Site icon Philosophy in Film

Review: The Unnamable (1988) ★

The Unnamable (1988) monster

&NewLine;<p>No one said it was easy to adapt H&period;P&period; Lovecraft to film&comma; but the people behind <strong><em>The Unnamable<&sol;em> &lpar;1988&rpar;<&sol;strong> make it look especially difficult&period; Lovecraft’s 1923 short story of the same name doesn’t really lend itself to a visual format either&semi; the creature at the center of the plot is unnamable because its horrors cannot be adequately described&period; Thus&comma; making a movie about something that is vague&comma; immeasurable&comma; and completely indescribable feels like a bit of a misstep&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>The Unnamable<&sol;em> &lpar;1988&rpar; Plot Overview<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Nonetheless&comma; director Jean-Paul Ouellette did what he could&comma; relying on a couple of Lovecraft’s references to a horned creature with hooves&period; The film shifts between the 17th century and present day &lpar;1988&comma; that is&rpar; to explain the origins of the monster&period; In essence&comma; a man named Joshua Winthrop kept a creature locked away in the attack&comma; where it screamed and beat against the walls&period; When he tried to calm her down&comma; the beast killed him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Fast-forward to the present day&comma; where an unbearably pretentious and goofy college student named Randolph Carter &lpar;Mark Kinsey Stephenson&rpar; retells the myth of the unnamable to his classmates&comma; Howard &lpar;Charles Klausmeyer&rpar; and Joel &lpar;Mark Parra&rpar;&period; Carter claims that the Winthrop house is nearby and that image of the Unnamable has been permanently burned into the glass of the attic window&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Randolph and Howard take the story much more seriously than Joel&comma; who insists on entering the house to see things for himself&period; However&comma; when Joel doesn’t show up for classes the next day&comma; Howard starts to worry that something evil really is living inside&period; Joel’s disappearance forces Howard and Randolph to investigate the house&comma; while a group of their classmates show up to try to have a secluded party&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>The Unnamable<&sol;em> Film Analysis<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i2&period;wp&period;com&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;04&sol;The&period;Unnamable&period;1988&period;720p&period;BluRay&period;H264&period;AAC-RARBG&period;mp4&lowbar;snapshot&lowbar;00&period;24&period;32&period;jpg&quest;fit&equals;800&percnt;2C450&amp&semi;ssl&equals;1" alt&equals;"The Unnamable &lpar;1988&rpar; cast" class&equals;"wp-image-1821"&sol;><figcaption><em>The Unnamable<&sol;em> &lpar;1988&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The 1980s was a Golden Age for B-movie horror&comma; but unlike many of its contemporaries&comma; <em>The Unnamable<&sol;em> verges on being unwatchable&period; The bad performances and cheesy dialogue are to be expected&period; After all&comma; it’s a low-budget 80s horror movie featuring mostly non-actors&period; You get what you pay for&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>That said&comma; <em>The Unnamable<&sol;em> is worse than most &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;bad” 80s movies&period; All of the traditional elements are there&colon; poorly-lit scenes&comma; cheap sets&comma; amateur camera work&comma; muddy visuals&comma; and a disjointed narrative&period; While all this makes it sound like any other B-movie from its day&comma; <em>The Unnamable<&sol;em> adds insult to injury with horrible sound design&period; Every step is amplified as though all of the characters are wearing steel-toed boots&period; Other sounds are given an unnecessary and annoying echo effect&period; This was probably meant to add creepiness to an otherwise bland film&comma; but it just gets distracting after a while&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>There are plenty of other reasons to criticize <em>The Unnamable<&sol;em>&period; The Winthrop house is supposed to have been built sometime in the 17th century&comma; but it clearly has 20th-century materials and architecture&period; Randolph Carter looks like he’s wearing his father’s jacket&comma; as it’s about 4x too big for his thin frame&period; Half the time&comma; the actors look completely lost&comma; like they are just waiting for someone off-camera to give them stage directions&period; Even though the characters are always getting separated in the labyrinth that is the Winthrop house&comma; they always seem to be running down the exact same hallway&period; <em>The Unnamable<&sol;em> cast went on to do very little else&comma; probably because casting directors saw this movie&period; I could go on&comma; but I think you get the idea&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Finally&comma; this brings us to the beast for which the movie is named&period; Jean-Paul Ouellette clearly put most of his shoe-string budget into the creature makeup for the demon-like monster&period; The look of the monster isn&&num;8217&semi;t terrible&comma; but even it were amazing&comma; it would still kind of take away from the whole &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;this-monster-is-so-terrifying-that-there-is-no-way-to-describe-its-physical-appearance” thing that underpins the story&period; When H&period;P&period; Lovecraft envisioned the Unnamable creature&comma; I doubt he pictured a woman &lpar;Katrin Alexandre&rpar; prancing around in a leotard and a pair of horns&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">In Conclusion<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>The Unnamable<&sol;em> is good fodder for bad movie nights&comma; but the poor sound quality and lack of production value will likely test most viewers’ patience&period; A bad movie like <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2017&sol;12&sol;02&sol;review-the-room-2003-&percnt;E2&percnt;98&percnt;85&sol;"><em>The Room<&sol;em> &lpar;2003&rpar;<&sol;a> is so bad that it’s good&comma; but <em>The Unnamable<&sol;em> doesn’t have the same charm&period; Instead&comma; it’s just a poorly made monster movie that somehow warranted <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;title&sol;tt0108447&sol;">a sequel with John Rhys-Davies<&sol;a>&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Rating&colon; &starf; out of 5<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you’d like to watch <strong><em>The Unnamable<&sol;em> &lpar;1988&rpar;<&sol;strong>&comma; it is available to stream or purchase <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B07DPF6XTW&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B07DPF6XTW&amp&semi;linkId&equals;26436557fd7ac3a844ecb29e57808aa3">via Amazon here<&sol;a>&period; To read more movie reviews like this one&comma; check out the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film Homepage<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Exit mobile version