Parts Unknown

First of all, let me just state that the movie's cover/poster is actually the best thing about this 2018 movie! I kid you not.

I was lured in by this movie's cover, as it seemed rather interesting, and with the movie being labeled as a horror movie, of course my interest was more than peaked. So I sat down to watch "Parts Unknown" by writer and director Richard Chandler. Well, about 35 minutes or so, at least. Then I was good and ready to claw my own eyes out.

This movie is phenomenally bad. It is not only just a low budget movie, which doesn't necessarily make it a bad movie, but it was totally lacking a proper script and storyline, and the acting was dubious and questionable. And as for it being a horror movie, well, I suppose if you consider bad acting and a total lack of interesting script horror, sure...

I have no idea what writer and director Richard Chandler was trying to accomplish with "Parts Unknown", but it failed entirely to entertain me, much less offer anything worthwhile watching.

I am rating "Parts Unknown" a mere 1 out of 10 stars. This movie was bad, just plain and simple. I cannot recommend that you waste your time, money or effort on this movie. Nor can I say that I will ever be returning to watch the rest of the movie, because there was just nothing of any interest to behold throughout the 35 minutes of torture that I suffered through.

"Parts Unknown" was unknown to me when I stumbled upon it in 2020, and I shall now return it to an unmarked grave, where it will surely fade away into oblivious and back into the unknown.

After a series of accidents in the ring, a family of professional wrestlers is forced to quit the business for good and begin self-destructing on drugs and dysfunction, yet in the course of doing so find a demonic entity that offers them redemption for spilling the blood of the innocents, setting them off to honor it any way they can.

This was a somewhat troubling effort. Among the bright spots featured here is how this one goes about portraying the family as a group of degenerates crazy enough to go through with everything. By showing how they're willing to attack unprovoked wrestlers for their own means, maim and brutalize anyone in their path or even outright murder authority figures for seemingly arbitrary means, there's a slimy gloss placed over the family which is quite enjoyable to see play out. Using this alongside their knack for barbaric brutality in their wrestling matches and what it means to them is quite well-done here, seeming to fuel their desire for performing as well as provide the key needed to hide their insanity as long as they do. As well, when it comes to the slaughter there's a lot to like here. The brutality starts in their wrestling matches as they manage to main and disfigured their opponents in unexpected means that no one's expecting, this sets up how the group goes through the community killing others to start their diabolical pact. That includes the groups' rampage across the city as the ploy of being a prostitute to meet victims is rather creative, and the confrontation with the demonic entity urging their plight along is quite fun as the concept is rather fun. All of this manages to give this one enough to enjoy for the most part. There are some big flaws featured here. The biggest drawback is the wholly jarring and disjointed storyline which doesn't make any sense. This has no real explanation for why the cop hunting them is still alive after what should've been a brutal killing method initially, why she can't die after several suicide attempts or even outright tactics that would result in anyone's death or why she won't go to the police with this information. Their shifting allegiance is never explained, and their rampage is so haphazard that it all comes across as utterly random and chaotic due to this one going from one random sequence to another with no throughline as to how any of those are supposed to connect to each other. This also tends to come about due to the other real issue here where this is way too long for its own good. There's no point for a story like this one to go nearly two hours in running length, detailing numerous issues from overlong sequences that are just unnecessary, tangents that go beyond their usefulness or just could've been removed as they don't offer any reason for being there. This contributes greatly to the random, disorganized feel that's in play where it doesn't have any real idea what it's trying to do. Combined with the low-budget throughout here, from the general tone and feel to the laughable gore even amongst the brutality, these here end up lowering this one significantly.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity and drug use.