Det okända

This low-budget film is quite good, I must say. It smells Blair witch long way, but still it contains some new cool and different things. The actors is totally OK, and the dialog is sometimes really funny and way above average! This film is not so scary, Blair witch is far more frightening, but still it is very watchable. A big plus for director Michael Hjort!

The mark: 3 out of 5.

First of all, I really don't know why people keep comparing this to 'The Blair Witch Project'.

Yes, it's a low budget movie that takes place in a forest, which REALLY isn't unique for 'The Blair Witch Project'. In fact, most low budget horror movies I have seen have been shot in some nearby forest. And that's also where the similarities end since this movie has actors, a script, a story with a plot that is far more similar to 'The Puppet Masters'/'Body Snatchers' and, best of all, no hysterically screaming teens.

I haven't rated it yet, since I'm not yet sure exactly what grade I'm gonna give it, but it's gonna be higher than 'The Blair Witch Project'.

It's bad enough to see a film that's so totally derivative of a film like "The Blair Witch Project" (which I found a yawn, anyway), but to then add insult to injury by adding the key premise of "Alien", to the plot, is not only absolutely ludicrous, but an insult to viewers. Through directors like Ingmar Bergman, Sweden has produced world-class cinema. This film, "The Unknown", has set the Swedish Film Industry back decades.

Stop me if you heard this before- A small group of people in a remote isolated place, encounters a strange alien being who begins to take over their bodies and... oh you have heard it- okay- how but this- A small group of people goes in to a deep forest to investigate a strange phenomena. They gets lost in the woods and are soon being chased by some unknown... okay- you have heard that too. Okay- this is simply "The Blair witch project" and "The thing" mixed together with the help of some "dogma-we-shakes-the-camera-until-it-falls-apart-because-we-are-not-American " type of film making who makes it look like the camera sometimes are hanging from the neck of a psychotic kangaroo with a severe drinking problem. The movie is a very good example on what happens when a couple of people with no original ideas makes a movie. A tip- buy a tripod.

Dogma-esque horror flick. Five biologists camped out to examine the site of burned down forest discover early an odd, unidentifiable but immediately and mysteriously disgusting "thing." Though the ending's too pat, as if somebody's seen too many b/w "Outer Limits," color video, real actors, lots of daylight, and just enough relationship horror expertly mixed with the horror film horror make this much scarier than "Blair Witch." Note also that, though all the action takes place in the open, in the somewhat desert-like burned out forest, the story's claustrophobic. No journeys, no premature attempts to trek out. It's all pretty much right there where it starts. You end up knowing the place, and dreading it, nearly as well as the characters do. Didn't hit me until just now, but Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Distance" has a structure similar to both this film and the much inferior "Blair Witch." "The Unknown" and "Distance" both resemble the surreally claustrophobic "The Exterminating Angel.