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Unearthed - After Dark Horror Fest

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you take the concept of Ridley Scott's "Alien" and relocate it to the present day Southwestern desert, you'd have a pretty good idea of what "Unearthed" is like. And I mean that more as a put down; this is a red-blooded creature feature, so red-blooded that loses sight of important elements like story and character development. All it really focuses on is a monstrous entity that arises from the caves of New Mexico and wreaks havoc on an isolated town; everything else is secondary. The fragments of complexity scattered throughout are painfully underdeveloped, as if to say that nothing meaningful can be used in this outrageous a plot. I do give it credit for trying its best, but considering how thoroughly unconvincing it is, that really isn't saying a whole lot. This film is founded on a promising idea, yet it ends up lacking any real substance.

It does have its moments, though. It packs the most punch during the last twenty minutes, in which the characters and the creature are both predator and prey. During these moments, we never get a real sense of what this creature looks like--it's exposed to light in split-second increments, while the rest of the time it moves quickly through shadows. Even there, problems exist; this is normally a highly effective storytelling method, but it isn't effective enough in the case of "Unearthed." The computer graphics used to create the creature are so unrealistic that they come dangerously close to being laughable. This is a shame because, in the brief glimpses I was able to get, this monster was actually pretty cool looking. Its many clawed limbs converge on a grotesque slender body, and it's wide mouth opens to a number of sharp, pointy teeth. If a giant insect and a giant crab were to meet, this thing would be the end result of their affair.

That's about as good as it gets when it comes to "Unearthed." Everything else is incredibly weak, especially in terms of the characters. The lead is the town cop, Annie (Emmanuelle Vaugier), who about to be elected sheriff. But there are some major issues; because of an incident resulting in an accidental death, pretty much the entire town has lost all respect for her. This, in turn, has driven to alcoholism. She's introduced waking up on her couch, after which she fixes herself a cocktail of orange juice and vodka. For someone stuck in an emotional rut, I was surprised at how little I believed it: she functions too well, her body shows no signs of the strain that alcohol causes, and frankly, her face is still far too pretty.

All the supporting characters are either underdeveloped or introduced too late. There's Nodin (Tonantzin Carmelo), the town scientist. Annie gives Nodin one of the creature's appendages for analysis (found at the scene of a crashed semi truck); she's unable to conclude what kind of a being it came from because it has elements from all five kingdoms of life (monera, prostista, fungi, plants, and, of course, animals). There's her grandfather (Russell Means), a Native American who seems to have a philosophical answer for everything. There's Ally (Whitney Able) and Caya (Beau Garrett), two girls on the way to California to break into acting. They stop and pick up Charlie (Tommy Dewey), a stranded motorist who's conveniently young and hunky.

And then there's Rob Horn (M.C. Gainey) and Kale (Luke Goss). Horn fits the stereotype of the Wealthy Tycoon, and we suspect his disregard for Annie is for reasons simpler than her alcoholism. He enters the picture when his cattle are mysteriously slaughtered, and of course, he wants more money for his losses than the government is willing to give. Kale is perhaps the most baffling character of all--he spends most of his time operating a long archeological dig, and he's absolutely obsessed with proving a theory related to both the creature and an ancient Native American tribe. He's so obsessed that he openly points guns at people and orders them to continue the work started by Nodin's grandfather. Why did he have to do this? What can he possibly hope to gain? There's a moment when he tricks one of the characters into getting bitten by a rattlesnake, and right then, I wanted to throw something at the screen.

The rest of the film follows the creature feature formula to a tee, including having the creature stalk the characters through a series of dark caves. These were the best scenes "Unearthed" had to offer, which is a shame since they contribute nothing new or exciting to the horror genre. This movie is unflatteringly derivative, and what originality there is lacks any sense of purpose. I feel it only fair to say that I was never expecting a masterpiece; this is a horror movie, after all, and there are virtually no new ideas left for horror movies. Still, I was expecting something better, something that at least tried to make due with what it had. And a little more explaining would have been nice, especially when it comes to the creature's history. What we are told makes absolutely no sense--it felt like a plot device tacked on at the last minute because a good idea was so hard to find. As hard as it tries, "Unearthed" is about as phony as the look of it's monstrous creature.

"Unearthed," the second of the 8 Films 2 Die 4 from Horrorfest 2007 I am checking out on DVD, is a dormant monster brought to live to kill (almost) everybody in the movie type of movie. The setting is a desolate New Mexico town, so isolated that an oil tanker can turn over and block what is apparently the only road out of town. Equally important to the plot, the oil tanker was coming to deliver gasoline to the place run by Grandpa (Russell Means), which means the bad news for the people who show up in the first part of the movie is that there is no gasoline for them to get out of town. The good news is that all of the women in this small town in New Mexico are big time babes. But then there is the really bad news that a monster has been, well, unearthed.

