The Unheard

The Unheard has a runtime of 2 hours and 5 minutes. It feels three times that long. The main reason for that is this film has no idea what it wants to be. Is it a body horror? A psychological thriller? A ghost story? A serial killer movie? Well, it tries to be all this and succeeds at none. The movie suffers from its runtime, it could have used a rewrite with an emphasis on choosing one direction and also an editor that wasn't afraid to speak up. A decent cast is basically wasted in a boring mess of a movie that is bloated beyond reason. Oh, and if you are epileptic or suffer from motion sickness, stay far away from it. The director really thinks strobe lights and high frequency noise is cool. It's not.

I actually really liked the concept of this film. Kind of like a supernatural, sci fi, horror, thriller. All my favorite things. It starts off well, builds the lead and the back story. The audience gets invested in her and the story.

Here's the thing though, the middle is rough to get thru. Its repetitive, meandering and the plot just stalls for the most part. There's no payoffs and I just could barely keep my eyes open (long day at work before watching).

The other issue is typical horror trope bad character decisions. You'll know when you see them and you might even yell at your TV. I did. Although there are issues, if you can stomach the middle it's a pretty cool movie. The acting isn't great but it was a good attempt at a complex (back and forth in time) story. 5/10.

I think unheard has a great plot and a lot going for it. It had all the right elements and could have been so much better, but it ends up being a tedious and slow thriller. It also suffers from an identity crisis and doesn't know if it wants to be a serial killer movie, supernatural or a family drama.

The film is about a young woman staying alone at her family's cabin while she participates in an experimental procedure to try and regain her hearing she lost at 8 years old. The procedure is successful and she starts hearing things beyond the grave.

The acting of the main character is too subtle and relaxed. She makes some stupid decisions by the end. Acting against normal flight or fight insights. By the second half all the characters acting and dialogue became really strange and out of character.

There are aspects of this film that are creepy, but because of the slow pace and confusing narrative, it doesn't work. The film is over two hours long and doesn't establish much in that slightly above-average runtime.

Overall, I give this movie 5 stars. There was a lot this movie had going for it and had some original ideas I liked.

Warning, the last several minutes of the film are jarring, the visuals and noise become extremely erratic (hence the warning at the beginning for those prone to seizures).

The film comes with an epilepsy warning, and oh boy does it need one. It's not just the odd scene either, to various degrees of intensity, it has the effects through out the entire film. So it's really hard to avoid. So honestly listen to that warning.

If I'm honest I don't think they added to the film either.

It's a slow burn, but it does keep you interested for a bit, but I don't think the pay off was that great. It was okay, but I thought the rest of the film was better than the end.

I think it had some really great concepts in there, like sound on a different frequency being heard by the previously deaf character.

I think think it's probably worth a watch overall.

Chloe Grayden (Lachlan Watson) undergoes an experimental treatment for a chance to restore her hearing. She goes back to her family vacation home and starts hearing things. There is the case of her missing mother.

As a concept, this is really interesting and has great potential. I can imagine how odd auditory incidents could intermingle with solving a family mystery. This movie fails to achieve that. It insists on doing weird visual representations for hearing things. It's distracting non-sense. The movie loses its way and I stopped caring. This is a cool concept being wasted and everybody's time as well.