Cidade das Trevas

Wow. This was 1 hour and 18 minutes of undiluted boredom.

When I sat down to watch the 2020 movie "The Unlit" (aka "Witches of Blackwood"), I hadn't even heard about the movie. But the fact that it was a supernatural thriller and one that I hadn't already seen was enough to make me interested in watching it. And of course the movie's cover was definitely also serving as something to lure me in.

But "The Unlit" from writer Darren Markey and director Kate Whitbread was an insanely slow paced movie with virtually nothing happening throughout the course of the entire movie. I kept watching this ordeal of a movie in the hopes of something actually happening, because the movie seemed interesting from the cover and its synopsis.

However, don't get your hopes up for "The Unlit", because this movie was boredom incarnate. The storyline was so simplistic that it was bordering on being a slap to the face of the viewers. The only thing that kept "The Unlit" somewhat afloat was some fair enough acting performances by the cast.

I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress that performed in "The Unlit". And that is usually something I enjoy in movies, and it was nice enough here as well, despite the movie having virtually almost no storyline.

"The Unlit" was a swing and a miss, and it fell short of providing me with any kind of proper entertainment or enjoyment. And this is not a movie that I would recommend you waste your time, money or effort on.

My rating of "The Unlit" lands on a generous two out of ten stars.

I came across the trailer, and it had me intrigued that a relatively unknown film had such good camerawork and production quality. So, I thought of checking it out. And boy, was I so dumbfounded.

We follow our protagonist Claire, in her own isolated reality, trying to find her way out of the mistakes of her past or whatever. When she's informed of her father's death, she travels to Blackwood to sort out his stuff and other biddings too. And what she discovers there and within herself is the crux of the story.

First off, the characters come off pretty bland. They just seem like sims in a video game. And the actors act like that too, excepting some. I just couldn't buy in to the actor who played Claire, even though it seemed she kinda gave it her all. I won't speak much more about the acting, because the story itself is terribly weak.

Coming to the story, it's just bland to the point of boredom. Occasional intrigue here and there, but you wouldn't miss a thing if you skipped forward. The town of Blackwood seems so dull, rather than spooky. People's faces are dull, the imagery looks dull, and the scenes are stitched together out of randomness, than with a flow. Claire looks at a body in one scene, and in the next she's is burning her own mother. There's no emotional build up or anything. It just happens. Kate Whitbread seems to have an eye for good visuals, but fails to make them emotionally resonant for the audiences to care about what's going on. Also, I don't know who's idea it was to apply the jittery slow-mo effect on the flashback sequences, I think he needs to be kicked 60fps times for it. Made the movie look infinitely cheap. Should've shot it on 60fps, rather than slowmo-ing the eff out of 24fps.

And that's it, I guess. Really don't have much to talk about an uninspiring film with no tangible themes or a beating heart. I'm think about it again, and I still can't decipher what this film is ultimately about. Maybe trauma or something, but whatever, I couldn't feel anything because it was all dull.

Following her mother's death, a young woman returns to her hometown to help put everything together only to find the town has become enshrouded in a mysterious darkness caused by a soul-eating entity that comes into play as a result of a coven of witches in the area and must find a way to stop their plans.

Overall, this was a pretty decent enough genre effort. Among the more enjoyable features here is the engaging setup that manages to get this one going quite nicely. The initial stages of this one, featuring the series of incidents happening in the village while focusing on her own tormented past and grief over her mother's loss has a nice air to this one which manages to get explored nicely the longer she stays there. Not only does this occur with the uncovering of the mystery surrounding the events in the village but also the hints of witchcraft that are sprinkled throughout, from the shots of the coven at work to the written clues left behind by her mother that she discovers, all coming together into a fun time overall. On top of this great setup, there's a lot like here involving the action on display in the second half. With the early shots of the witches running around in the town giving the point across about their presence, the series of strange encounters involving the women acting strangely around the town, and then meeting up with the coven leader and the fate of her mother, there's enough of a setup that the third act moves into a fun direction when the reveal of the coven and their intentions come about for a lot to like here. Since this sets up the film's only real sense of action in the forest which is quite exciting in the discovery of what happened while preparing for the few showdowns that take place here that give this one a decent enough time. There are some flaws to be had with this one. The first issue here is that, for a film as short as this one is, there's not a lot in terms of action for most of the first half. Rather, this one spends a lot of time featuring her wandering around the town confronting weird people but not actually doing anything all that interesting or enjoyable. While all of this does set up the resulting reveal of the witches in control of the town and their influence over people, the sluggish way it goes about this doesn't endear the film at the very beginning with it lasting way past the halfway point before they even uncover anything. That also highlights how ineffective the coven actually is, just influencing others in their spells and featuring a lack of any real blood and gore which all hold this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

Just cardboard performances all round. Not a single redeeming feature. Why why do we {Australia} so rarely make something original and significant for the screen.

A new Aussie horror film, about dark forces, and family secrets.

When Claire Nash is suspended from the police force, we sense early there is an untold story about the death of Luke: a troubled young man she was trying to save. While her career is in limbo, she is summoned home to Blackwood by Uncle Cliff, to deal with the consequences of her own father's passing. From the outset Claire knows something is not right, not right with her and not right with her community.

Hollow eyed women walk the streets, the men have disappeared and there is an ominous sense of doom as Claire struggles to find the truth at the heart of it all. Unravelling her family story and the legacy of witchcraft that has overwhelmed the town brings Claire to a terrifying realization about the dark forces she feels within.

Creepy from the start!

Beautifully filmed for a small budget film, images of dark forest and wild ocean reinforce an uncomfortable world where nothing is what it seems. Sweeping shots of the forest establish the town's isolation from the rest of the world while the flashbacks to the coastal town, home to her boyfriend and the tragedy of Luke, show us that even her community doesn't quite trust Claire.

Clever in its development of tension, the film doesn't hold back on the blood and gore when it's required.

Although occasionally suffering from patchy characterization, experienced actors Cassandra Magrath, John Voce and up and comer Nicholas Denton (fantastic as Luke), maintain the menace and surprises loved by fans of this genre.