Unrest

This is a solid little low budget horror film with enough tension, humor and gore to keep the horror movie fans entertained. There are strong performances from some recognizable up and comers, including the two leads.

The story is about a female med student who tries to uncover the past of her gross anatomy class cadaver as terror invades the halls of the school. The med student is an atheist, and yet she senses things about the cadaver that lead her to question her own beliefs about spirits, and drive her to find out the truth behind the woman's death.

As she closes in on the truth, the murders increase, making the audience wonder if the cause is really supernatural or if another student or staff member is behind it all.

There are some nice little "gotchya" moments that make you embarrassed that you jumped out of your seat. And some funny scenes when you understand why it's called "gross" anatomy.

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

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")

Let me start off by saying it's not a bad film. I didn't hate it, I just didn't fall in love with it. But I'm glad I watched it.

The cinematography is very good, the whole piece is generally rather beautiful. But can beauty make up for a lack of plot or substance? The first half is very good. Scrap that the first two thirds are very good. The build up, the general air of unease created, spot on. Then we have this particular films 'reveal' and it all quickly goes downhill from there.

Don't get me wrong, if you are a horror fan I would recommend this over any Saw (bar the original) any day, if only for the originality of the setting. I just don't see it going mainstream.

Oh, one more thing; you will never see the phrase 'dipping your toe in the water' in the same light again!

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.