Unearthed (2007)

It could have been/should have been/must have been more.

After the first fifteen minutes, I was actually really looking forward to it. The film borrows heavily from Alien, but is actually quite decent among all those slasher/killer films of late. Nice to see a monster movie again.

The editing was remarkably good, especially the first half hour; after that, it all gets a bit weaker. Good use of the soundtrack at times (and I don't mean the jump scares) and pretty well filmed. I didn't find the film too dark; what do you expect from a film like this?

Leutwyler handles his low budget well, but still messes it up a bit with his beast. The CG is truly abominably bad at times (those bats) and the design is just too heavily stolen from Giger's Alien (some scenes are almost literally lifted, too).

Could easily have earned an extra star; as it is, the film misses its chances at the moments where it really could have scored. Otherwise, there are some pretty decent gory bits and a nice atmosphere. It's a shame Leutwyler can't finish it off.

2.5*, reasonably entertaining, but it doesn't deserve a cherry on top. Time for another really good monster movie, I'm in the mood for one again.

Translated from Dutch · View original

Unearthed is one of the worst films I have ever seen. I found it slow, boring, predictable, unexciting, and filmed chaotically. In some scenes, I didn't understand a thing about what was happening because it was filmed so chaotically and hectically.

Additionally, the film has laughable special effects. For example, in one scene, someone is blown away by an explosion, after which this person does three backflips in the air. The monster in the film looks ridiculous and is poorly animated. The film is also full of horror clichés, which makes the film incredibly predictable and takes all the suspense out of it.

Translated from Dutch · View original

Not great, but not bad either. Okay, the monster/creature/beast-like thing is enough to make you cry, but otherwise, the first half in particular was quite entertaining. Unfortunately, you quickly discover that the story is full of holes, and the characters' motivations remain unclear as well. I thought Sheriff Annie Flynn (Emmanuele Vaugier) resembled a sort of 'Michelle Rodriguez' lady, and she exceeded my expectations. However, the subplot surrounding her character didn't quite come across well. It seems impossible to like her, even if you try.

Despite a few dark shots, where a number of scenes clearly immediately suffer because you can't see a thing, it is a reasonably watchable film.

Translated from Dutch · View original