The Unspoken

There's an awful lot wrong with 'The Unspoken'. As I was watching it I was thinking to myself that it was one of the worst horror movies I've seen - and I've seen a lot of terrible horror movies. The amount of jump scares that turn out to be absolutely nothing is quite ridiculous. Jump scares are fine if there is a genuine reason for them relating to the story. Occasionally a misleading one can be thrown in, I accept that. But when there have been about 10-15 of them and none of them have turned out to be anything more than a cat jumping out of nowhere, it gets pretty frustrating. The other main problem I had, was that other than the opening scene, almost the entire movie happens during daylight hours. There's nothing scary about daylight. I don't think there's a film maker alive who could pull off an effective horror movie filmed entirely during the day. This was absolute amateur hour from director Sheldon Wilson.

The acting is bad, the dialogue is bad and the story is completely boring. There was almost nothing good going for it. Then along came the ending. It's a very interesting ending that I happened to quite like. I'm not talking 'The Usual Suspects' or 'Memento' type quality, and maybe it just seemed like a better ending because everything else had been so terrible and I wanted to like something about it. Regardless though, I liked it. In fact it bumped it up from being a '3' to a '4'. Is the horrible lead up worth it for the ending though? I'm going to stick with a no on that one.

So, I say all the time that you really can't be too snobby when it comes to Horror/Mystery/Thrillers. Your going to see some that are good and some that are bad and this is truly based on each viewer's personal opinion and thresholds on the subject matter. This one was watchable but a bit of a flop. It seemed to be branded as a haunted house film but that isn't what it is. Actually, I'm not really sure that I know what it was about but the thing that had the most impact on my scoring was the very last thing that was implied. It just seemed so lame that all I could say was "REALLY?!"

I loved the beginning, like a book, the first chapter has to grab me if I want to finish it...however, this was not the case. It was good at the beginning, but as the movie went on, it seemed to lack as it went along. I liked the spooky things that happened in the house, cabinets opening and slamming...the house keeper peeling out of the driveway when these things happened like I would have. No amount of money would keep me there when I see things moving by themselves. I liked the whole movie until the end when I really learned what was really going on. The ending ruined it for me. I want to recommend this movie...but I can't. Not with a good consciousness. Peace.

If you want spend a good time with your girl/boy-friend watch this movie for fun time. It's a common movie of haunted house, freak characters, bad boys, and move-it-self objects. The plot began typically when a single mother and her son moved on to the creepy house. Then typically the mother hired a baby sister to care her "mute" boy. After that begin strange and rare events who in the develop of the plot has been linked with past stories of the characters and the town. The movie has moments of horror and suspense. Isn't a great plot but it's simple and short movie that gives a surprise ending.

This is an interesting idea handled in a poor and predictable way. My favourite thing about it has to be the main villain's accent. For some reason he sounds like a 1950s gangster, "now listen here see". Imagine him in a zoot suit with a tommy gun and it becomes very entertaining.

The rest of the cast are fine. The creepy little boy could easily have been swapped out with a ham sandwich and it wouldn't have made much difference as all he does is stare and vanish, but that's par for the course with this sort of film. The original spooky child of the early 00s, Jodelle Ferland tries her best, but she never really has much to do. She also decided to play her role like a demure Victorian nanny, which is completely at odds with the rest of the film. It's impossible for me to see Lochlyn Munroe as anyone other than Greg from Scary Movie so he's a lost cause. There are other people but they're all bland and uninteresting.

This film also suffers from jumpscare abuse. I'm very jumpy, jumpscares get me, but after the first dozen or so I'd become desensitised to them. Every few minutes there's another piercing screech and a thud, but it's just a cat, or a shadow, or sometimes it's an actual over the top ghost, or sometimes it's just for fun. There's no tension, no build-up, just increasingly ineffective loud noises.

All in all, if you're bored and need something on in the background, this is a perfectly adequate horror film. If you want to be scared or immersed in an interesting story, look elsewhere.