The Unhealer Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Unhealer Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson June 30, 2021

Martin Guigui's tenth feature The Unhealer inverts and adds fresh tropes to the teen bullying film. Bernice (Natasha Henstridge) is a widow living in an Arizona trailer park concerned about a compulsive eating disorder (aka "pica") afflicting her teenage son, Kelly (Elijah Nelson). Nelson isn't one of the bigger kids at his high school and gets teased by the jocks for habitually eating paper off the food products. They thus call Nelson the "human garbage disposal" and “trash boy.” At a convenience store, they lift him into a garbage can, prompting outrage from Kelly's childhood friend and crush, Dominique (Kayla Carlson). She offers to give Kelly a lift but her friend Sarah (Angeline Appel) doesn't want to dirty the expensive car.

At a local event, Bernice sees hoary faith healer Pflueger (Lance Henriksen) restore an older woman's ailing back. She hopes Pflueger can perform his same black magic on her son and invites him over to their trailer park. Things go awry after the experiment, causing Plueger to pass out and the paramedics to pick up his shellshocked body. But the experiment works on Kelly, who inherits shamanistic abilities. When Reed, the younger brother of football star Nelson (David Gridley), goes after Kelly, his attack backfires, sending him in a tailspin. Reed's stern father, the football coach Gus (Chris Browning), pays a visit to the mobile home in Apache Junction and demands that Kelly apologize to Reed. But Bernice isn't having it and before long, both sides seek revenge on the other.

The Unhealer dramatizes well how the Navajo's spiritual medicine is stolen by Pflueger, who exploits it for his own ends and passes it on to Kelly. Navajo member Red Elk (Branscombe Richmond) knows the hazards of misusing this psychic energy can have on the weak and less fortunate. The scrawny teen inherits this newfound power which he gleefully inflicts on the bigger kids that used to out-muscle him. But Guigi and his two screenwriters (Kevin E. Moore and J. Shawn Harris) show the negative effects that this has on Kelly, who automatically transforms into a counter-puncher. Genial Sheriff Adler (Adam Beach) likes Kelly's mom and tries to reign her son in after dubious accidents begin happening.

I particularly like how The Unhealer makes good on an extratextual reference mentioned in the second half. Kelly asks Dominique if she'd like to go on a date with him to see the new Halloween movie (presumably the 2018 Blumhouse production). The camerawork thereafter often changes to a more subjective POV. The audience sees Kelly's prey through his eyes as he stealthily spies and sneaks up on his foes. Kelly has become a teen supernatural with deadly abilities not unlike The Shape.

The Unhealer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shout! Studio's Blu-ray release of The Unhealer comes with a slipcover and a BD-50 which uses the MPEG-4 AVC encode. The movie appears in its originally projected ratio of 2.39:1. Shot on the Red Weapon Dragon by DP Massimo Zeri, the image is sharp and very clear with no visible artifacts. Natural green, lemon yellow, magenta, blue, and red are the primary hues that stand out. Black levels are solid without crush (see Screenshot #s 14, 16, and 20). Shout! has encoded the film at an average video bitrate of 33000 kbps.

Shout! provides twelve chapter breaks for the 94-minute feature.

The Unhealer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout! supplies a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround (3180 kbps, 24-bit) and a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo downmix (1680 kbps, 24-bit). The uncompressed 5.1 mix has a wonderful ambience. Dialogue is always intelligible. Crickets and other natural sounds are given good spatial directionality along the rear speakers. Marc Vanocur's score blends in well with the sound design.

Optional English SDH accompanies the feature only.

The Unhealer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Cast Interviews (17:51, 1080p) - EPK interviews with actors Elijah Nelson, Kayla Carlson, Adam Beach, Branscombe Richmond, Lance Henriksen, Natasha Henstridge, Angeline Appel, Will Ropp, Mike Gray, David Gridley, Gavin Casalegno, and Chris Browning. Each actor does a very good job of delivering a description and profile of the character that he or she portrays. All of the actors interpreted the characters well as they were written for them. The sit-down chats are interspersed with clips from the film. In English, not subtitled.

• Gag Reel (3:10, 1080p) - snippets of goofy outtakes from various scenes throughout the movie.

• Deleted Scenes (5:18, 1080p) - four scenes that were omitted from the final cut. They're filler and just pad out the existing footage. Each excised scene is presented in 2.39:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo.

• Alternative/Extended Scenes (7:29, 1080p) - four alternate and extended scenes. The first and third are the most substantial in elongating the characters' relationships.

• Behind the Scenes (2:38, 1080p) - this essentially plays like an extended trailer with B-roll footage added into the mix.

• Slideshow (3:02, 1080p) - a photographic slideshow consisting of eighty-four images. They show publicity snapshots of the cast and director Martin Guigui working with the actors and his crew. This particular slideshow is definitely sped up compared to the slower rater of a standard Shout! still gallery. I also don't like the transition effect inserted between the stills.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:06, 1080p) - Shout! Studio's official trailer for The Unhealer shown in 2.39:1 with 16x9 enhancement and Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. Don't watch this trailer if you haven't seen the movie as it drops key plot points and story events.

The Unhealer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While The Unhealer passes through familiar genre territory, it eschews certain tropes too. For example, the bullies in the film aren't always the antagonists. To Kelly, yes, but the arc of Reed's character goes through a process of realization that he shouldn't be picked on any longer. If the picture has a central weakness, it's that the Navajos (especially Red Elk) are given marginal roles. Sheriff Adler is subordinated as well but he's given more screen time. It's nice to see Adam Beach again in an important supporting role. It's still a mystery to me why his career didn't gain headway after appearing in Flags of Our Fathers (2007). (Smoke Signals is long overdue a BD release.) Seeing The Unhealer makes me want to get Robert Englund's 976-Evil (1989), which has been compared favorably to it. (The Unhealer has its share of gory moments, which are semi-convincing.) Shout! Studios delivers practically flawless visuals and an atmosphere-heavy 5.1 mix. Extras are skimpy. I would have liked to hear director Martin Guigui on a commentary track. A SOLID RECOMMENDATION forThe Unhealer.