Our heroine is Sheriff Annie Flynn (Emmanuelle Vaugier of "Saw II), who has an incident in her past that everybody is always making veiled references to; in fact, when Grandpa does not bring up the incident, Annie does herself, before going back to drinking to forget what everybody keeps alluding to. It gets to the point where you expect the strangers who show up to be fodder for the creature to all know about this incident as well. By the time the deep dark secret (that everybody knows about) is revealed, I was totally apathetic. Caya (Beau Garrett of "Turistas"), Ally (Whitney Able), and Nodine (Tonantzin Carmelo), are other babes on the menu, whith Nodine being the important one since she is not only Grandpa's granddaughter, but also a botanist. Yes, it is strange that a botanist would be of big help in explaining the monster in a monster movie, but that is part of what attempts to make this monster different.

I noted that once people started dying that there was not a whole lot of discussion about what was happening, although I suppose it does make sense to a certain extent not to engage in conversation while fleeing. But then we get to a scene where there is an explosion of exposition (who knew that pictographs could be so detailed?). The most interesting character int he story is Kale (Luke Goss), a tattooed archeologist who is sort of Mulder and Scully wrapped into one as he is out there digging alone to prove his Anaszi ancestors were wiped out by something more personal than drought. Most of his dialogue comes in the exposition scene, and you are never sure if he is crazier than he is smart or the other way around. But you know full well that the last man standing in this horror movie is going to be a woman, so you take his presence with a grain of blood-soaked salt.

I was stunned that "Unearthed" was made by writer-director Matthew Leutwyler because I had absolutely loved his previous film, "Dead and Breakfast," which I thought should have been the next great midnight movie in the "Rocky Horror" tradition. Of course I realize that you cannot make a career out of zombie musicals and it is not like Leutwyler should not be trying to make serious horror films (remember, Steven Spielberg's first World War II movie was neither "Saving Private Ryan" nor "Schindler's List," for which he won Oscars as Best Director, but the raucous comedy "1941"). But there is nothing memorable about this film, which like way too many films these days suffers from the overuse the hand held camera. Beyond that, "Unearthed" comes across as a film cobbled together from bits and pieces of other films. I was thinking that you could take the end of "Duel," most of "Feast," and some moments from "Alien," and edit together a better movie than this one. Across the board "Unearthed" comes up with too little in the blood, gore, suspense, shock, and any other department you want to mention from the horror film checklist. The net result is a horror film that avoids being offensive, but has nothing to particularly recommend it to fans of the genre.

The only bonus feature on the DVD are the Miss Horrorfest Contest webepisodes, which are included on all of the DVDs in this round of the After Dark Horrorfest (good to know that a scream queen can actually scream). The absence of any extras besides the standard choice between English and Spanish subtitles squelched any second thoughts about rounding up instead of down on this one. Next up: "Tooth & Nail."

After watching three of this year's After Dark Horrorfest films it's very apparent that this year's batch is a few cuts below last year's and Unearthed does nothing to raise the grade. An archaeological dig in a remote New Mexico town releases a creature that's been trapped for 900 years and it soon begins preying on the town's residents and the only road out of town has been blocked by a fuel tanker accident. Hmm, small desert town, residents trapped, a creature feasting on them...yeah, seen it before. It was called Tremors and it was vastly superior.

The town's regular residents include alcoholic sheriff Annie Flynn (Vaugier), Rancher Rob Horn (Gainey) Scientist Nodin and her grandfather (Means). A few passing motorists also find themselves trapped in the little town, all there to buy gas from the service station run by Grandpa. As Nodin tries to analyze the creature's alien DNA and find a means to kill it, Sheriff Flynn attempts to keep the rest of the survivors alive and one step ahead of the beast. I'd love to tell you what the creature looks like but that's somewhat difficult. We get only fleeting glimpses of the thing as it dashes by the camera. On top of that, much of the film takes place at night with those green glow sticks as the only source of illumination. It sort of looks like the Xenophobes from "Aliens" but done in poor CGI. Director Leutwyler borrows liberally from numerous other films including Descent, Relic, and Reeker. In fact you'd be hard pressed to find one original idea in the entire film.

Nodin eventually figures out some sort of voodoo scientific solution about the characters DNA and making a poison from uranium but by that time, I was nodding off and only wanted the film to come to a merciful end. Vaugier usually is able to give a bit of a spark to some of the low-budget films she's been in but seems completely bored here. I didn't buy her role as a guilt-stricken, alcoholic sheriff at all. Frankly she looked just too good. Gainey is a great character actor but he seemed out of place.

Leutwyler also loves doing that thing with the camera where he has it shake and bounce during some of the monster's attack scenes, presumably to make it seem more real and get the feel for the attack. It's a novelty trick that doesn't work and this, along with the choppy editing, only serves to annoy the viewer and make the creature even harder to see.

With three down and only one more for me to review, my hopes are fading fast for finding one good film in this year's group of Horrorfest releases. Borderland, please save the day!

Extras

This is another grip about this years Horrofest films. Half of them have no special features at all except for the Miss Horrorfest webisodes.

Having liked both the above mentioned titles, I don't see how you could not like this little film. Granted, the budget wasn't as big as "Alien" so the CGI beastie looks a bit fake from time to time. But, the kills were great and there was just enough blood to keep the kid in me saying "Cool!". This works great as a DVD horror title. Have an open mind and just enjoy the flick. But can someone explain to me why Luke Goss has a facial tattoo?

