 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 2020 film in Unquiet Grave and this is a shudder original and it's coming to shudder on Thursday June 24th and because I'm putting this review out ahead of time and because it's a newer film coming to shudder This is a no spoiler review. Although thematically speaking. I will be talking about some theme type things But none of the actual events of the film so Directed by Terrence Cray now. This is Terrence's first film directing He also wrote the script along with Christine Nyland. This is both of their first feature-length script Writing credits and Christine Nyland is the female lead in the film as well It's her and one other actor So it's very you can tell it's very low budget just knowing that it's only two people Very low budget you can really tell by the look and the feel of the film low budget Which isn't necessarily a problem like I said Thursday June 24th, it'll be on shudder quick little synopsis Not telling you too much like a sentence or two. It's about a husband who loses his wife and The sister of that woman who kind of come together and commiserate with one another about the loss and then look into ways to deal with that Obviously, it's a horror film so you can kind of make a guess at what types of stuff and up going on But I won't say anything else about that you can check it out for yourself And like I do want to say I want to say this up front. I say this a lot Every film is worth watching at least once if for no other reason than to figure out how you personally Feel about that film. I'm gonna say that because I did not really like this film I found a lot of problems with it There are some good things and that's what I always do with these reviews always give the good and the bad So it's kind of all laid out there for people as well as just me getting my feelings out there on it But overall, I don't think I would personally recommend this movie one of the big reasons being it's very Long and drawn out and feels relatively boring in my opinion I had a hard time Maintaining interest in the film because this is another one of these films and I know I've talked about this kind of recently but It's it's more of a short film. I mean the the idea is solid. The premise is there There is a resolution at the end, but it's not a film that Needs an hour and 15 minutes now I will applaud the filmmakers on not making it an hour and a half because my god That would that would be way too much for this film But the unfortunate thing is it's about an hour and 15 minutes with credits and it's still too long Unfortunately for what the material is and this just goes back to one of my gripes with film in general Which is when that you can tell that there's like a lot of stretching out for runtime purposes it feels like they stretch this film out just about as much as they could and An hour and 15 is basically all they could get It's tough The pacing really does suffer because of it. So yeah, but let me run through my notes and I'll give you the good in the bed The opening sequence sets up the backstory to it Which I think is pretty efficiently done while it also delivers some some a cryptic dialogue between the two main characters Which I think kind of helps to drive a little bit of interest at first as to what are they really hinting at? Like where are we really going with this? interesting enough Presentation of the premise like I said the back stories kind of thrown in there relatively quickly But then it just slows down a whole lot from there because with that opening sequence it feels like They're going to try and hit the ground running and then they really pull things back and really slow things down Which kind of bought I mean it bogs down the story. It really does Because of the dialogue and how it slowly progresses with a lot of rehashing You get the idea that this is going to be a slow film and it definitely is now What I'm talking about rehashing is a lot of the dialogue Especially early on in the film ends up feeling very repetitive that they're kind of just talking about the same thing over and over again Just using some different words Which for some people maybe they're gonna actually really enjoy that I really don't I don't like to have things rehashed I like to get you know new stuff continually with films And I just feel like the rehashing if it has a real purpose to the overall story That's fine, but I didn't feel like that was the case with this Some could argue in some ways it is important to it, but I just don't see it as much The directing is not bad with this. It's not like flashy directing There are a few shots that I think looked relatively inspired, but for the most part it feels like some relatively basic directing The acting is solid. I will say for how low budget you can tell this film is I think it's solid acting So that was good Now that said for a film that is as slow as this is and focuses as much as it does on just two people I think to really pull off something like this you need Phenomenal actors and the problem is you're not gonna get phenomenal actors usually with super low low budget films The phenomenal actors are typically the ones who have already been discovered and Good luck. You're gonna have to pay them a lot. So it's this kind of hard situation where a lot of super low-budget films like this are really just tied down by the constraints of budget, you know, and That's not everything with this film though because definitely things could be edited down and the story could be You know kind of spiced up quite a bit more even through just dialogue in my opinion About 20 minutes in they try to get the story rolling and the camera work to execute that specific event That you think's really gonna get things rolling is effective. This is one of those moments where I was like Oh, the camera works a little more inspired here. There's like a reverse Sequence like a reverse footage sequence that looked really cool I really enjoyed that nice artistic flourish to it and then kind of like a quick cut that works really well as well And I think that helped to build like a little bit of tension but the problem is after that a lot of the tension just goes away and that's kind of a Reoccurring issue with the film for me Which is there are times where it starts to build some tension and then it just gets rid of the tension by stagnating So it's kind of like Fog building up in your house and then someone opens the window and it just kind of slowly seeps out Like that's how it ends up feeling once that fog or tension starts to build up Someone opens that window and it just kind of seeps out over time. So Unfortunate a lot is shot in the dark with this film And you can for the most part you can see what you need to see and see what's going on which is good So I did want to throw that out there