I don’t usually do movie reviews as a practice, because I don’t like to dissect the story or the characters or the flow as it tends to ruin the experience for me. Sometimes there are movies that I think have a terrible plot, but are still entertaining (mostly because of the absurdity of it), some movies are entertaining because of a very well thought out plot. Either way, if I’ve been entertained, that’s the point.

Well last night, I’m not even really sure that I was entertained.

We went to see “Unrest“, part of the 8 Films to Die For series, which has not gotten a lot of publicity as of late. I’m not sure why their marketing department has done such a minimal job of advertising, but this whole series of movies had great potential to be something big…unfortunately, it wasn’t.

First off, it’s showing in the middle of November, with a run of the 17th-19th only. Why wasn’t it done over hellaween? That’s when people are expecting scary movies, and the timing right before the 31st would have been perfect. People are starting to get into the Christmas movie mode now, as was evident with The Santa Clause 3, which was showing at the same theatre last night.

Second, the advertising. We didn’t even see commercials for this thing on TV until THIS WEEK. For something as bold as this, 8 movies over one weekend, you’d need to plan this event well in advance. If you’re a scary movie buff, like some of my friends are, this would have been an entire weekend at the theatre. You can’t just drop everything when you find out about things 4 days before they happen. Better beef it up for next year folks! Get the message out early!

On to the movie - Unrest. Here’s a brief synopsis from the movie website:

Alison Blanchard begins her journey to become a physician in her Gross Anatomy class, where she must confront rows of cadavers and her own fear of mortality. When the sheets are drawn back revealing her cadaver, Alison senses a presence in the lab. Her jaded professor chalks it up to first year “jitters” but her worries increase when a friend is found dead in the basement. Alison must find out the truth behind her cadaver before its angered spirit can wreak further vengeance on those who dared to disturb the body.

The movie has won all sorts of independent film awards (actress, director, art direction, picture), but I’m really not sure why. I didn’t see any of the other 7 movies, so I don’t know what it was compared against, but this movie just did not entertain me as a whole. Did they get awards because actually used real cadavers? I don’t know - they should have hyped that part up more in their marketing…that would have brought in the goth crowd I’m sure.
The opening sequence, I will admit, freaked me out. It’s just a camera looking into a woman’s eyes, and she doesn’t blink, ever. The camera moves, her eyes move with it, no blinking. It made me absolutely uncomfortable. I started blinking just so I wouldn’t have to see her not blinking. I’m sure this is some sort of phobia, but let’s move on.

The cinematography was actually very good. I liked the use of light, camera angles, and the realism of the shots. You actually felt like you were inside the hospital and experiencing the claustrophobia of it. Unfortunately, the plot did not back up the very well-done visuals.

I don’t have any negative comments about the acting, it was a group of actors I’ve never seen or heard of before, so I know nothing about their backgrounds, resume, etc. They were all fine. The plot however, was scattered at times, and overly predictable at others. So that’s what I want to focus on.
The cadaver that the main team is assigned to, in their Gross Anatomy class, apparently was an archaeologist who uncovered a ruin of about 50,000 bodies, thus releasing their spirits that are not at rest. The spirits can’t rest until they are properly buried. Apparently this made her go insane, and she began to think she was an ancient Aztec god, and became a serial killer. She was also into S&M and regularly cut herself with glass, who knows why.

The lead female character senses that something is wrong (maybe that the body breathes while they cut it? or maybe because the body is warm to the touch?), but she is an athiest/agnostic (we never know really), and that creates some strange plot element with her and a peer - but it doesn’t go anywhere so doesn’t really add to the film.

The lead female sees a psychologist (we don’t really find out why she went there or who this woman is - she’s an undeveloped peripheral character), who is trying to help her understand that these feelings are normal for first year students. But the girl is insistant that something is wrong, and she sets off to find out who the cadaver really is (they don’t know at this point, and she’s risking getting kicked out of medical school just for trying to find out).

In a plot jump that is not well explained, they discover who the woman is, and receive video tapes of her from Brazil. Why she was video taped, who knows, and why someone in Brazil would disclose them, who knows that either. But it happens. Meanwhile, people are dying. The fiance of one of the students, two of the cadaver handlers, and a policeman. The guy whose fiance died, he’s now gone insane and kills himself. Who is next? Apparently anyone who has touched the body. And that would be another one of the students, while doing research on Aztec gods - killed in the library.

They have to put her body to rest before she can kill again! Ahhhhhhh!
But before they can do that, they have to find her body, because the teacher has “gotten rid of it” at the request of the psychologist. But guess what? He didn’t really get rid of it, he simply put it into the body holding tank! Oh no! You know what that means, the kids have to get it out of the tank in order to give it a proper burial. And things are never as simple as they sound.
The most tense part of the movie, when I could actually feel the entire audience getting worried, was the scene in the tank. It brought up fears of claustrophobia, drowning, and being in a big waterbath with dead people. Yuck. Ew. Gross.

But anyway - they get the body, after a few more accidents happen (namely the professor gets his leg cut off and the lead male getting slashed in the back), and the body parts of the cadaver get shoved into an incinerator (after being drug down the hallway inside a conveniently large black duffle bag, trailing blood through the entire hospital which is apparently completely uninhabited), with a gratuitous “Die B****” from the lead female. Really unnecessary line I think - sort of like “I’ll be back!”.

Anyway, the story ends with the lead female realizing that in order to really put the cadaver’s soul to rest, they have to return the ashes to Brazil where the woman had uncovered those 50,000 bodies. Suddenly she and her boyfriend (another student who has helped her along the way, and the one who was slashed after the dive into the tank) are in the mountains. They dump the ashes at the entrance to a cave, realizing that since the body was incinerated at the school, her soul might still be there and not here with the ashes. Oh my! Please tell me there won’t be a sequel.

And thus ends my review of Unrest. It had so much potential…but plot jumps, and non-intuitive story connections made it more confusing, than entertaining.