Featured Blu-ray Review: The Unnamable
December 25, 2018
The Unnamable: Collector’s Edition - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
It’s the 30th anniversary of the release of The Unnamable and it is getting a Collector’s Edition Blu-ray to celebrate. Has the film aged well? Is it only for fans of low-budget 80s horror? Will these fans want to pick up the Blu-ray?
The film begins in the 1700s. There’s a storm. A man, Joshua Winthrop, is trying to calm something and get her back into her room in the attic, a room closed by a rather impressive lock. He tries to go back to reading, but she continues to freak out over the storm. He decides to comfort her, but that doesn’t work. In fact, she rips out his heart. The next morning, some villagers come by to dispose of the body and seal up the house so that the evil within never gets out.
We then learn that this is a story being told by Randolph Carter, who is telling stories to his two friends, Joel Morton and Howard Damon. Joel and Randolph get into an argument about whether or not the story is true. Joel is a science major at Miskatonic University, the school all three of them attend, and decidedly skeptical about whole thing, but Randolph claims it was backed up by one of his ancestors who lived near the house at the time. Eventually, Joel dares Randolph to show them the house where this took place, which is easy do to, as it is the very house they’ve been sitting by. Joel decides they will spend the night there. However, after a bit of cajoling, and some childish insults, the other two simply walk away and let Joel stay by himself.
When they get back to campus, Howard tries to convince Randolph to go back for Joel and talk some sense into him. However, Randolph is unmoved. He’s convinced Joel will return the next day and insult them. At this point, they are interrupted by Wendy Barnes, who asks Randolph for some help on a school assignment. When she leaves, Howard follows her. Apparently, she danced with him once and now she’s in love with him, much to her annoyance.
We then cut back to Joel beginning his exploration of the house. He doesn’t get far when he hears the front door slam. It’s shut tight and he can’t open in. He assumes its Randolph and Howard playing a prank on him and continues to look around eventually making his way to the attic. I’m not going to say what happens to him, but you can probably guess.
The next day, Howard’s worried, because Joel hasn’t returned to the dorms. He tries to convince Randolph to go check on Joel. Randolph isn’t interested. He assumes Joel is still in the house, hoping to pull a prank on them when they go to look for him. Wendy stops by to thank Randolph for his help. She’s with Tanya Heller, who clearly has a thing for Howard, not that Howard even notices. In the end, Howard isn’t able to convince Randolph to check in on Joel.
At this point, two frat bros, Bruce Weeks and John Babcock, hit on Wendy and Tanya and convince them to go to the house to explore. Clearly Bruce and John are hoping to scare the pants off of the two girls, literally. While that’s going on, Howard runs into Randolph and tells him Joel was supposed to go home, but never made it. This is finally enough to convince Randolph they should check on Joel, just in case, but before they go to the house, Randolph wants to pick up some gear they might need.
With that, the six main victims, I mean characters, are in the house with the Unnamable. You can probably guess what happens next, but it is best not to give away any of the details.
The Unnamable is a low-budget, direct-to-video horror movie from 1980s. You have to understand that going in. This is not quite in the Boobs and Blood subgenre of horror films, although there’s plenty of the latter and some of the former. This is a film that was sold to audiences on the promise of impressive looking monster make-up, and boy does this film deliver. This is one of the best looking low-budget monsters from the 1980s and the biggest reason why the film is a cult classic to this day. It is also used well in a way the movie builds tension before its big being in the climax. For fans of the genre, this monster makes the movie worth a rental by itself. This film has elements common to the subgenre that are either assets or liabilities, depending on your point of view. A lot of the dialog is not good and the actors are not talented enough to really sell it, but that does add to the cheesy charm. Mark Kinsey Stephenson's performance as Randolph Carter is certainly one of the stand out aspects of this movie.
On the other hand, if you are going in looking for a grittier, more serious take on the short story by H.P. Lovecraft, well, this is not that.
There are plenty of extras, starting with an audio commentary track featuring half a dozen people. This is one of those audio commentary tracks that are like watching a movie with friends, rather than ones that are there to talk about the craft of filmmaking. All of these people are also featured in interview featurettes, the first of which is a double-interview with Charles Klausmeyer and Mark Kinsey Stephenson and you don’t need to be concerned that doing the interview together means they don’t get enough time, as the interview is well over an hour long. Eben Ham is next and his interview is 31 minutes long. Laura Albert is the only person that was already in our database and her interview is 46 minutes long. Mark Parra is the only interviewee who is not part of the audio commentary and his interview is 34 minutes long. The final interview is with R. Christopher Biggs and Camille Calvet, who were the make-up effects artists in the movie. This is another hour-long interview. In total, there are just over four hours of interviews. Granted, these interviews are conducted over video chat, so the video quality isn’t great, but there are a lot of great stories told along the way.
The Unnamable isn’t going to be remembered as a great movie, not when compared to studio horror releases. It is a low-budget horror film from the 1980s and on those terms, it works. The titular monster is fantastic and the cheesier elements add to its charm. Furthermore, the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray has a great audio commentary track and literally hours of interviews to watch. It is not for everyone, but I think most fans of the subgenre will get a kick out of the movie.
-1-News.jpg)
The Movie
The Extras
The Verdict
Filed under: Video Review, The Unnamable, Camille Calvet, H.P. Lovecraft, Laura Albert, Charles Klausmeyer, Mark Kinsey Stephenson, Alexandra Durrell, Eben Ham, Mark Parra, R. Christopher Biggs, Delbert Spain, Katrin Alexandre, Blane Wheatley