Unspoken (2016) Review

Jodelle Ferland (the spooky little girl with anger issues from Silent Hill) plays Angela, a young babysitter who in desperate need for money, takes a job caring from a mute 9-year-old boy who has just moved into a home with his mother.

The house was the site of an unresolved unspoken 2016 horrorcase of disappearance some 17 years prior, when a family vanished in the night leaving nothing but a bloody mess behind.

It’s not long before ghostly happenings begin to plague the home and its residents as Angela tries to find a resolution.

Shot in Canada, the film is very aesthetically pleasing and delivers the right sense of small town living as well as isolation when at the abandoned home.
The movie is quick to start us off with jump scares and dramatic music at every given opportunity, a cat jumping… Dramatic music, someone turns a corner to find nothing… Dramatic music, someone blinks more than the normal amount… Dramatic music!
It goes without saying that Sheldon Wilson really wanted to get his fill of jump scare and foreboding music when directing Unspoken.

That does not take away the fact that some of them do serve their purpose, especially in the opening of the film, but like most things in life, too much can be a negative experience, like eating a whole trifle by yourself.
On her first day Angela is thrust into the shit-fest of ghostly happenings that dominate this household, which much to my annoyance, does not seem to faze her too much, someone reassures her for a couple of seconds that it’s all in her head she happily goes back to playing nanny with no reservations.

unspoken 2016 horror

There is very little suspense within this film, we as an audience are expected to go along with the constant hauntings the house is shelling out to anyone who dares enter with little to no rational responses from the cast. I found that this caused me to lose sight of the storyline amd the movie throws up more paranormal activities in the first half of the film than most horrors do in there climatic finalés.

One of the key elements of a good horror is to not reveal your demon to the audience too quickly, and that suspense will always make for successful scares. Half an hour into this movie you are so saturated by the jump scares and ghostly happenings that you no longer feel the fear factor, which is a shame as Unspoken offers up some amazing scenarios in which to execute this perfectly.

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Despite this, the film delivers an interesting contrast of fear for the main lead Angela. Not only is she the victim of the paranormal activity that the home is dishing out like like sugar packets, but she’s subjected to a Scooby Doo-like gang of teens wanting to retrieve their stash of drugs they hid in the home before it was occupied.
The film could have been succeeded in its aims without this storyline, and it feels as though these surplus characters are simply there to get killed and increase the blood and gore element. However, as characters they are pretty infuriating (the flannel shirt wearing, pickup truck driving hick type) so there is a level of enjoyment in watching them get harassed by a whole bunch of moving objects – bath tubs, knives, cheese graters, whisks… Stuff be flying around everywhere, much to their annoyance and our enjoyment.

The film presents us with a good selection of ghostly going ons and gore. Although it is overplayed on occasion, it does not take away the focus from what is quiet an interesting story with an ending that is far from predictable.
Like a cross between The Awakening and Paranormal activity this an enjoyable watch for fans of the ghost themed horror. But for anyone wanting a little more suspense and scares, Unspoken might not satisfy.

Movie Rating: ★★½☆☆ 

Trailer:

YouTube video
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Sora

With an erotic disposition for anyone with a knife in a mask, the horror genre has a strong hold on my heart. After writing film reviews for many fanzines I have been embraced into the bloody arms of ‘’love horror’’ to unleash hell on the unsuspecting world of horror cinema. My passions lie in wait for great slashers, B rate horrors and 70’s throwbacks, or anything with Michael Myers walking at a steady pace toward a screaming lady.

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