Director(s) – Derek Braasch (Torture the Flesh, The Ties that Bind), Will Devokees (Morbid Stories, Macabre Medicine), Marcelo Fabani (I Slay on Christmas, Doomsday Stories), Phil Herman (Burglar from Hell, Jacker), Christopher Kahler (Around Midnight, Hobo with a Trash Can), and James Panetta (Death From Beyond, Death in the Dark)
Starring – Butch Patrick (The Munsters, Bite School), Tina Krause (Bloodletting, Side Effects May Vary), and Tiffany Helm (Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, 13 Fanboy)
Release Date – 2024
Rating – 2/5
I find myself bitching and moaning with every horror anthology that I review about how almost every indie anthology lacks a wraparound segment that ties everything together. Most of these anthologies are just shorts that role from one segment to the next with no reasoning behind it. I know it’s no easy task to make a movie especially when you have zero budget and using the bare essentials in regards to equipment but an anthology without a segment to bookend everything is not an anthology in my eyes.
A few weeks ago I was speaking with director and producer Phil Herman about a few of his projects that I was sharing on the site when he offered me two of his most recent films to review. One of them just happened to be an anthology film simply titles Phil Herman’s Unearthed. The title intrigued me some but it the was film’s poster that really made me curious about the film. I want to thank Phil for sending this one over for review!
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows an unfortunate character named Doom (Christopher Kahler) who is doing a bit of graverobbing when he finds an old book. He takes us back to his humble abode where he begins reading us tales from inside which range from a detective who may have locked up an innocent man, a young bride and her father in law searching for her missing husband, and a woman who suspects her home might be haunted. **Spoiler Alert**
Phil Herman’s Unearthed is a movie that I couldn’t get behind but it does do a few things right. I went into this one a bit excited but the overall movie did nothing for me but I there was a few things that really impressed me.
The acting in this one is very uneven. Some of the segments features some solid performances while others are inconsistent. I don’t know if this is a reflection of the direction or inexperience but each scene within each segment does vary. I would like to add that it was awesome seeing Tiffany Helm from A New Beginning with a small role. I would have loved to see her utilized more but it was still cool to see her even if the role was small.
The stories for this one is not what I was expecting. The segment used as the wraparound segment was my favorite part of the film. The character that is reading from the old book, similar to From a Whisper to a Scream, was a lot of fun. It was a solid segment that pulled everything together very nicely. The other segments were very hit or miss with me. The one with the husband who was abducted by aliens was probably my favorite of the film but it was far from perfect. This story had a lot of promise and I’m a huge fan of Kristina Santiago but it failed to really go somewhere worth noting. The other three segments were very predictable and not that interesting. I thought the short with the woman seeking help with her home was going to be a lot more fun than it actually was but it was extremely dull and slow paced.
Finally, the film features a wide array of effects. We have some make-up effects that look fairly decent to some visual effects that do look cheap. While the film was not as bloody as gory as I would have liked, the make-up effects were impressive. Overall, Phil Herman’s Unearthed had a solid premise with the horribly disfigured grave robber reading stories from an old book. Sadly, the segments that made up the bulk of the film was not as enjoyable. This is one that I really wanted to like but it wasn’t for me. Skip it.
