Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with an early look at a horror flick starring the stunning Adrienne Barbeau and that Xander guy from Buffy called UNHOLY. Sheldrake did a nice interview with the filmmakers a couple months ago and these guys seem to be very passionate about their work... and according to this review that passion may have paid off in a worthly genre picture. I know I'm excited to see it... I like the idea of it being based on a real government document... Kinda gives it that NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET basis in reality (As you should know, Wes Craven read a newspaper story about a kid -in Asia, I think- who was terrified of going to sleep, convinced he would die... No one believed him, of course... the kid finally gives in to sleep and dies in his sleep. Creepy, eh?)
Anyway, here is the review for UNHOLY! Enjoy!
Hey guys,
I thought it would be fitting to send this review in to go a long with your quarter of a screen Buffy "Xander Harris" figurine add on your sidebar.(And also your previous article following the filmmakers on this film). I'm friends(with benefits, of course) with the BLEEP on the horror/thriller UNHOLY starring Adrienne Barbeau and Nicholas Brendon, and he/she invited me to a screening at the editor's screening room today in NYC.
I never thought Adrienne Barbeau was the sex symbol everyone made her out to be, nor that Buffy actors were God's gift to the acting world, but I tagged along for the screening due to all the guerilla marketing campaign that Unholy has on the net.
I'm glad I tagged a long. Small Spoilers ahead.
The film starts off with a bang (literally) in an opening sequence comprised of Barbeau attempting to convince her daughter not to blow her brains out. It was an opening sequence like I've never seen before . Very original, different, and tense. From there on, I knew this wasn't going to be your ordinary scary flick.
The film then turns into an unraveling mystery/thriller. Why did Barbeau's daughter kill herself? What did she mean by her last words, "Beware of the Experiment" ? Barbeau and her son in the movie, Nick Brendon, go on a twisted to journey to answer these questions.
This is one of those films that has a twist every two minutes, with one HUGE(Sixth Sense Big, but nothing like it) twist at the end.
None of the SFX were finished, so I cant' tell how good they'll be. But there are a few major gore shots(though this is not a gore movie). *Spoiler* One scene is all shot through a hole blow through an old womans stomach by a shotgun. And there are an ARRAY of suicides in this film. I think the kill count is around ten. *End Spoiler*
Each shot was as pretty as it was creepy. Something you don't often see in horror films.
I have to say, I was going in expecting this would be a B Horror Film, but I was shocked that this movie was the original, smart, and innovative. With this movie being based on an actual military document, I will go out on the limb and say these guys have the next Blair Witch on their hands. The amount of buzz and press this film has on the net for not yet going to distributors is unnerving. I still think the film needs a tad of work( some of the cuts were a bit jarring/confusing and one expositional scene describing the three elements of the "unholy trinity" went on for a bit too long), but in the end, this film will be a success.
You can call me Pretty Creepy.
