Unearthed - After Dark Horror Fest (2007)

A vicious creature that's been trapped for 900 years gets unearthed during an archeological dig in the middle of a desolate town. A s the carnage escalates the local sheriff and a group of stranded civilians must find a way to destroy the creature that only has o ne mission - complete annihilation.System Requirements:Running Time: 93 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR/MONSTERS & MUTANTS Rating: R UPC: 031398226802 Manufacturer No: 22680 Product Description

BORING AND POORLY ACTED

After watching three of this year's After Dark Horrorfest films it's very apparent that this year's batch is a few cuts below last year's and Unearthed does nothing to raise the grade. An archaeological dig in a remote New Mexico town releases a creature that's been trapped for 900 years and it soon begins preying on the town's residents and the only road out of town has been blocked by a fuel tanker accident. Hmm, small desert town, residents trapped, a creature feasting on them...yeah, seen it before. It was called Tremors and it was vastly superior.

The town's regular residents include alcoholic sheriff Annie Flynn (Vaugier), Rancher Rob Horn (Gainey) Scientist Nodin and her grandfather (Means). A few passing motorists also find themselves trapped in the little town, all there to buy gas from the service station run by Grandpa. As Nodin tries to analyze the creature's alien DNA and find a means to kill it, Sheriff Flynn attempts to keep the rest of the survivors alive and one step ahead of the beast. I'd love to tell you what the creature looks like but that's somewhat difficult. We get only fleeting glimpses of the thing as it dashes by the camera. On top of that, much of the film takes place at night with those green glow sticks as the only source of illumination. It sort of looks like the Xenophobes from "Aliens" but done in poor CGI. Director Leutwyler borrows liberally from numerous other films including Descent, Relic, and Reeker. In fact you'd be hard pressed to find one original idea in the entire film.

Nodin eventually figures out some sort of voodoo scientific solution about the characters DNA and making a poison from uranium but by that time, I was nodding off and only wanted the film to come to a merciful end. Vaugier usually is able to give a bit of a spark to some of the low-budget films she's been in but seems completely bored here. I didn't buy her role as a guilt-stricken, alcoholic sheriff at all. Frankly she looked just too good. Gainey is a great character actor but he seemed out of place.

Leutwyler also loves doing that thing with the camera where he has it shake and bounce during some of the monster's attack scenes, presumably to make it seem more real and get the feel for the attack. It's a novelty trick that doesn't work and this, along with the choppy editing, only serves to annoy the viewer and make the creature even harder to see.

With three down and only one more for me to review, my hopes are fading fast for finding one good film in this year's group of Horrorfest releases. Borderland, please save the day!

Extras

This is another grip about this years Horrofest films. Half of them have no special features at all except for the Miss Horrorfest webisodes.
June 23, 2008

I'm just happy for Tonantzin Carmelo

I saw the movie once and it was decent. What made me happy was that the ever attractive Tonantzin Carmelo( Thunder Heart Woman from Into the West) did not die in this movie. I can't wait to get her next film Imprint. I hope she doesn't any roles where she dies, she is just too darn beautiful!! June 20, 2008

Weak Retread of Alien/Predator *SPOILERS*

Many have mentioned Aliens, but this has marks of Predator as well. A creature, though we are given little backstory, has been awakened from a centuries (though I think the number 6000 was bandied about) old slumber and is hungry. We learn that the creature is an alien that was thought to be a God...ok, why?

A young lady learns how the creature was put in a sort of suspended animation..ok, how? She and the local 'misunderstood guy' figure out how to return it to that state...ok, how did they arrive at this conclusion? There were just way to many holes for this movie. If you want to make a simple creature feature that focuses on the gore, leave out the backstory and do that, this movie tried to be a bit more and failed.

The town sheriff, played with aplomb by Emmanuelle Vaugier, struggles to answer the very same questions we as the viewers have. Usually, Vaugier is a capable actress, not afraid to get her hands dirty and not simply rely on her beauty, and she tries here, but she is given little to do. The rest of the players are forgettable.

IF you are looking at Horrorfest movies try The Deaths of Ian Stone, a much better film. June 10, 2008

More Fun Than Alien Vs. Predator 2

After reading the initial reviews here at Amazon I skipped seeing this film. When I did finally see Unearthed, I was impressed. Sure, a person could go back and see "Alien" or "Aliens" for the 20th time ... but why not explore how others may create the "Alien Genre". In the case of Unearthed, it is a rather good exploration of the alien topic. Good acting, good alien monster, reasonable gore, very watchable, far better camera work than "Cloverfield", mildly creative plot and dollar-for-dollar a better movie than AVP 2. Movies like "Alien" only comes around once a decade. No point wishing all sci-fi films were that good, they never can be. It is just too much too ask Hollywood to be that creative. Unearthed is a very watchable sci-fi thriller for tonight ... you might even be tempted to watch it again some hot summer night when you wonder
why the mighty Anasazi Native Americans mysteriously disappeared ... which they surely did. May 26, 2008

Worse than I expected....

I had high hopes for this one...I thought it would be at least decent. I watched the first hour and my boyfriend and I both fell asleep. When we finished the movie later, we were disappointed. The creature looks sooooo fake. The first time it really shows it when it jumps on the back of the truck I busted out laughing. Before that, I still thought it could be good. But it didn't get any better. I had read that it was a cross between tremors and alien...well, yea, it looks like a second hand version of the aliens in alien, and, yea, this comes underground...but it just didn't work. I think Tremors is 10 times better, but that just might be because I've always loved Tremors. And Alien...well, lets be serious...this just doesn't compete. So far the one I have disliked the most out of the horrorfest. April 25, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...