After Dark Horrorfest's DVD edition for UNEARTHED(2008).
© Lionsgate

Mania Grade: D
Title: Unearthed
Rating: R
Starring: Emmanuelle Vaugier, Luke Goss, Russell Means, M.C. Gainey
Written By: Matthew Leutwyler
Directed By: Matthew Leutwyler
Distributor: Lionsgate
Original Year of Release: 2007
Extras: Miss Horrorfest Contest Webisodes

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UNEARTHED

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.