The Unseen Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

The Unseen Blu-ray Movie Review

Baby's day out.

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf August 31, 2013

What “The Unseen” aims to be and what it actually becomes are two separate things. It’s a horror picture exploring evil from an unusual source, with all the requisite scenes of violence and hints of perversion. There’s another side to the work as well, a creative push that seems like it wants to construct a substantial character drama out of chiller materials, striving to instill personality into the effort to increase the movie’s lasting potential. Interesting in fits, but also groggily paced and unsure of direction, “The Unseen” definitely has moments of tension, but there’s also plenty of dead space littering the feature, reducing conflict and indulging oddity to a point of tiresome repetition.

A television reporter struggling with abusive behavior from her ex-football star boyfriend, Tony (Doug Barr), Jennifer (Barbara Bach) takes off on assignment with camerawomen Karen (Karen Lamm) and assistant Vicki (Lois Young). Driving to rural California to cover a Danish cultural festival, the trio is faced with a mix-up concerning their hotel reservations, quickly hunting for an alternate place to stay. Shelter is offered by museum owner Ernest Keller (Sydney Lassick), an eccentric with a family estate shared with skittish mute Virginia (Lelia Goldoni). With nowhere else to go, the women take the rooms, settling in to capture a day of celebration. However, all is not well with the Keller Mansion, as something evil lurks in the cellar, and it’s hungry for the guests. While Jennifer struggles with her turbulent domestic situation as Tony drops by to apologize, Ernest hopes to entice the women to stay long enough, with designs to make them permanent residents.

“The Unseen” is directed by Danny Steinmann, who would go on to a brief and unremarkable filmmaking career with movies such as “Friday the 13th: A New Beginning” and “Savage Streets.” Apparently, this was not a satisfying production experience for the helmer, who’s credited as “Peter Foleg,” removing his name after being fired from the picture. That absence of leadership is palpable throughout the effort, with much of “The Unseen” devoted to people staring or exploring in the most leisurely manner possible. Editing rhythms are off, unable to build the required suspense when approaching a plot that has a mysterious creature picking off young women through air circulation grates (frankly, people are killed off too early, leaving a considerable gap in the mayhem). This should be more exciting work, more punishing in its macabre design, yet a good portion of the feature is content to stand still and soak up atmosphere that just isn’t there, lingering instead of roaring.

“The Unseen” doesn’t come together as a terror machine, but it does provide unexpected texture to the characters. Although Jennifer shows little reluctance returning to Tony’s arms after their off-screen row, the conflict between them is unusual, with the former football star stuck in depression after a knee injury has destroyed his career, pushing him into a position of weakness that’s difficult for the player to process. Instead of a one-note bruiser, the script makes an effort to bring dimension to the regretful man. Ernest’s taste of insanity is perhaps litigiously close to the “Psycho” formula, but Lassick’s performance is strong, creating an unnerving creep with a host of dark secrets, responsible for the only eerie moments of the movie. With elements of incest fueling the ultimate reveal of the picture, “The Unseen” takes a few intriguing directions, also touching on an idea of unwanted pregnancies that’s never developed in full. Still, the effort to complicate the story is welcome, though the ultimate impact is lost as the feature is gradually crippled by stagnancy.

The Unseen Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.78:1 aspect ratio) presentation takes solid care of "The Unseen," with the forgotten cult film offered a fresh HD appearance for its Blu-ray debut. There's plenty of print debris and while speckles, but nothing too distracting, while the stitching of source material is detectible (some shots reveal more of a pinkish tint). Colors are successfully managed, supplying strong hues for interior decoration, bloodletting, and costuming, while skintones are accurate, keeping Bach lush and evil ashen. Blacks reveal some crush during low-light encounters, solidifying distances, but it's not a frequent issue, with much of the nighttime incidents open for examination. Detail is satisfactory, offering slightly hazy cinematography to study, which, for some of the make-up tricks, reveals the seams of horror movie artistry. Textures are welcome, with facial features a particular standout. Grain varies in intensity, but remains tastefully managed.

The Unseen Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 2.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix retains a steady hiss throughout the presentation, with a few bursts of pops are well. It's pronounced but not overwhelming. Dialogue exchanges are crisp and expressive, though there appears to be a few extremely slight sync issues that could be blamed on lousy dubbing. Scoring is assertive without slipping into shrillness, balanced well with voices and sound effects. Atmospherics are acceptable, adequately selling the suspense and attack sequences, while Danish festival visits detail pleasant crowd presence.

The Unseen Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with producer Tony Unger and actor Stephen Furst (ported over from the DVD release) is moderated by a Code Red employee, who keeps the conversation moving along with bursts of questioning (dead spots do pop up from time to time), trying to pull stories out of the pair. Considering Furst only appears in the last act of the movie, he participates with surprising glee, trading anecdotes with Unger, who has the background information to illuminate the challenges and intent of "The Unseen."

• "Katarina's Nightmare Theater" (4:27, HD) returns Katarina Leigh Waters to the Scorpion Blu-ray experience, with our host detailing cast and crew filmographies, pointing out genre connections. The intro opens with a short skit featuring Waters reporting from the Danish festival, but the fun is short-lived, quickly launching into the IMDB routine.

• "Outro" (1:59, HD) brings Waters back to recap the feature and share more filmography highlights.

• "Kats Eyes: Interview with Producer Tony Unger" (25:18, HD) features Waters in journalist mode, grilling Unger about the details of his varied career in movie production (including "Force 10 from Navarone" and "Don't Look Now"), requesting personal stories about the stars he's employed throughout the years, including Ringo Starr, Charlton Heston, and Orson Welles. The conversation eventually curves back to "The Unseen," with Unger sharing the origin of the project and some details behind director Danny Steinmann's eventual exit from the picture.

• "Craig Reardon's Make Up Test Stills, Slides, and Sketches" (3:45) collects 40 images from pre-production, with emphasis on the evolution of Junior Keller's look for the film.

• Interviews (77:37, SD) sit down with actors Doug Barr and Stephen Furst, make-up supervisor Craig Reardon, and writer Tom Burman. There are anecdotes galore here, with each participant sharing candid memories concerning the making of the film. Reardon is the most honest, explaining his frustrations with the tight schedule and Steinmann's habitual indecision, but Furst is the most charismatic, also revealing his distaste for Steinmann and the challenge of working with intense make-up and special effects.

• A Still Gallery is offered, but I couldn't access it on the main menu.

• A Theatrical Trailer (2:11, SD) is provided.

The Unseen Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The climax of "The Unseen" is practically dialogue-free, selecting a silent route of suspense as Jennifer comes face to face with the ghoul (played by an uncredited Stephen Furst) who's murdered her friends. The production indulges Furst's crazed acting to an absurd degree (it's like a game of charades that goes on forever), fixating on the monster's madness to a point where the picture looks more like bad performance art than a vigorous fright film. The third act is endless, circling around the Keller Mansion cellar over and over, without a build of tension normally found in scary movies. "The Unseen" falls asleep instead of spilling over with genre delights. There's solid work buried in here somewhere, and a peculiar ambition to layer the material with motivation is fantastic, but as a whole, there just isn't enough gas in "The Unseen" tank to keep it moving along in a fulfilling manner.