Death, bereavement, and resurrection are all common themes within the horror genre, and form the foundations for Terence Krey’s An Unquiet Grave. A year after the tragic death of his wife, Jamie (Jacob A. Ware), a bereft man enlists the help of her twin sister Ava (Christine Nyland) to bring her back from beyond. An Unquiet Grave explores the aforementioned popular topics within the framework of a familiar premise, but approaches them from a more cerebral direction. One of the more obvious films dealing with death and resurrection would be Pet Sematary, but where that film skips the time between Louis Creed burying his dead in the ground to them being at home again, here we spend much of the svelte seventy-two minute run time waiting to see whether the ritual has been successful.
Not a particularly gory, gruesome, or even strictly traditional scary movie, Krey relies much more on the audience’s emotions and connections to Jamie and his plan. We’ve all experienced bereavement in some form or another and Krey poses the age old question of what would we do to reclaim someone that had been lost to us? As Jamie falls into a chasm of personal darkness, he does the unthinkable, but can the results ever be as good as that which was originally lost? As unconventional as An Unquiet Grave is, it has plenty in common with Liam Gavin’s Dark Song. Krey hooks into that same uncomfortable aura that makes Dark Song such an interesting watch. The air of An Unquiet Grave is heavy with sadness and dread, and that more than makes up for a lack of violence and frights.
Whilst An Unquiet Grave gets off to a great start, it does begin to lose itself around the time the story transitions. As the change-up happens, some of the mystique of the piece is lost and although only seventy-five minutes long, it starts to drag. It never becomes a slog to get through, but it does challenge the audience’s attention as the film focuses on exploring philosophy and existential musings rather than the anticipated all out horror. The impact of Krey’s idea still lands, but those wanting thrills and spills should look elsewhere for their entertainment.
With such a short runtime, An Unquiet Grave feels a little rushed in some places, and too long in others.Told in two parts, the distinct halves of the story don’t quite make a fully cohesive whole. It does, however, offer up a new angle of the resurrection ritual, and once more proves that sometimes dead is indeed better.
An Unquiet Grave is available on Shudder from 24th June 2021.
An Unquiet Grave
Summary
Some interesting concepts are explored within An Unquiet Grave, but a lack of cohesion in their explanation causes some disconnect.
