Review by Peter Syslo
UNEARTHED (2007) is a selection from the second batch of the Afterdark Horrorfest films. Thus far, I have been a little more satisfied with this batch of films (as opposed to the first year’s films) but at the same time, I haven’t really been inspired by any of the films; so far, FRONTIER(S) was the best that I have seen. With that in mind, UNEARTHED turned out to be a better film than I thought that it would be. I knew beforehand that it was a creature flick, which always seems to be a gamble; it can be good, really bad, or worst of all... it could be boring. Surprisingly, UNEARTHED was a decent film - although it was far from being original. It was like a combination of ALIEN, PREDATOR, ALONE IN THE DARK, FEAST, JAWS, and any other iconic creature film. But, even though it was highly derivative, the film created its own identity and the result was an entertaining ninety minutes.
UNEARTHED was written and directed by Matthew Leutwyler. The film stars Emmanuelle Vaugier (from SAW II), Luke Goss (from BLADE II), Charles Q. Murphy, Beau Garrett, Tommy Dewey, M.C. Gainey (from "Lost"), Tonantzin Carmelo, and Russell Means as Grandpa.
The picture is about a fossilized creature which is excavated in an archaeological dig, in a Southwestern town. It is mysteriously awakened and before long, it is responsible for causing a truck accident and the deaths of several farm animals. A broken, alcoholic sheriff named Annie (Vaugier) is the one who has to investigate the accident and the farm deaths; she has no idea what is in store for her. At the site of the accident, she finds a piece of the creature and after laboratory analysis, it is found that the creature is like no other species on earth. As the film progresses, we find out more about Sheriff Annie and even more about the origin of the creature. With the help of a pair of travelers, a Ranch owner, a biologist, and a mysterious guy who knows a lot about the creature, Sheriff Annie tries her best to fight the creatur e and re-establish order to the town.
UNEARTHED wasn't bad; the action/science fiction continued throughout the film and it moved at a pretty decent pace. Though, there is a 15-20 minute period where the movie does become a little tedious. When the group is being pursued from the cave to a nearby barn, there is a little too much "hide and seek". It's kind of like the dull parts of any FRIDAY THE 13TH film, where Jason is just stalking or chasing victims and no one is killed. Also, the camera work in that tedious period was a little hectic at times and it made it difficult to tell exactly what was happening. The frenetic action did convey the vicious nature of the beast but it was difficult to follow, logically. At certain points, I didn’t know who was killed until the action died down and the camera became steady, again.
Moving on to the star of the show... the creature! It looked pretty good, I have to say. I was impressed by the quality of the visuals and it seemed like the filmmakers had the sense to realize when the creature didn’t look as realistic and they adjusted the scene, accordingly. Case in point: during one scene where the creature is shown from a profile, you don't actually see the complete detail of the creature but you do see the shadowed profile - which I thought was a neat way to tackle the "fake" looking aspect which sometimes plagues these creature flicks. Don’t get me wrong, CGI is used in this film, but it is used sparingly and it does look fairly believable. The practical effects came into play with the close-up action of the creature and the look of it was akin to creatures in high-budget pictures (up close, it looked as good a s any alien in the ALIEN films). The look of the creature was not original by any stretch, but it did look great and it was scary in some scenes. The best way that I can describe the creature is that it is a combination of the "dog" alien in ALIEN 3, the PUMPKINHEAD monster, and the creatures in ALONE IN THE DARK.
Despite the heavy influences from other films, I do like it when horror is tied into history and when a plausible scientific explanation is put forth for the existence of a creature (it ties in with Native American culture). Overall, the film looked really good and it contained a nice contrast between scenes of southwestern desert heat and the cool, shadowy expanse of the nighttime desert. Again, the camera worked in the creature's favor and made it look pretty good, in most shots; like in JAWS, they used the "less is more" approach and it worked. Lastly, the acting was pretty good and there was some character development which helped the film, I think. Vaugier probably gave the best performance in the film (she was the girl who got her hands caught in the overhead box in SAW II); she was very convincing as the "walking wounded" She riff who had an incident on the job and was at odds with the townspeople. Also, I liked the way that she played it - she was serious enough but wasn't an overly "gung-ho" female action hero (thankfully there were no, "I'm going to blow you back to whatever planet you came from, you ugly SOB" lines). I was impressed by the acting job that she did and I actually felt for her in the end. Aside from Vaugier, Gainey was good as the ranch owner - he has a likeable quality to him, sort of that fatherly way about him. Carmello was interesting as the "Matt Hooper" of the film (the biologist) and Means was very enjoyable as Grandpa, the Native American elder.
Cutting to the chase: UNEARTHED was a decent creature film. It wasn't original and it seemed to contain a lot of scenes/details that were similar to other creature flicks but, it was well put-together and the story did grab me. I liked the "less is more" approach to the creature and the filmmakers did create some satisfying suspense in the creature kill scenes. One of the best scenes was when the creature burst its hands through a door, where a girl was hiding - it was an unpredictable and scary scene. The film doesn't flow all that smoothly in some places, namely the tedious section, and the whole parasitic aspect of the creature is a little unnecessary, but those are just "nitpicky" things. If you like the creature films that I have mentioned, then you may like UNEARTHED; I enjoyed it and I give it a 6/10.