolish that will trigger the spiral of violence with a fatal outcome.

The scenario is a rural area of Ohio, where the main source of the economy is the logging industry, which is going through a bad time, reflected in those ramshackle houses, dirty streets, and the feeling of being a town abandoned to its own fate.

The story develops slowly, the scenes of action and violence are few, focusing on the family drama of the three brothers, and how they have a poison that is consuming them, with situations that will push them to betrayal.

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Inherit the viper is the first feature film by filmmakers Anthony Jerjen, who had previously made a couple of short films. For his first foray into the criminal genre, he has much merit in creating that atmosphere of moral decadence that is felt in every scene of the film. According to his record at IMDB, he has no project in preparation, so we will have to wait for him to go backstage again to better evaluate his work.

The cast is quite attractive and they offer solid performances, although some dialogues are too common within the genre, the characters are credible.

Josh Hartnett, is a well known actor, although he hasn't been involved in major productions lately, he has been working constantly on lower impact films. Perhaps many remember him for his role as a werewolf in the series Penny Dreadful. In this film that I am reviewing, he plays Kip Conley, the man who will have to make a difficult decision to protect the family he will form when his son is born.

The actress Margarita Levieva, is the one who makes the best interpretation of the film, in the role of Josie Conley. The older sister and who is colder in the face of all the problems that surround her. I loved her character and she is an actress that I adore. She has participated in several films, but the work that made her known and captivated me was in the series The Deuce.

Owen Teague plays the younger brother, Boots, the typical young fool who thinks he is prepared for the hard life of crime. The actor, who has experience in complex family dramas, because he was an actor in the series Bloodline. He has been hired to work on the 2017 remake of the film It.

There are other well-known actors in the cast, with small but important roles in the story. Veteran and award-winning actor Bruce Dern plays Clay Carter, the owner of the town bar where the Conleys sell drugs. Young actor Chandler Riggs, remembered by all as Carl Grimes in The Walkind Dead, here plays Cooper, a friend of Boots who will get him into big trouble. And the actress Valorie Curry, known for her role in the Twilight Saga, plays Kip's pregnant girlfriend.

Trailer

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