Villainess Review: Emily Haldon (The Inhabitant)

"Lizzie Borden took an axe

And gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done,

She gave her father forty-one."

Would you believe that the first time I learned about Lizzie Borden (and that rhyme) was in an episode of Smart Guy? I actually learned much later that Lizzie Borden was actually acquitted of the murders, but she remained under suspicion for the rest of her life, and became an immensely notorious name in death. I've heard of a number of horror films somewhat centered on Lizzie Borden, and I found out about this latest one, The Inhabitant, when it came out this past October. Without further ado, the review.

The central protagonist is teenaged Tara Haldon, who is established as a descendant of Lizzie Borden. The film details the Lizzie Borden tale, and later sees an axe-wielding woman sharpening her weapon before tracking and killing her intended victim, a woman jogging late at night. As for Tara, we see her playing field hockey before she and her best friend, Suzy, vent about their schoolmate, Karen. What follows is a quite a dark image of Tara going after her infant brother, Jack, with an axe, but it's a terrible nightmare from Tara, who arrived at the home she lives with younger brothers Caleb and Jack, as well as her parents Emily and Ben.

We see a conversation that includes Emily venting about Gina Loeb, Ben talking about taking a job for the Loebs, and Tara mentioning her maternal aunt, Diane, who was in a psychiatric hospital. Tara becomes a topic of concern from Emily, which comes before Tara actually envisioned Lizzie entering her room and attempting to coerce her into killing her infant brother. As Emily revealed to Tara, Diane also had the same visions, coming when she was a year younger than Tara, and wanted to put her on medication and have her see a therapist.

Tara had been talking to not only Suzy, but her boyfriend, Carl, about the Borden family curse, as well as Diane, who apparently murdered her infant son when she was 16, and Emily had made plans to take the family on a trip to visit Diane. However, plans were changed by Emily, who informed Tara that she would go to see her aunt on her own, with Tara protesting before finally giving in to Emily's emotional blackmail. The meeting sees Diane reveal that both she and Emily had been having the Lizzie Borden visions, and even tried to attack her niece before behind held at bay by orderlies. Tara informed Emily about everything, but Emily claims that she never had the visions, adding that she made up having them to make her sister feel better.

While all of this is happening, there's a serial killer on the loose. The aforementioned Karen was one victim, and regarding the woman who was killed in the film's opening, it was the aforementioned Gina Loeb. Her husband, Mikhail Loeb, was also killed, and as for Tara, her and Carl's visit to a museum that used to be Lizzie Borden's home saw Tara briefly possessed by the sinister spirit and clutch an axe, before Carl managed to hold his girlfriend at bay. Meanwhile, the mysterious villainess later took another victim: Suzy, who appeared at Tara's house (under Tara's order), to take any and all white dresses from the house, but managed to find one covered in blood before she was murdered.

While Gina's body was discovered, Tara and Carl saw the police car outside Gina's house and later drove to the former's home, where the pair found Caleb with Jack in the attic. Tara learned from Caleb that Suzy was killed, and by this point, Tara realizes who has been behind everything. As Caleb later calls Ben (who heads on his way afterwards), Tara's suspicions are confirmed after the axe-wielding villainess attacks Carl, as after this point, Tara sees her Aunt Diane (who escaped from the hospital) dead, leaving only one true culprit: Emily.

Emily emerges in her white dress, brandishing a deranged and sadistic smile as she greeted her daughter. She voiced her immense happiness over the fact that she was no longer taking her medication and was fully embracing her true murderous heel persona, which was followed by Tara appearing to successfully talk her mother down to normalcy. Emily's remorse ended up being a ruse, as she attacked Tara and wielded her meat cleaver, while voicing her plans to kill not only Caleb, but Jack as well, referring to her infant son as a "sniveling baby" before saying that he wasn't "like the other one."

Tara noticed those four words, and that led to Emily's not-so-surprising revelation that she, not Diane, actually killed Diane's infant son (Emily's nephew) decades prior. The madwoman stated that the child was a product of incest, revealing that their father betrayed their mother by sexually assaulting Diane, which resulted in the baby's conception. Emily killed her infant nephew when Diane was only 16, and left her to be accused of the murder and committed. She had been taking her medication and lived the family life for years, but after all those years, Emily turned heel again by ditching her medication and killing people who (in her own mind) were a threat to her: Gina and Mikhail Loeb, Karen, and Suzy (who found the dress), before killing her sister as well.

In addition, Emily even accused Tara and Ben of having something going on together (the fact that she believes this is squicky enough), with the insane murderess claiming that Tara was trying to replace her. Knowing full well that her mother was set on killing her, Tara put down the axe that she was holding for protection, and was willing to surrender to Emily, whose eyes turned full on black before the villainess made her move to kill her daughter. She was stopped when Detective Childs shot her from behind, and we see Emily being wheeled into an ambulance, though she gave one more glance at her daughter. Ben rushed to Tara's side, and it was followed by Tara and Carl visiting Suzy's grave. Ben promised not to let Emily get to his family, and Tara began staunchly taking her medication to prevent herself from suffering the same fate as her mother. However, while Emily was no longer a problem, the film's end showed that Lizzie Borden still remained a presence in the household.

There were two main things I knew about this film when I learned about it. First, I knew I was going to really love it, and I did. Secondly, I knew that Leslie Bibb's Emily Haldon would be the villainess, and I was right. It seemed like the obvious choice; the movie teased that the teen would be the possible killer, so it had to be either her therapist or her mother. Emily Haldon was so deliciously evil, insane, and bloodthirsty. Now, the film makes it clear that she was under the influence and possessed by Lizzie Borden, but what's also clear in the climax is that Emily willingly chose this path. Emily chose to murder her infant nephew all those years ago, and leave her sister to be portrayed as a murderous psychopath for a long time. Emily also chose to ditch her medication and willingly turn villainous so she could kill who she wanted, and she also chose to turn against her own daughter out of her own delusional belief that Tara and Ben were actually in an incestuous relationship. There is definitely no Freudian Excuse here; Emily--medicated or not--was a dangerous sociopath, and she was truly drunk on her own darkness.

Leslie Bibb's performance as the evil Emily Haldon was so epic! She excelled when she acted out Emily's motherly warmth to Tara, but the climax saw Bibb show out immensely. Emily's reveal was spectacular, and in that regard, Bibb really shined when she acted out Emily's giddy embrace of her heel persona, as well as her maniacal rant towards Tara, and her intense bloodlust and sadistic pleasure over her plans to kill more victims. It was also nice to see a brief glimpse of Emily's demonic black eyes as well, before she's taken down by Childs.

I've been a fan of Leslie Bibb since Popular, and she's been in so much ever since that series ended. We MCU fans know Bibb as reporter Christine Everhart in Iron Man and Iron Man 2, appearing in the latter alongside her real-life boyfriend, Sam Rockwell. She has also appeared in films such as Law Abiding Citizen, Zookeeper, and Netflix's Babysitter films, and regarding villainous roles, Bibb appeared on CSI: Miami as a set of murderous triplets, and also played a villainess on The Following. However, I truly consider Emily Haldon as Bibb's best evil role, though overall, Bibb is very good at the whole villainess thing.

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Check out Emily Haldon's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!