Unknown World Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

Unknown World Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 2, 2025

In the "everything old is new again" department, nuclear sabers are being rattled as this review is being written, and rather recently a U.S. government official actually suggested overtly that "elites" would be safe in underground bunkers should nuclear war break out (something that supposedly makes them warmongers), all of which suddenly makes the camptastic 1951 effort Unknown World suddenly quite relevant. The film is undeniably low budget from any number of angles and does in fact involve a, well, Journey to the Center of the Earth mounted to try to find a safe haven from any impending nuclear disaster. Despite the lack of the kind of funding that 20th Century Fox offered the 1959 Verne film adaptation, Unknown World offers a really nice chance to appreciate the often underappreciated work of special effects wizards Jack Rabin and Irving Block, who actually made a living crafting low budget special effects for any number of films and television properties. There may be a good deal of "meta" interest in this film despite any deficiencies on tap courtesy of a script by future Oscar nominee Millard Kaufman (who needs to figure out how to spell his surname correctly), an early score by future Oscar recipient Ernest Gold, and a rather fascinatingly uncredited lead performance by Victor Kilian, who was blacklisted at the time.

Some of the rather good supplements Severin has aggregated for this release make a heroic attempt to at least acknowledge the underlying seriousness of this effort, if perhaps erring on the side of proclaiming the film has some kind of unrecognized "importance", which may be a hard sell to more jaded viewers. The story revolves around (mad?) scientist Jeremiah Morley (Victor Kilian), who has invented a huge boring machine called Cyclotram, which Morley wants to use to dig into the center of the earth to try to find refuge from what he believes is an imminent nuclear war. He assembles a pretty traditional 50s sci-fi B movie team to accompany him, and that cohort then has a series of low budget adventures "below the surface". There's a kind of nihilistic undertone to this film that just a bit strangely presages another effort Gold would go on to score, On the Beach.

Unknown World Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Unknown World is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Film with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. The back cover of this states this is "scanned uncut in 4K from the protection internegative for the first time ever". Some might jokingly wonder if this was the "protection" negative, those protective efforts may have not been completely successful. This element has some undeniable damage and some frankly kind of weirdly huge variances in quality. It can at least quite often look very good, especially when there are no opticals or composited effects, with solid contrast and some really appealing detail levels. The composited material can be pretty unstable, with, for example, matted in elements kind of jumping a bit, no doubt due to the film's lower budget and technologies available at the time. There are significant signs of age related wear and tear at times, including some rather long and severe scratches, along with warping and less problematic nicks and blemishes. There are a handful of times when the image just suddenly degrades, like an edit has been sourced from 16mm or a very badly damaged section of the internegative (see screenshot 3 for one example). My score is 3.25.

Unknown World Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Unknown World features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that can't escape the low budget ambience of the film and the age of the track. The high end is pretty brash, something that's evident in some of Gold's blaring brass cues, and some background hiss can be heard. Sound effects are a bit on the boxy side, notably some of the explosions and avalanches that cap the climax. Dialogue (such as it is) is delivered cleanly and clearly. Optional English subtitles are available. My score is 3.25.

Unknown World Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Film Writer Stephen R. Bissette


• Victor Kilian: A Blacklist Legacy (HD; 21:40) is a really interesting interview with Kilian's grandson Crawford.


• The Unknown World of Terrell O. Morse (HD; 17:32) features C. Courtney Joyner discussing the film's director.


• Special Effects Maestros of the 1950s (HD; 22:11) is a sweet appreciation of the efforts of by Stephen R. Bissette. There's some great information here about some specific effects shots in the film.


• Trailer (HD; 1:17)

Unknown World Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is another Blu-ray release where the supplemental material may actually be more interesting than the main feature. This transfer has some some hurdles to overcome in both the video and audio departments, but should certainly pass muster with cult movie fans. The supplements are really interesting and appealing, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.