Unearth

This movie moves at a glacial pace. Most of the movie is about a few small family farms in Pennsylvania. The plot creeps along for the first hour or so. I didn't care about these characters.

Eventually there are some horror elements, but I had no idea what was going on. It was confusing to the point of frustration, and this made me care about the characters even less. I just wanted it to be over.

And then it does just end... without any explanation. I have no idea what happened. Pointless. I really had to force myself to finish it but I needn't have bothered. What a complete waste of time.

Pretty much as bad as bad can get. Sometimes, really bad Sci-Fi's make fun of themselves, as in the classic 'Tingler', it's at least letting everyone in on the joke so we all can giggle and snicker at our group silliness.

But this steaming heap of bad film is beyond bad. It's just really astoundingly bad, and seems to go on forever in its terrible, boring, poorly lit, poorly acted badness. Here's what is bad about this movie: The director, the script, the timing, the pace, the dialogue (that basically doesn't exist) the editing, the lighting, the wobbly cameras, all of the acting, and the director. Did I mention him twice? That's because he deserves two thumbs down.

I'm pretty sure the caterer was bad.

Apparently, there are people so rich that they need to throw away good money after bad just to hide income so they dump a couple mill into unprofessional, lost cause films as a 'producer'.

As a horror fan, I really do enjoy a good slow burn movie. With Unearth, quite a bit of time is taken with the build up, the story, and the development of the characters, whereas in other films, the eventual horror may feel playful or cathartic, Unearth's patience denies you this, and instead takes an unflinching look at how bad things happen to people. Not good people, or bad people. Just people. There's no big morality play here. Sure, it serves as a cautionary tale about our planet and our relationship to it. Yet, in Unearth, these people don't "get what they deserve", and which is even more harrowing. Because more often than not, that is exactly how life plays out.

This is a film about character, something too many horror films get panned for skimping out on. Way too many reviews read: "We feel nothing for these characters, so we don't care when bad things happen to them". The opposite is true here. The film spends an inordinate amount of time sketching out these people, who they are, and how they live their lives. It's a huge investment that the directors obviously want us to make, as they commit two-thirds of the runtime to said investment, and to be frank; I think it's worth it.

Adirenne Barbeau redefines the role of a family matriarch in this film. Crude. Overbearing, and played to perfection. I got flashes of her performance from Creepshow at times, but where that role had zero nuance, playing exclusively for camp; this performance replaces that with weight and a deep sense of family devotion, loyalty, and love. She knows what's right. She knows what needs to be done. Is it the easy thing to do? No. Does she go about doing it or saying it in the right way? Absolutely not. It's these types of characters that make for fascinating stories.

Likewise, Marc Blucas is not an actor I am well acquainted with, but just like Barbeau, his performance here is deliciously layered. Where Barbeau knows what is right but isn't couth enough to make it happen, Blucas's portrayal of her neighbor, a single father to a teenage mother, has no idea what is right and what is wrong anymore. He is out of choices. So he makes the only one left to him. It's a brilliant contrast between the two.

P. J. Marshall and Monica Wyche were the other stand outs to me. Aching for something more, something else, and making what choices they can in a world made to crush them. I have known too many people like this, and as refreshing as it can be to see such reality paint itself across the screen, it can also be heart wrenching.

The directors were obviously careful in making sure the setting reflected the characters they were placing within them. Growing up in rural PA, I have always had a soft spot for films that felt like places I have been, seen, and grew up in, with Winter's Bone being a wonderful example of this. Here Lyons and Swies opt for that same feeling. The cars are rusty, the tractor has seen better days, homes are constructed out of blankets for walls, and three decade old couches as living room centerpieces. These homes are hot and full of dust in the summer, and likewise they are drafty and smell of burning wood in the winter.

The tension and atmosphere in this, especially towards the final third of the film, reminded me of The Dark and The Wicked. A film that redefines what "bleak" can mean in a film. Relentless. Unstoppable. And unsympathetic. It's shocking without gratuity. It hurts because it doesn't care. There's no motivation here. And for some, this makes for uneasy viewing. I have a few qualms with the ultimate ending, as I don't think it quite delivers once the genie is out of the bottle and we have seen the terrible repercussions. The final minutes just left me cold, which is a shame, because what immediately precedes it is grueling.

I do wish the inevitable, lurking threat would have been hinted at sooner, and that the film could have hit its "horror" stride a bit sooner. But then again, if Lyons and Swies had skimped on their characters, would we have cared as much for them, or would we have cared for what this film is ultimately trying to say?

If you want to waste 90 minutes of your life, you are in luck with Unearth. The first hour of the film is boring family bickering... the last 30 minutes is hardly much better however.

I didn't know what I was getting myself into here when I sat down to watch the 2020 horror drama movie "Unearth". In fact, I hadn't even heard about the movie prior to sitting down in 2021 to watch it. But it being a horror movie was more than sufficient to make me want to watch it. Plus the fact that it was a movie that I hadn't already seen before, and also it having an interesting cover, definitely helped seal the deal.

And it should be said that the storyline told in "Unearth", as written by writers Kelsey Goldberg and John C. Lyons is rather slow paced. Now, the storyline itself definitely was interesting enough, but the pacing of the movie just restrained the movie to reach its full potential. And you have to keep focused on the movie, because this is a very confusing storyline. Directors John C. Lyons and Dorota Swies definitely do good jobs at keeping the audience in the dark, and never really knowing what is actually going on and what is just imaginary.

That kind of storyline and approach to a movie doesn't really sit well with everyone in the audience, so "Unearth" could be somewhat of an acquired taste. I enjoyed it well enough, but I feel that the movie could have been a lot more entertaining if it had been properly paced, and also if there was actually a clear and distinct way of knowing what was actually going on.

I sat through the entire movie, and as it ended I was left with a sense of 'okay, what was that all about?', it makes for a somewhat anti-climatic movie and I feel somewhat bereft out of a proper movie experience.

It should be said, though, that the atmosphere in the movie was spot on. I definitely enjoyed that, and there were some elements of a Lovecraftian-inspired sense of cosmic dread to the movie.

The movie had a fairly strong ensemble of actors and actresses to portray the various roles and characters throughout the course of the movie. And they definitely put on good performances. It was just a shame that they weren't allowed to go to the full scope of what could be done, given the limitations of a slow paced story and a very confusing storyline.

"Unearth" wasn't an impressive horror movie, but it definitely was a good atmospheric movie - if there is such a thing.

My rating of the 2020 movie "Unearth" lands on a four out of ten stars. A shame really that this movie wasn't allowed to become more than it turned out to be, because it had all the contents necessary to make for a truly great atmospheric horror movie. If you are in for an evening of proper horror, then your money is not well spent on "Unearth".