Director: Sheldon Wilson
Writer: Sheldon Wilson (Screenplay)
Starring: Jodelle Ferland, Sunny Suljic, Pascale Hutton, Anthony Konechny, Jonathan Whitesell, Jake Croker, Neal McDonough
Plot: In 1997 the Anderson family vanished from their home without a trace. No bodies were ever found. For 17 years the house has remained undisturbed… until now.
Tagline – The root of all evil awaits.
Runtime: 1 Hour 31 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Basic Horror
Story: The Unspoken starts with the sudden disappearance of a family, blood covering the walls, 17-years-later there are still no answers and Jeanie (Hutton) and her son Adrian (Suljic) move in to start a new life, with local Angela (Ferland) being offered a job as a babysitter to help around the house as her father has been struggling for money.
On Angela’s first day, she finds herself alone in the house with Adrian, when she gets a visit from her popularity craving friend Pandy (Peloso) which soon starts to see the evil presence in the house waiting to come out and take its latest victim.
Thoughts on The Unspoken
Characters – Angela is the daughter of a widowed man, who has been struggling to find a job, she keeps to herself working in a day-care, when a new opportunity comes her way, a chance to take a more one to one role with a child. She doesn’t care about popularity like her best friend and is always wondering more about her mother’s past. Jeanie is the new owner of the house, she needs help around the house with her child and has asked for Angela, with her being the only one to get through to her child. Adrian is the young boy that does need some extra care, he doesn’t socialise very well and seems to be the main target of the evil. Officer Bower is the one that see strange occurrences around town and does his best to keep everyone out of trouble.
Performances – Jodelle Ferland was one of the icons of scary children in the early 2000’s, with Kingdom Hospital and Silent Hill to mention a few, now she becomes the main character the target of a hauntings as she is everything she needs to be without being anything new. The rest of the performance are nothing fancy, the kid is mostly just there, Pascale Hutton as the mother doesn’t do much and Neal McDonough might be the biggest name in the film, though he has nothing to do.
Story – The story here follows a young woman who gets given a job as a babysitter for a new family in town and soon strange things start to happen around the house because of the past events in that house. Where this story shines is by having the family happily move into a known murder home, it makes sense by the end, but the rest of the story is a completely flat, with not much going on, any horror is noise, investigate usually nothing, repeat, and the fact this film believes it does enough for a sequel is pure arrogance.
Horror – The horror in the film is rather flat, we don’t seem to get going with any of the scares, with most just being a noise and nothing else happening.
Settings – The film uses the idea that we are in a murder house as the setting, where everybody in town is scared of the house, but the new family seems happy to be there.
Special Effects – The effects are weak with the ghost creation not being the most frightening either, leaving this feeling rather weak all around.
Scene of the Movie – Marbles.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Believing it does enough for a sequel.
Final Thoughts – This is just a poor horror that tries to give us more of a shock value with its ending over a decent story.
Overall: Disappointing horror.