Unearthed (Matthew Leutwyler, 2007)

There was a time when I would have said that the great Russell Means lent a little class to every movie in which he appears. That time, unfortunately, has now passed forever with Unearthed, the latest outing for Dead and Breakfast director Matthew Leutwyler. Now, this is not Russell Means' fault by any stretch of the imagination, but it's depressing to see that he's no longer batting a thousand.

Plot: Annie Flynn (Emanuelle Vaugier), an alcoholic sheriff in a small southwestern town, is going to be forced out in a week after the town holds a no-confidence election. She's managed to hang onto her job for a year after the incident that caused the town to lose faith in her (and her to lose faith in herself), but everyone's lost patience. So, needless to say, something earth-shattering has to happen in that last week to give herback her confidence and let the town see her as a savior. Of course, that is, if anyone's left in the town by the time the mysterious, seemingly supernatural killer (this isn't a spoiler, we see what's happening in the opening scene; the only suspense there is what it is) is through eating its way through them.

As is usually the case with films picked up by the guys who run the After Dark Horrorfest, this wasn't actually a movie that was too scary for theaters; it's a movie that was so mediocre, even by the standards of the crap Hollywood's been churning out and calling "horror" for the past decade or so, that no studio would pick it up for distribution. Unearthed stands apart from the usual Horrorfest fare in that there's actually some starpower to be found here; former model Vaugier has recently been taking a turn on TV's CSI:NY, while male lead Luke Goss should be familiar from Blade II. But it's the supporting cast who'll really wow you--aside from the great Means, you've also got M. C. Gainey, Beau Garrett, Whitney Able, and other folks who, if their names don't look familiar, their faces will. Shouldn't surprise you, then, that the acting is above average for a Horrorfest outing. Problem is, the acting isn't enough to carry the ridiculous script, which combines the worst parts of seven or eight Sci-Fi Channel Original Movies without taking any of the good from them. (See how much this movie has addled my brain? I'm conceding there may be something good in Sci-Fi Channel Original Movies.) Given a few original twists, or Leutwyler allowing someone better to write the script, this might have been a good movie. Of course, had that happened, it wouldn't have been a Horrorfest movie. Sometimes, you really can judge a movie by its cover (and its distribution company). *

Yep this is one of those movies where an ancient evil is unearthed to wipe out everyone it comes across. Charlie Murphy and Russell Means were both good in this. Some of the moments of action were really good. The tragic backstory of the sheriff sort of petered out though. And everything was really dark and hard to see. Overall, despite all these complaints the movie was not horrible, but not super great either.

If you've seen Alien, Tremors, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Thing, you've pretty much seen this movie before and it's been done better.

I don't hate this film but there is really nothing that distinguishable about it that sets it above some of the titles I've already listed. The creature itself looks a lot like Alien, actually it's entire head is almost the exact replica. I'm sure if HR Giger knew there would be a lawsuit pending.

The plot revolves around this "creature" terrorizing a small village and primarily a plant scientist and her father. A dig has unearthed this title creature and it is now lose. We are told in the film that it's over 900 years old and it's up to our crack crew of "heros" including a drunk female sheriff, the scientist, the indian father and some passerbys that can't leave the area due to a truck blocking the highway, one of the earlier kills of the creature.

Generally that's it. I can't highly recommend this unless you just want to kill about 90 mins of your time and you have nothing else to do. Again this movie was not horrible but it certainly is not original but if you have some friends that like horror and you want to have a movie festival of bad films, this would be one you might like to include. Don't expect greatness but it is entertaining.

Many have mentioned Aliens, but this has marks of Predator as well. A creature, though we are given little backstory, has been awakened from a centuries (though I think the number 6000 was bandied about) old slumber and is hungry. We learn that the creature is an alien that was thought to be a God...ok, why?

A young lady learns how the creature was put in a sort of suspended animation..ok, how? She and the local 'misunderstood guy' figure out how to return it to that state...ok, how did they arrive at this conclusion? There were just way to many holes for this movie. If you want to make a simple creature feature that focuses on the gore, leave out the backstory and do that, this movie tried to be a bit more and failed.

The town sheriff, played with aplomb by Emmanuelle Vaugier, struggles to answer the very same questions we as the viewers have. Usually, Vaugier is a capable actress, not afraid to get her hands dirty and not simply rely on her beauty, and she tries here, but she is given little to do. The rest of the players are forgettable.

IF you are looking at Horrorfest movies try The Deaths of Ian Stone, a much better film.

I saw this film last year at the Tribecca Film festival and was quite pleased with the production value. Apparently it was pretty low budget, but with the special effects, and stunts (explosions etc.) the film makers definitely got their monies worth. The characters are also extremely rich for a horror film, which I found refreshing. Not the same old teen, sexy, slash em up film. This film actually has mystery and character development. Charlie Murphy is also quite humorous in it as well. This one is definitely worth seeing.

A geologist? unearths this creature with his digging. It then kills truckdriver, cattle, etc. Nothing too earth shattering, but I'm surprised the reviews aren't more favorable. I really enjoyed this movie. The creature was different, moved very quickly which made it hard to see. I would recommed it.