Unrest - Schrei nicht, Du weckst die Toten

"Unrest" is a film that I had heard about through the horror film community, and I was truly excited about the project. Film-maker Jason Todd Ipson had a decent following, and the buzz about him and this film, was boiling over... When opportunity knocked, I purchased the movie and anticipated an evening of pure terror. First, I must say that the cinematography looks great. Ipson has a keen eye for what makes a scene creepy, with a top-notch lighting scheme and brooding camera angles. The acting is well above average, with solid performances from the entire cast. Yet, the concept is the part that drew me in... The idea of a group on med students whom unearth the dark past of one of their cadavers is both original and scary. Ipson corralled all the right elements, but falls short with the screenplay, which seems to sputter and stall before any real horror transpires. As a whole, I think it has it's merits, and Mr. Ipson should have a promising future.

Unrest focuses on a young girl (very hot young girl) named Alison who is a med student assigned to doing biopsies in the name of education. The problem is the person she is about to work on dabbled into some occult issues and now her soul is not at rest. I really hate when that happens don't you!!! All I can say is as you will see me say about a lot of films at this fest is missed opportunity. This movie had the potential to be a very effective and creepy movie but in the end turns out to be a shallow example of what could have been done with the subject matter at hand. You will see lots of dead bodies in this film, unfortunately they are that way not by a benevolent spirit ripping people to shreds but because we are dealing with a medical school and cadaver carving is part of the studies.

Not to say we do not get some kills as we do and sometimes the film does seem like it may take us to a freaky place but unfortunately it never gets to where you would like it and ends up turning into a by the numbers modern day hodgepodge of ideas. I really was into this movie for the first half but by the time we get to anything really interesting going on (despite the very interesting beginning sequences) most people will have more than likely checked out.

I would have to say that this is a prime example of a rental title. To see this at a theater I felt cheated but to have seen this at home it would not have been all that bad. In the end I give Unrest the infamous: 5/10: Average. It has its ups and downs and a hot lead but even that cannot save it from middle of the road horror. Rental material for all those interested, just do not expect anything great!!!

In a medical school, the freshmen students Alison Blanchard (Corri English), Brian Cross (Scot Davis), Carlos Aclar (Joshua Alba) and Rick O'Connor (Jay Jablonski) receive the cadaver of a young woman for dissection in their anatomy class of Professor Walter Blackwell (Derrick O'Connor). The atheist Alison has a weird sensation that the spirit of the copse is trying to communicate with her and tries to unravel who the woman was. Meanwhile, all the persons that handle the corpse mysteriously die.

"Unrest" has a very promising beginning, with a refreshing storyline. However, the screenplay is flawed, with a terrible development of the story of Alita Covas, and the conclusion is totally disappointing. The writer should have made a little research, even in Google, and see that the pre-Colombian civilization of the Aztecs has never lived in Brazil but in Mexico, and they were destroyed by the Spanish conquerors leaded by Fernando Cortez. I have no background in medicine, but my common sense tells me that human beings (alive) jumping or drowning in a formaldehyde tank with dead bodies would have some sort of sequel, if they do not die. The medical students are very skilled, being able to operate an incinerator or to suture a friend. Lots of people die in the hospital-school without any further development of the story or investigation of the police. When Alison drags Alita Covas in a bag through the corridors, there is a track of blood. But the corpse had been prepared for the class; therefore I believe she could never bleed. Again, the writer should have researched in medical schools these (and certainly others) situations. If the viewer does not care to these flaws, the movie is entertaining. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Cadáveres" ("Cadavers")

This is the "8 Films" movie that claims to be the first movie to use a REAL human corpse! Spooky! It's debatable whether that is true, and it's never obvious which one in the movie is a real corpse, so I'm not sure they should have went to the trouble. The "moral" of the story is "don't mess with dead bodies," so this is a rather ironic marketing angle to take. Anywho, "Unrest" takes place in a hospital, where young medical student Alison and her Abercrombie model cohorts are cuttin' up cadavers. Alison lives in the hospital until her financial aid kicks through, and they apparently spend all the time they aren't sleeping (or changing into new scrubs) carving up the same old cadaver. It must be a very resilient corpse! Most of the movie is filmed in the hospital or the confines of Alison's closet-like room. This may just be due to budget restraints, but I thought it created a claustrophobic atmosphere. Considering the lead never leaves the hospital floor and spends half her time with a chopped up corpse and male models pretending to be med students, she has plenty of time to let her mind wander. When random things start happening and she gets a funny feeling in her tummy, she decides that the corpse is trying to tell her something. What, she doesn't know. The evil corpse's alleged antics are amusing, and lead to some nasty killings and bizarre sequences. One of these features our heroes swimming around in a tub of formaldehyde, unaffected by the chemical, even though they're swallowing it and getting it in their eyes. "Unrest" is yet another silly poorly-written movie in the 8 FILMS TO DIE FOR series, but it has its fair share of scares, and is entertaining despite its flaws.

Like all of After Dark's Horrorfest films Unrest is an interesting selection but unlike most of the others the film is pretty successful at what it aims to do, most of which is entertain. Unrest tells the original and inventive story of a group of med students who disrespect a cadaver and pay the price for it. The film's storyline is a little more complex and campy than that but the other stuff is better seen and not read about. This film works because it's cheesy, it doesn't take itself too seriously. And because of the silliness sometimes it inspires laughs that I believe are mostly intentional. The main performance by Corri English is quite impressive and the cast is very attractive and talented. The film is creepy but not terrifying and does sport some grotesque med lab imagery and a terrifying sequence inside a cadaver tank. I'm not sure if I really enjoyed this film because the rest of them were pretty much stinkers, or if it was because it had better sound and film quality. But one thing is for sure I did enjoy this film the most. It offers more of what i came to see little horror gems that are never seen by mainstream audiences. It's graphic, a little disturbing, original and memorable. Unrest may not be a great film but it's very good at what it's supposed to be. It rattles your nerves and brings something new to the table. what else can you ask for, in a horror film?It's also very impressive for the simple reason that it had such a low budget and manages to have such a great creepy but some what over the top score and uses it's surroundings so greatly never reducing itself into using cheesy cgi. It instead opts for a more traditional and story based approach, which it pulls off nicely