UHM - Review - Unearthed

Writer/director Matthew Lautwyler first made his mark in the genre with the zombie-musical Dead and Breakfast, which seemed to get a fair amount of positive feedback from fans, but I personally didn't really like it. His next effort, Unearthed, offered an interesting premise and was one of the few films I was actually somewhat looking forward to in After Dark Film's horror festival last November. I wasn't able to catch it in theaters, and after finally seeing it, I'm glad I missed it, because this film has no place on the big screen, and seems better suited as a Sci-Fi Channel premiere. The cast was decent (why isn't Charlie Murphy in more movies!?), but the horrible CGI and boring and predictable script made the film almost hard to watch.

The story basically follows a group of people and the events that unfold in a small New Mexico town after some sort of alien lifeform is brought back to the surface after some fool uncovers its remains in an ancient burial site within a cave. Maybe had the creature not looked like the bastard child of Pumkinhead and a prehistoric raptor, the film would have been slightly more of a pleasure to view, but not only does the monster look bad, but the cheesy CGI just made it look even worse, and just proves that it belongs on the Sci-Fi Channel.

The film has many issues, one of which is the fact that it takes itself too seriously, and somehow writer Matthew Leutwyler turned what seemed like an interesting premise into an overall boring movie. It takes about 30-minutes to kick into gear and once it does, it only lasts about 5-minutes, and then we get another long pause before the action picks up again. In between that time we just have a mess of a story and a group of uninteresting characters. Maybe had some comedy been thrown in, things would have been slightly more interesting, but sadly, even Charlie Murphy's witty comments thrown about now and then couldn't save this film.

OVERALL

Although the premise seemed interesting, sadly, the film itself was far from it. The movie had very little action, and what it did have was laughable, especially with the horrible-looking monster. The entire feature seemed better suited as a Sci-Fi Channel premiere rather than a theatrical or even a straight-to-DVD effort. The characters are poorly developed and uninteresting, as well as the rest of the film. Skip this mess.

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Shores Haunted :

Posted 33 days ago

If i wanted to watch "Feast" again, i'd rent it. After Dark movies are hit or miss, but at least (for better or worse) the other ones have an original premise

Jason :

Posted 55 days ago

Saw this movie at Horror Fest and it wasn't bad. Wasn't the best movie, either. The monster reminded me of the one from Split Second with Rutger Hauer.

pchan :

Posted 58 days ago

Terrible movie and what made it worse was how boring it was. They weren't even trying to make a decent film.

dante :

Posted 70 days ago

Your thinkin blade 2... But your right, he did do a good job in it, and it might be worth a flutter.

Mega|Therion :

Posted 184 days ago

Cool, it's got Luke Goss from BROS fame in it. He did a terrific job in Underworld II.

Professor Chaos :

Posted 225 days ago

Badass!

RockmanForte :

Posted 282 days ago

I can't wait for this one. You should check D-War out which will be coming this year! :D

lil dirk diggler :

Posted 312 days ago

looks descent....ha, charlie murphy...ok

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