and say good job for the most part on doing lighting There are some moments here and there where it's a little too dark And I was like I wish I could see a little bit more But overall did a pretty good job, especially for how much of this is shot in the dark. So nice There are some really odd cuts in this film at one point There's there's a sequence like when a guy is going to you know settle in to go to bed okay, and There's just some there's like three weird cuts that they put in there where you can tell it's because they're cutting out events of Things he was doing getting ready to go to bed But prior to that they were showing pretty much everything in the film and not doing those weird cuts So the fact that it happens in there like that and then never happens again Makes it feel even more out of place and more odd as far as the film goes So I definitely think that should not have been in there I think Honestly with how stretched out this film is for runtime anyway Just put the all the events in there honestly because it takes people out of the film even more than the slow Pacing does when you see kind of like weird cuts like that It's like a speed bump when you're driving a car and you didn't see the speed bump coming. It's like oh my gosh There already said that there isn't much of a score to speak of which was kind of weird because most films You just take for granted that there will just be a score to it pretty much There is music in this but it's very sparse even more sparse than I've ever seen in any film before I want to say So I'm usually a big proponent of you know things being pretty quiet so that you can allow people to really take in You know the dialogue and the scene and and feel how they want to feel about the tension or whatever it's going on But I felt like there wasn't enough music at this point now Just get you know just get something very basic or reuse a certain song over and over again That's fine. Have it really low-key in the background. You don't need it to be like blasting at people But yeah, it just felt like it was kind of missing music that should have been there There is story resolution But I wouldn't say that there's actually good payoff in my opinion There just needed to be more work put into where they ultimately wanted to take the film and Actually a lot of you know, they needed to have more spiced up Events as the film was going on and like I said it doesn't all need to be tied into like bigger budget stuff Like you know having practical effects or doing CGI or anything like that like you can have more tension between the characters you can have I Don't know more interesting camerawork kind of pull off some tricks There are a lot of things that can be done and it just feels like this one has a very basic approach to it and Then there's another odd cut to end the film which I really did not like I thought that was a very bad way To end the film and it also feels like they end the film intentionally at a point where they're like They want you to wonder what was what was gonna happen next but You know at the same time that it wouldn't have been anything all that interesting so it was kind of like just Have it in there. Like I don't understand why you can't just put it in the film I just didn't understand that that choice But like I said, you know, there are gonna be people out there who really love this film and I hope there are I really hope there are because for every film I really do hope there's an audience because you know these filmmakers they made a film and that is a big achievement Certainly better filmmakers than I am. So, you know, I know I'm reviewing it But this is just my personal opinion on it and I wish them well I 100% do and I'd love to see more stuff from them Yeah, and hopefully They grow from this Not my review, but making their first film This plays with the question of how far would you go to get back to how things used to be in your life after you have a Traumatic experience or a loss or anything like that, which is a great idea I do like the kind of underlying theme in it It also speaks to processing loss and how it really does need to be done on an individual basis Just kind of the idea of you're not necessarily going to find What you want in other people as far as dealing with your own personal Traumas grief loss things like that, you know, you have to work on it individually You can work it work on it with another person, but you also have to work on it individually So it is a good point in this film Bravo on making the film an hour and 15 minutes like I said before but unfortunately It's still too long and too slow for what the actual script is and the content of the story The story idea is not bad, but it's a vague Concept that you really need to find an engaging way to pull off and I just don't think it was engaging enough like I said It's a solid idea. It's just the execution of it Didn't do it. It just it at least just did not do it for me And like I said, it does bear repeating solid acting in this but For something like this where you're focusing on these two Characters and not a whole lot's happening in the film. You need phenomenal actors to hold people Hold the eyeballs on the screen basically so That's just my opinion on it. I would love to hear differing opinions on this. What am I missing? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Are you in between? Let's talk about it in the comments and go ahead spoilers in the comments I always do that for these videos and we can just you know have a dialogue about it, but regardless I do need to do my Rating so out of five stars with half stars in play. I got to give it one and a half stars Unfortunately, I was between one and a half and two, but really it's just it's too long and meandering and I just don't feel like it comes together I got to go one and a half stars on this. I can't really recommend it But check it out for yourself and make up your own mind and then come back and tell me what your thoughts were I'm I would love to hear plenty of people say, you know what? This is actually a really great film I would love to hear that and tell me why let's go But regardless, I really do thank you for taking your time to watch this Please do me a quick favor hit that subscribe button if you like this review or any review I've ever done or any other view or any other video. I've ever done It's painless. It costs you no money. It's literally a second. Just hit that subscribe button And it means a lot to me. It really keeps me motivated to keep doing these reviews Also, just hit the notification bell button because on that way you'll know when I'm putting up new videos Whether it's review videos or haul videos or any of that jazz, but regardless like I said I do thank you for taking your time to check this out and until next time keep it brutal