Director: Danny Steinmann
Screenplay: Michael L. Grace
Starring: Barbara Bach, Sydney Lassick, Karen Lamm, Lelia Godoni, Stephen Furst
Release Date: September 1981
In the rush of horror films released to theaters during the early 1980’s, it was perhaps inevitable that a number of these movies would fall through the cracks of obscurity, remaining relatively unknown to all but the most devout genre completists over three decades later. While the disappearance of many of these films can be blamed on their general awfulness, a disturbing number languish in obscurity due to poor distribution and bickering between shady rights holders and the filmmakers. THE UNSEEN is one such film that, from it’s very inception, was never given the chance to achieve it’s true potential.
After a troubled shoot, the film was essentially taken away from director Danny Steinmann (who had his name removed from all prints of the film) during post-production and cut together by the producers. THE UNSEEN was barely released to a few theaters in 1981 and just sort of disappeared after that. I actually saw it broadcast on my local Fox affiliate one Saturday afternoon in the mid-90’s, but for the next decade and a half could not remember the title to save my life. It wasn’t until hearing an interview with Steinmann on a podcast several years back that I finally figured out the title, but I never did anything with the information. Cut to a month ago, when my local Alamo Drafthouse held a marathon of several of the FRIDAY THE 13th films, including the Steinmann-directed PART V: A NEW BEGININNG. That particular screening provided the best possible atmosphere I’ve ever viewed that film in, working the crowd like gangbusters with it’s utter shamelessness, beyond crude humor and excessively trashy (even by FRIDAY standards) sensibility. After the screening I was suddenly seized by an uncontrollable urge to seek out more of Steinmann’s work which finally brings me, all these years later, back to THE UNSEEN. While I have seen this film before, I feel that it fits the theme of my blog as, due to the passage of time, I’m now seeing this flick with new eyes. Which is nice and all, but how does the flick hold up?
After a mix-up at their hotel leaves them without a place to stay, news anchor Jennifer (Bach) and her two friends Karen (Lamm) and Vicki (Lois Young) accept an offer from the seemingly benevolent museum owner Ernest Keller (Lassick) for room and board at the farmhouse he shares with his companion Virginia (Goldoni, who spends this entire flick on the verge of tears much as she did in INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS). What they don’t know, unfortunately, might kill them, as Ernest and Virginia both share a mutual secret, a horror that lurks in the basement and creeps through the crawlspaces. As the night wears on, one by one the girls are stalked and killed by an assailant unable to stop itself, unmoved by their screams, a creature both unreal and…..(wait for it!)…..UNSEEN.
And there is good stuff, to be sure, but only enough to frustrate at just how creepy this flick COULD have been. For starter’s, the film’s score by Michael J. Lewis is a nice, understated and eerie piece that sets the tone from the first frame of the opening credits and manages to keep things interesting in even the slowest scenes. Cinematographer Roberto A. Quezada’s isn’t quite up to the same level as the composer. His casually wandering camera explores every dusty nook of Ernest Keller’s family museum and moldy corner of his basement, effectively evoking the horror in even the most mundane, seemingly harmless locales. The scene in which a girl gets dragged screaming through a small grate in the floor of her bedroom by “The Unseen” is particularly upsetting. But large chunks of the film, in particular the opening scenes and Jennifer and Tony’s extended date, look like a cheap made for TV movie. The film still manages to pull of an immensely creepy vibe thanks to several stand-out performances, in particular Sydney Lassick as Ernest Keller. Though initially kindly and overly hospitable with a highly effeminate demeanor, once the girls get back to his farmhouse Keller quickly begins to shed his skin and reveal the truly perverse monster hidden within. His relationship with Virginia is a very strained, emotionally abusive one. Lassick makes numerous strange choices, throwing random hissy fits and at one point putting clothespins on his face and taunting Virginia as though she were a child. On first view this behavior is pretty confounding, but once the film reveals the true nature of their relationship it makes a whole lot more disturbing sense.
Ernest and Virginia’s backstory is handled in the most clumsily expository manner possible, in a ridiculous scene in which Ernest has an inner monologue with his dead father, reliving the moment he killed the man after he was caught having sex with Virginia, who it turns out is his sister. To maker things even ickier, Virginia gave birth to a child, named Junior, whom Ernest has kept hidden away in the basement of their home.
It is here, in the final reveal of Junior, “The Unseen”, that the film ultimately drops the ball. Desperate to cover up the accidental deaths of Jennifer’s companions, Ernest lures her into the basement and locks her in with his son. What should be an incredibly tense finale is completely undermined Junior (ANIMAL HOUSE’s Stephen Furst) finally appears, an overweight mentally retarded full-grown man with massive facial deformities clad in a giant diaper. Now, on the one hand, I have to admire Furst’s bravery in taking on this role. He has to really dig deep and go to some places I have rarely seen an actor attempt before. But it’s just too goddamned much. For the next ten minutes Junior childishly laughs and makes faces and paws at an obviously overwhelmed Barbara Bach, clearly wondering how in the hell she went from starring opposite Roger Moore to being mud-caked in a basement with a giant man-baby. I hate to crib someone else’s bit, but it definitely applies here. I have never seen anybody go more fully retarded than Stephen Furst does in this flick. It is just…..jaw-dropping.
That being said, I suppose the real point of the film is that Ernest is the true monster of the film, which is how things play out in the final confrontation, as he attempts to murder his family after they turn against him. It all leads to a chase scene with him and Jennifer in a torrential downpour, and Tony gets involved at the last second, though the resolution of his character’s arc is actually pretty fucking hilarious, if only for underlining how utterly pointless he was to the entire plot of the film.
This flick has been tough for me to review. Steinmann and co. were certainly ambitious in their attempts to up the creep factor of what is a fairly uninspired story. Despite claiming full credit for the screenplay, I believe Steinmann is selling short one of the many credited co-writers, Kim Henkel, as the strangely comedic dysfunction of the Keller’s shadows the cannibalistic clan from the superior TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, which Henkel co-wrote with Tobe Hooper. It seems like there were far too many cooks in the kitchen for this project, resulting in a film that somehow manages to try too hard and not hard enough. It’s not nearly as sleazy as Steinmann’s other work, a quality that really could have pushed this flick into at least the status of a grindhouse classic. As it is, it’s easy to see how this flick has mostly been forgotten. Aside from some standout performances and a disturbing premise, THE UNSEEN has no real identity of it’s own, and just kinda sits there on the screen, not doing much. Which is too bad, as all of the ingredients were in place for this to be a truly unsettling film. As it is, THE UNSEEN is not at all a bad film, but it certainly doesn’t do much to carve out a place in your memory.
My Rating:
5.5/10
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