Review: Unrest (2006)

Directed by: Jason Todd Ipson | 88 minutes | horror | Actors: Corri English, Scot Davis, Joshua Alba, Jay Jablonski, Marisa Petroro, Ben Livingston, Abner Genece, Reb Fleming, Anna Johnson, Derrick O’Connor, JC Cunningham, Terence Goodman, Rhett Willman, Stefania Barr, Julio Bove, Susan Duerden, Christopher J. Stephenson

Don’t scream. You’ll Wake the Dead ”is the tagline on the“ Unrest ”DVD cover below an image of a corpse trying to climb out of a morgue refrigerator compartment. It is a bit strange that such a scene is not in the film at all. In fact, no corpse takes the plunge to scare the quintessential horror cast of young, attractive people. What about the claim that real corpses were used in the autopsy scenes in the film? There has been a lively discussion about this on the page dedicated to ‘Unrest’ at www.imdb.com.
To someone who has never seen a prepared corpse, it will all look realistic, but it seems very unbelievable that real corpses were used in the film. It’s a shame that such claims, combined with bad artwork, should apparently generate interest in this mediocre horror film.

The first part of the film is particularly worthwhile. The introduction with the autopsy room, the cutting of the corpses and the overall oppressive atmosphere of dark corridors, strange noises and threatening shadows keep the attention. Unfortunately, the film certainly collapses considerably in the second half. The promise that the film heralds is nowhere kept, resulting in a disappointing climax. It doesn’t really help that there are too many incredible developments (even for a film from the genre) and that noticeable and disturbing mistakes are made. For example, without commentary, material is removed from the spot where someone has just been murdered, a character survives the sawing of his leg without bleeding to death and Alison (Corri English) and Brian (Scot Davis) “bath” extensively in a tank full of formaldehyde. , without even leaving irritated skin. The ending is rather ludicrous and (traditionally) keeps the door open to a sequel.

Yet the makers, especially writer and director Jason Todd Ipson, manage to provide the viewer with quite a few unsavory and exciting scenes. The aforementioned inquiries are pretty freaky and apart from Brian and Alison, there are still some things floating around in the formaldehyde tank and those moments are extremely effective. When characters die, however, the camera hardly registers any of them, which – given the context – is quite strange. Perhaps the makers try to add a kind of mysterious tinge to the film, but the abundance of darkness and shadows is counterproductive here. Made for a minimal budget, with a rattling plot and a cast of largely unknown celebrities (only a bearded Derrick O’Connor is somewhat of a familiar face – he beat up Mel Gibson in ‘Lethal Weapon 2’), ‘Unrest’ manages to achieve a mediocre end result. put. The film has its nice sides and is certainly not a complete failure, but the feeling that it could have been more prevalent.