Wednesday 9 March 2016

The Unfolding - A review

A couple of paranormal investigators find that discovering actual proof of ghostly goings on isn’t as rewarding as they’d hoped, particularly when a third world war might be looming, in Eugene McGing’s directorial debut “The Unfolding”, which is released to UK VOD outlets this month.

Ghost hunters Tam (Lachlan Nieboer - TVs Torchwood) and his partner Rose (Lisa Kerr) visit a supposedly haunted house on Dartmoor in the West Country to see if they can find evidence of any otherworldly occurrences. At first, nothing out of the ordinary happens, but then they wake the following morning to discover the kitchen trashed and cutlery embedded in the walls (either that or it was a hell of a party).

After also hearing strange noises and images of spectral figures, they decide to bring in some friends to help investigate, including a professor (Robert Dawes – TVs Poldark) and a psychic medium (played by Emmerdale Actress Kitty McGeever), whereby things go from bad to worse, as they decide to hold a séance (never a good idea in a horror film) and all sorts of increased spooky activity starts occurring (doors slamming, people being thrown across the room etc).

If all this wasn’t enough, the whole thing is set against the backdrop of an impending third world war, with constant radio reports about possible nuclear strikes, So even if they do get manage to find proof that the place is haunted, it probably won’t matter anyway.

Told entirely from the viewpoints of the investigators camcorders and the various CCTV cameras they’ve installed around the building, this is yet another one of those “found footage” style films, that I’m not a fan of. Also, being a militant atheist, I struggle to take things like psychic mediums seriously. In addition, the professor character, played by Robert Dawes, just seemed like a misplaced attempt at comic relief and didn’t work for me.

For the most part, it was like watching a particularly bad episode of “Most Haunted”, but then you’ve got this sub-plot about a possible impending nuclear war, which didn’t really have any relevance to the main plot and detracted terribly from it, as the film became a confusing mess, in which it wasn’t sure if it was trying to ape the plot of Paranormal Activity or Threads.

If you like found footage films you may like it, but if you’re not a fan, steer clear.

The film is released to UK VOD outlets March 14th from Frightfest Presents.


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