Unholy

An excellent and intriguing concept, detailed and appropriate production design, and very talented acting (except for the store owner, Richard Ziman, whose overacting was practically unbearable) are all marred by dreadful editing and cinematography, writing more terrifying than the story and direction bad enough to make you cry.

Additionally, the depiction of a family who has just lost a daughter to suicide was offensively inaccurate. Granted, not every family's experience is the same. But there is a mourning period - a time of grief. Not once did they seem to wonder why she killed herself without thinking that she must have been forced into it. Not once did they consider that it was some sort of psychological dysfunction or emotional trauma that caused her to commit suicide... and come on, why did they say "suicide" about a billion times?! Do you really think that they would so quickly accept and deal with what she did and be able to call it "suicide" so casually? Many families can barely even utter the word so recently after the death of a love one.

I initially found this movie because of Nicholas Brendon (yeah, Buffy fan, right here), and I wasn't disappointed by his performance in this movie. He was convincing at most moments, and the moments where he wasn't can be attributed to bad writing. I don't care if he's a dude, I don't care if he's a stoner, I don't care about any of that. His little sister died. Let the man cry a minute on camera before you dive head first into the mystery-solving.

And lastly - I won't reveal the conclusion of the story, but I will say that it happened far too hastily and that it was poorly directed. It leaves you understanding generally what happened, but with a sense of "wait, they missed something" in addition to saying "that's IT?" As if they tried to come up with an interesting twist to the ending (which a movie of this sort sort of requires) and just... couldn't.

It breaks my heart to see such a fascinating and well thought-out story come to an end like this, but a film is only as good as it's script, and "Unholy"'s script is... well, just that.

Spoilers free comments: 1) That movie is not your typical horror/ gore fest. It is actually more of a psychological thriller. 2) The story is original, intriguing, and very suspensful. 3) It's more suited for viewers who prefer intelligent stories than for those who rate movies by the number of gallons of blood it features. 4) The cast does a very good job. As always, Adrienne Barbeau is superb. Her acting alone makes this movie worth watching. Also, I must say I was surprised by Nicholas Brandon. He gave a very believable performance here, very far from his Buffy days.

Always seeking a great under-rated true horror film, I thought I'd give this one a shot. After all, Skew (a GREAT film) received poor reviews but was extremely good. With Unholy, I have NO idea what was going on, the music was awful, I kept waiting for some horror to happen but was let down. There are (arguably I suppose) no ghosts, there is a strange maternal issue and a daughter who apparently commits suicide (as shown in the trailer, and a cellar that also serves as the "scary place". Throw in some kids, snow, a weird grocery store clerk and a bit of WWII history and...well, that's the film. If anyone can come up with a positive and comprehensive review of this film, I applaud them, really.

This sounded like a really interesting movie from the blurb. Nazis, occult , government conspiracies. I was expecting a low budget Nazi version of the DaVinci code or the Boys from Brazil or even Shockwaves. Instead you get something quite different, more psychological, more something like from David Lynch. That was actually a plus. But the way the story is told is just awful.

Part of the trouble is the casting. Andrienne Barbeau's character starts off the moving being somewhat timid and afraid. She just doesn't do that well, even at her age, though she certainly tried. The actor cast as the son apparently thought this was a comedy. Most of the other actors also seemed to have thought this was a campy movie, or at least acted like it, rather than simply being quirky. The only one that I thought did really well was the daughter, Siri Baruc.

Another big part is the pacing. It starts off very slowly. So slowly you might be tempted to turn it off. But then it gets compelling for a while when you get to the daughter's suicide and the aftermath. But shortly afterward, it all becomes a jumbled mess. Some of this was on purpose, but much of it was just needlessly confusing, monotonous, and poorly focused.

The real problem, is it's simply not a pleasant movie to watch. It's slow, dull, none of the characters are likable. Overuse of imagery and sets. Some movies you see characters get tortured. In this, it's the viewer that does. It does have a few creepy moments, most notably the creepy Nazi paintings and the credits, but the rest of the movie is mostly just tiresome.

Unholy (2007) 3 of 5 Dir: Daryl Goldberg Stars: Adrienne Barbeau, Nicholas Brandon, Siri Baruc

Adrienne Barbeau hasn't had the best of time lately and they get worse when her daughter commits suicide in their cellar. Along with her son (Brandon of TV's Buffy) gather up the pieces and decide to leave that sad home. But Barbeau can't shake the reasoning with the tragic events and decides to return to get to the bottom of the mystery. How does an old legend of some boogeyman used to frighten children, the strange behavior of the residents around her and the strange audio diaries and Nazi inspired paintings that the daughter did have to do with an unholy trinity?

It's always nice to see the lovely Miss Barbeau in genre pics and she does a fine job here. Baruc and Brandon (still doing the 'Xander' thing) are good as the messed-up children. The script, while having an interesting premise doesn't seem to gel together in the end. It comes up with an interesting angle but kind of glances off things that needed a bit more explaining. The final result leaves an ending that is a bit muddled. It may leave some viewers scratching their noggins.

'Unholy' tries hard to come up with an interesting twist and it succeeds for the most part but it kind of falls apart in the end. This spooker with sci-fi underpinnings does look good and has a solid and talented cast though.