Unholy

An excellent and intriguing concept, detailed and appropriate production design, and very talented acting (except for the store owner, Richard Ziman, whose overacting was practically unbearable) are all marred by dreadful editing and cinematography, writing more terrifying than the story and direction bad enough to make you cry.

Additionally, the depiction of a family who has just lost a daughter to suicide was offensively inaccurate. Granted, not every family's experience is the same. But there is a mourning period - a time of grief. Not once did they seem to wonder why she killed herself without thinking that she must have been forced into it. Not once did they consider that it was some sort of psychological dysfunction or emotional trauma that caused her to commit suicide... and come on, why did they say "suicide" about a billion times?! Do you really think that they would so quickly accept and deal with what she did and be able to call it "suicide" so casually? Many families can barely even utter the word so recently after the death of a love one.

I initially found this movie because of Nicholas Brendon (yeah, Buffy fan, right here), and I wasn't disappointed by his performance in this movie. He was convincing at most moments, and the moments where he wasn't can be attributed to bad writing. I don't care if he's a dude, I don't care if he's a stoner, I don't care about any of that. His little sister died. Let the man cry a minute on camera before you dive head first into the mystery-solving.

And lastly - I won't reveal the conclusion of the story, but I will say that it happened far too hastily and that it was poorly directed. It leaves you understanding generally what happened, but with a sense of "wait, they missed something" in addition to saying "that's IT?" As if they tried to come up with an interesting twist to the ending (which a movie of this sort sort of requires) and just... couldn't.

It breaks my heart to see such a fascinating and well thought-out story come to an end like this, but a film is only as good as it's script, and "Unholy"'s script is... well, just that.

Unholy (2007) 3 of 5 Dir: Daryl Goldberg Stars: Adrienne Barbeau, Nicholas Brandon, Siri Baruc

Adrienne Barbeau hasn't had the best of time lately and they get worse when her daughter commits suicide in their cellar. Along with her son (Brandon of TV's Buffy) gather up the pieces and decide to leave that sad home. But Barbeau can't shake the reasoning with the tragic events and decides to return to get to the bottom of the mystery. How does an old legend of some boogeyman used to frighten children, the strange behavior of the residents around her and the strange audio diaries and Nazi inspired paintings that the daughter did have to do with an unholy trinity?

It's always nice to see the lovely Miss Barbeau in genre pics and she does a fine job here. Baruc and Brandon (still doing the 'Xander' thing) are good as the messed-up children. The script, while having an interesting premise doesn't seem to gel together in the end. It comes up with an interesting angle but kind of glances off things that needed a bit more explaining. The final result leaves an ending that is a bit muddled. It may leave some viewers scratching their noggins.

'Unholy' tries hard to come up with an interesting twist and it succeeds for the most part but it kind of falls apart in the end. This spooker with sci-fi underpinnings does look good and has a solid and talented cast though.

Always seeking a great under-rated true horror film, I thought I'd give this one a shot. After all, Skew (a GREAT film) received poor reviews but was extremely good. With Unholy, I have NO idea what was going on, the music was awful, I kept waiting for some horror to happen but was let down. There are (arguably I suppose) no ghosts, there is a strange maternal issue and a daughter who apparently commits suicide (as shown in the trailer, and a cellar that also serves as the "scary place". Throw in some kids, snow, a weird grocery store clerk and a bit of WWII history and...well, that's the film. If anyone can come up with a positive and comprehensive review of this film, I applaud them, really.

Well.... I have to admit that I am a huge fan of "Buffy" and because of that I did watch this movie because it's with Nicholas Brendon. I have to say, that I cannot say anything against his acting, because he is doing a great or even the best job of all the actors on this movie.

Adrienne Barbeau, the main actress cannot ban the audience to the screen because her acting is beyond professional. She never gives you the feeling she is doing something for real and it may be the problem with the whole movie. As a main actor you have to carry the plot and if you suck, then the whole movie might do it as well.

I have to admit that the plot also is not so exciting and the special effects lack of persuasion. Even shock effects are not there because e.g. when oh so scary graphics are flipped by the characters there is this sound effect which shall imply you that this should be scary but you are just like "Yeah, I got it... but there is nothing frightening at all...Can you skip to the next part already!"

And there is one point when the actress just screams for Lucas all the time, which will clearly annoy you as much as it did annoy me.

I think a horror movie is hard to create because you easily can stumble into a comedy. In this example it is neither. This movie lacks of excitement, a good plot and the genre specifics. Not worth the watch

Some movies dream big on a small budget and this is one of them. The small budget allotted to it, doesn't do it's story justice. It's not that the movie was badly made, it's that it could have been so much better.

First off; the performances. Other then the son, everyone did a pretty good job. The neighbor who had a fascination for tomatoes was pretty cool, and was a nice bit of comic relief.

The story. A bit too far reaching for the budget allotted. Within minutes we find out about the Unholy Trinity conducted by the Nazis during the war: invisibility, mind control and time travel. Without giving anything further away, the movie involves characters finding out about mind control, invisibility and time travel. By the way, stay tuned for the credits, the story continues in radio addresses throughout the end credits.

The SFX. Not bad, but I can see them being done on the directors home PC using everyday over the counter technology--not that it's a bad thing.

Honestly the best part of the movie were the three painting that were shown. I loved the style they were done in.

In closing all I have to say is: Damn Nazis!