Unholy (DVD)

While it is nice to see Adrienne Barbeau do more than just an obligatory cameo in a horror film (she's in just about every scene, here), this static no-brainer is not only a bore, it doesn't even deliver on the gore. The movie begins on a dark, depressing, clumsy note; continues; and ends on the same.

Martha (Barbeau) is the widowed mother of two adult children: Hope (Siri Baruc) is hopeless indeed, and Lucas (Nicholas Brendon) is a stoned slacker who can barely muster the energy to fire up another bong hit from his resting place on the sofa. The only person who really seems to care about Martha is her elderly, overly eager-to-please neighbor, Charlie (Merwin Goldsmith). He's sweet, and Martha needs a friend.

Too bad Charlie's ex-wife Gertrude (Susan Willis) is not only still in the picture, but she is also an insane conspiracy theorist who thinks that the occult-loving Nazis may have something to do with Martha's personal tragedies. And guess what? It turns out that Gertrude is dead-on: somebody want Martha and her family dead.

Hope winds up killing herself with a shotgun, spurring Martha, Lucas, and Charlie into action to find the connection between secret documents from WWII (which are hidden somewhere in the their bleak little hometown), and the deaths of those closest to Martha.

An extremely gloomy, irritating violin score is punctuated by dreary, dull cinematography, bleak and sparse locations and sets, and acting so listless that only Barbeau (even as she sleepwalks through this thankless role) emerges relatively unscathed. Once you have seen this movie, you will probably understand why it sat on the shelf for over two years.

This dialogue-heavy low-budget film tries desperately to make up for its lack of suspense and horror by presenting a preposterously over-complicated plot: on the DVD commentary, even the director admits he's a little lost! At least there is some humor in the yak track (none of which, more's the pity, was put into the somber, wooden film narrative), and if you are craving a bounty of Barbeau, you do at least get that.

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