A common theme at this year’s Arrow Video FrightFest seems to be that of trauma, how it lingers, and the impact and influence it can have on us well into our adult year’s. So far each interpretation has been different, every filmmaker finding their own angle and pathway through the condition. In The Unburied writer and director Alejandro Cohen Arazi presents a very stark portrait focusing on the hold and power that our abuser can still have on us years after the abuse takes place.
Novelist Maximillo (Demián Salomón) is called back to the orphanage in which he was raised after the death of his “father”. As he reconnects with his brothers, it is clear that Max does not share the same feelings of loss and longings as his brethren. Clear indicators point to some awful unspoken event that resulted in Max deserting his family. Now returned, the group must address those events, but by facing that fateful night, all Hell breaks loose.
As weighty as the themes and topics that are explored within The Unburied are, director Arazi never takes the film out of first gear. It meanders and takes its time in not getting anywhere narratively or emotionally. This lack of momentum is a physical manifestation of the way in which Max and his brothers are themselves stuck. Whilst it makes for a strong metaphor, it does mean that the pace suffers dramatically. Arazi appears content to keep the horror in the story concentrated on the emotional trauma of the victims, with one exception. This event unfolds during a planned hunting trip. Suddenly the veil is lifted and Arazi sticks something on screen that is so ghastly and nightmarish that it instantly sears itself onto your retinas. Seriously, good luck getting to sleep without that image popping up before you close your eyes. This one unexpected scare almost makes up for the lack of anything ‘creepy’ anywhere else. However, when added to a sedentary pace and bare bones story, attention and affection still wanes.
Those of a sensitive disposition, especially where animals are concerned, should brace themselves as The Unburied features quite a lot of dead or dying creatures. There’s a whole scene that plays out across the kill and butcher parts of an abattoir, Considering the low budget of the project, there’s a chance that this was a real abattoir and the cadavers on screen were once living, and this won’t sit right with many. If these bodies are the work of an effects team then they are incredibly realistic and worthy of praise.
Saved by a creature ripped straight out of nightmares, The Unburied does pose some interesting moral dilemmas to the audience. Its construction however, makes a lot of the material hard to access. Slow and still, The Unburied stews in the messages that it is trying to communicate and ends up being a film with little to hold onto.
The Unburied
Summary
Strained relationships and past trauma form the centre points in this rather meandering tale that, barring a couple of flashes of intrigue, remains in first gear throughout.
The Unburied was reviewed at Arrow Video FrightFest 2021.
