Unearthed (2008)

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

An unknown creature terrorizes an archaeological dig in the middle of a desolate New Mexico town.Some have compared this film to a SyFy movie, and that is probably about right. Although it is not terrible, it ultimately adds up to not quite the movie they were clearly aiming for. This is due in no small part to the CGI. Not only because the CGI is flawed (as it almost always is), but because the creature was so obviously inspired by "Alien" that it is hard to give them much credit for originality.There do seem to be some practical effects, and those are actually quite nice. Not enough to redeem the film, but worth singling out. A pumping heart looks great, and the leech-like creations are not bad. No one will ever put this film on their must-see list, but the effects crew should definitely keep working.

This movie was part of the Afterdark Horrorfest? That was very hard to believe. But then again, some of the Afterdark movies are simply phenomenal, while others are ... well, not so much! "Unearthed" fall into the latter category.The story is about some alien creature terrorizing a small desert community called Hat Creek. And it is up to sheriff Annie Flynn, couple of residents and some out-of-towners to deal with this alien menace. End of story summary! I think this movie's plot and story must have worked out well on script paper, but it translated poorly into an actual movie. The story was linear, which was good, so it was easy to follow. Problem was that it was just too much, and too unbelievable. And the characters were just randomly picked and thrown into the lot, without having any connection to anything.The creature in "Unearthed" was actually really nicely made, though it was so painstakingly a copy of the creature from the "Alien" movies. And that really brought down the movie a notch. Couldn't they have come up with something original instead of almost copying these aliens from the other movies down to every detail, except for the acidic blood? It was just so lame.As for the acting in the movie, then they had really managed to put together a good enough ensemble of actors and actresses for the roles. And the people were doing good jobs with their roles. The movie was carried by Emmanuelle Vaugier (playing sheriff Annie Flynn).One major problem with "Unearthed" was that it was just too dark. Almost every single frame was shot during night and it was even done so in near-non-existing-light conditions. So it was really difficult to make out stuff most of the time, and lots of details in the frames and the scenery were lost in oblivion. That brought down the movie experience tremendously. It was like watching a horror movie from the late 70s."Unearthed" is a very uninteresting movie, though it did try its best to be something unique. It was brought to its knees by the lack of light and the copied alien creature design. I usually like the Afterdark Horrorfest movies, but this one was just too much, bordering on almost being a downright waste of time. I actually caught myself dozing off several times during the movie because of the lack of lighting.So if you enjoy horror movies, like I do, stay well clear of "Unearthed", unless you are die-hard fan of Afterdark Horrorfest (and just got to see them all) or unless you are a big fan of any of the performing actors or actresses in this movie. There are far better horror movies available out there.

Unearthed starts late one night as a petrol tanker drives along an isolated desert highway, suddenly something runs out in front of the truck & in an attempt to swerve the driver loses control & crashes. The Highway is completely blocked & with the local gas station out of petrol no-one is going anywhere fast. Sheriff Annie Flynn (Emmanuelle Vaugier) investigates the crash & finds a strange chunk of flesh on the truck, taking it to local biologist Caya (Beau Garrett) to run some tests on the results are surprising, the substance seems totally alien & unlike Caya has ever seen before. Then the small town comes under attack from a mutant alien creature that has been dug up by Kale (Luke Goss) after being in suspended animation for thousands of years, the alien is now awake & looking for food as it viciously kills anyone it comes across...Also known as Alien Rising & Deep Fear this was written & directed by Matthew Leutyler & was one of the '8 Films to Die For' shown at the 2007 Afterdark Horrorfest & to be fair I don't think Unearthed was nearly as bad as some of the IMDb comments would suggest, as far as routine Alien (1979) rip-offs go I'd say Unearthed was alright & even had a few positive aspects. When I say Unearthed is an Alien rip-off it is in the sense that some nasty slime drooling alien creature is running around in extremely dark locations killing any human within spitting distance, the only real difference is that Unearthed is set on Earth rather than in space but for all the difference it makes it doesn't matter. The script feels a little unfinished or maybe Unearthed was cut down to come in under 90 minutes, character's & situations are set-up but never come to anything. The Sheriff & her drinking problem, the hostility of the locals towards her, some kid or other dying that has something to do with her, the two women in the truck, the guy broke down on the side of the road, the annoying Native American mysticism that is hinted at, Kale's personal grudge, the grandfather's mission & other details that are never properly followed up or resolved or explored. Unearthed just feels a little unfinished with the plot trying to go in various directions but never succeeding for whatever reason. The character's are the usual clichés, the town Sheriff, a handy biologist who gets all the scientific exposition, a cowardly one, a wise old one, an antagonist & some cardboard alien food. To be fair the film moves along at a decent pace, there's enough incident, gore, slimy alien attacks & near misses to keep one entertained. While certainly not the deepest or most original alien on the loose film Unearthed is perfectly watchable to an extent.Again, while the other IMDb user comments may suggest the special effects are awful they really aren't that bad at all. If you've ever seen any of the awful CGI effects work from any Sy-Fy Channel film or (shudder) The Asylum then you will think the ones in Unearthed are brilliant by comparison. The alien here looks too much like the alien from Alien, if you know what I mean. All tall, thin, lots of sharp pointy teeth that drip slime everywhere & a long tail. There's some really good gore here, there are ripped apart cattle, ripped in half bodies, a guy with half his head sliced off, a guy with the top of his head missing, plenty of slashings, bites, blood splatter & chewed up, mutilated bodies. If your looking for an Alien rip-off with blood & gore then look no further.Filmed in Salt Lake City in Utah the production values are very good, Unearthed is generally well made but it does get far too dark towards the end. So dark in fact it's sometimes impossible to tell what's going on which is a shame, there's a little too much shaky camera work & quick fire editing as well at times. The acting is alright, former British pop star Luke Goss has a small role.Unearthed is a decent little Alien rip-off, it has competent CGI work, a large body count & lots of gory violence. It moves along at a nice pace & at least tries to be scary & suspenseful even if it can't quite pull it off, by no means the worst horror film out there but at the same time nothing new or particularly special.

These scuzzball horror flicks share the same handful of shopworn techniques and stock characters. In this case, there are the dimly lit interiors and nocturnal exteriors, the cartoonish "urban" black guy, the cute but ditzy starlet-wannabe, the noble Native American, the don't-mess-with-me hardass, the alarmed scientist nobody listens to until it's too late, the "Alien" ripoff monster, the interminable and absolutely pointless conversations and creeping around cluttered sets -- and, last but not least, one character who's gone all guilty and depressed and alcoholic over some mistake he or she once made, and who, we have to admit, would probably be better off dead. In this movie, it's ***************SPOILER ALERT*************** the lady sheriff, whose flashbacks about the little girl she accidentally killed make it very clear that she will sacrifice herself in the end to kill the monster and save her friends. Which she does. The scientist and the ditzy blond survive, everyone else is killed. And most of the time when there's a sudden noise and everyone spins around and points their guns at it, it's just one of the other characters tripping over something. Also, I think it has something to do with nuclear testing (it takes place in New Mexico), so it's kind of a Godzilla movie underneath it all. There, now you don't have to see it.