Search - Unholy on DVD

An Unholy Mess

R. Schultz | Chicago | 10/13/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This movie has very little plot or coherence. It's a stew containing uncooked lumps of time-traveling entities, apparitions in basements, and figments inducing people to commit suicide.

Actually, the director's commentary on this DVD is better than the movie itself. In addition to providing some behind-the-scenes insights into how a bunch of buddies get together to make an Indie film like this, he talks about how he went about casting "Unholy." He says he was sure from the start that he wanted Adrienne Barbeau in the film because he'd remembered her as the all-night DJ in "The Fog," where she'd won him over with her "sexiest voice ever."

Barbeau's presence in "Unholy" is in fact the film's only redeeming virtue. It's good to see her on screen again, but it's unfortunate it had to be in a mishmash like this. So whether you are looking for sex appeal, or for a movie with at least some suspense and semblance of plot - it would in fact be better to go back to the source and check out "The Fog." Watching this movie will just leave you in one."

OVERLY BIZARRE...PICK A GENRE...

Tim Janson | Michigan | 11/09/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Unholy is not an easy movie to classify...part horror, part sci-fi, part psychological thriller, it isn't great in any one area but it is an interesting `small' movie. I use the word small because the two stars, Barbeau and Brendon, ad onscreen throughout almost the entire film. This isn't a scary movie, per se, but it is creepy. It's one of those films that makes you wonder just what the heck is going on throughout most of the movie but a twist at the end brings everything home.

Barbeau is Martha who returns home with flowers for her teenage daughter, Hope. But Hope has locked herself in the outdoor storm cellar with a gun to her head, babbling incoherently about some experiment...just before she pulls the trigger. Brendon plays older brother Lucas in a role not unlike `Xander in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He's slightly timid and tries to make up for it with humor. Martha wants to know why her daughter would take her own life and what this experiment is that she referred to before she took her own life. They find a hidden room in the basement with a painting of a crazed looking man wearing Nazi symbols. Martha falls asleep several times only to find herself in this room, strapped into a chair, and listening to an old record phonograph playing some crazed, cult-like chanting.

This is a film where virtually every character they encounter is some kind of nut or seems to know something about what's going on...from the guy who runs the flower shop to Martha's old next door neighbor, Charlie. Martha and Nicholas discover that the man in the painting was a Nazi scientist working on an experiment with the U.s. Government on what they called the Unholy Trinity: Time Travel, Mind Control, and invisibility. The more they discover, the more strange things become...there's encounters with strange kids in cemeteries, Nazi soldiers, and something morphing out of Martha's own living room floor and grabbing her ankle. You really do wonder where all this is going as it's just so over-the-top bizarre.

REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON
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