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Overall Rating : 7/10
Directed By : Jason Todd Ipson
Corri English (Killer Pad)
Scot Davis
Joshua Alba (Alpha Dog)
Jay Jablonski
Supplied By : Lionsgate Films
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Mar. 20, 2007
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| PLOT Unrest follows Alison Blanchard, who is studying to become a physician. Her journey begins in her Gross Anatomy class where she must confront rows of cadavers and her own fear of mortality. When her cadaver is revealed, Blanchard senses a strange presence in the lab. Her jaded professor chalks her feelings up to first year jitters, but her suspicions increase when a friend is found dead in the basement. Now, Blanchard must find out the truth about her mysterious cadaver before its angered spirit wreaks further vengeance on those who dared to disturb its body. |
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| THE REVIEW In UNREST, young Alison is a first year medical student heading into her first gross anatomy class. The bodies have been prepped for lessons prior to their arrival. Once the students arrive they are informed by their professor, Dr. Walter Blackwell, that the first assignment is to dissect their first human body. The class are told to pair in groups therefore Alison, whom seems to be the only female in class, is joined by Brian, Rick and Carlos. When their cadaver is uncovered the males off the group appear eager and ready to cut into the body - but Alison becomes nauseous, however that doesn't stop her from returning to the assignment. But once Alison returns she realizes that it may be a little more than first time jitters that is making her a bit standoffish towards her test subject for she senses something is wrong and is just not right. The markings on the cadavers face and body give the impression she was either murdered are raped - but once bodies start piling up after coming in contact with the dead corpse, it forces Alison to investigate into the woman's past. This film is more of a supernatural type Horror in which an an American woman whom is an archeologist travels to Brazil on assignment and while there she digs up a sacrificial grave site in which an Aztec God would sacrifice then bury bodies. By doing so, not only did she uncover the spirits of the God, but also 50,000 spirits of evil, all of which ended up consuming her and throwing her into a world of prostitution and murder as she would also murder her John; after giving them oral sex. The woman named Alita Covas would be imprisoned but eventually ended her own life - unfortunately when her body dies the evil spirit within her did not, thus when the students began dissecting the corpses the spirit was awakened once again. UNREST was certainly something different, it was like a slasher film almost, but instead of your typical "stalk and slash routine, the culprit is unseen by the human eye. The killer was not the body itself, but rather the force that surrounded it, and that was what was most interesting about this film - an unseen enemy, The film was highly predictable in the sense that you already assumed from the get go that the body harbored an unforeseen form of evil of some kind. So as expected when anyone who came in contact with the body after it had been opened up, ended up dying - it was really no surprise to you, then again without this there would be no movie. It may be a predictable one as I said but it sure was a fun one to watch. Much like PENNY DREADFUL another Horrorfest film, and the one I reviewed prior to this....the audience reception for UNREST is also a mixed bag. But in all honesty it's always going to be like this, as low budget movies always seem to get the short end of the stick, so to speak from people that mainly stay focused on mainstream films and don't venture out very often, These people always tend to pick out the slightest details to pick apart, the one thing most talked about it seems when talking about UNREST is that the Aztecs aren't from Brazil - but if I remember correctly, at the beginning it makes known that the filmmakers know this and are playing the gravesite discovery off as something that was never meant to be in that region but for some reason it was. I believe this makes the evil that possesses and later destroys Alita Covas seem that more strange and mysterious - I was glad it wasn't further explained.....who cares it's just a Horror film a lot of stuff don't make perfect sense in this genre, at least it remained a mystery. Another area criticized was the acting, but I thought the cast did a fairly decent job, and kept the film entertaining. I personally loved Corri English's performance here as Alison - now I have never seen Corri prior to this but let me tell you, the woman is so beautiful, at times I couldn't peel my eyes off the screen. She was perfect for this role, and I could only hope of seeing her more in the future. Scot Davis plays the "love interest" for the said character of Allison, their relationship to me was more like a reason for character development as through Davis' character Brian, you get to care a little more about the characters. Jay Jablonski's character Rick, was a seemingly normal guy, that is until his fiancée gets a little too touchy and close to the body, she dies and essentially, Rick goes crazy. It's not long before the spirit catches up with Rick in the hospital, leaving off with that character being one of the lesser developed. Speaking of lesser developed character's Jessica Alba's Brother Joshua was very likeable as the sensitive Carlos, too bad he wasn't around for much of the film. I am a fan of low budget Horror, particularly films that have a story that manage to keep me entertained all the way, beginning to end, and UNREST did just that. The acting was great as was the real-life morgue setting. The film is advertised as having used real bodies in the film, i'm not sure which scenes those were, but whatever the case.... in closing, I really dug this film. |
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| GORE
METER 5/10 If the thought of dead bodies isn't enough, there are times were body parts and blood are everywhere.... it adds to the overall entertainment if you ask me... |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4.5/10 The score was both very strange for a Horror film but appropriate, seeing as the evil spirit originated from Brazil, the tunes are tribal, consisting of various chants. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM With UNREST, Director Jason Todd Ipson, is able to deliver something different for a change and that's always refreshing to see. He doesn't over do it in terms of the supernatural plot nor the suspense but instead chooses a more natural approach(there are no unnecessary 1 Million jump-cuts that come out of nowhere either), it is just a straight-forward Horror film that is fun and doesn't require a lot of thinking to enjoy it as a whole. The After Dark Horrorfest set (available individually, or as a boxed set) will be released on March 27, 2007 |
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