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Unwanted, The
Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: July 14th, 2015.
Director: Bret Wood
Cast: Hannah Fierman, William Katt, Christen Orr
Year: 2014
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The Movie:
Directed by Bret Wood, the man who gave us Hell's Highway and Psychopathia Sexualis, 2014's The Unwanted is a modernized take on Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla who is played in the film by Christen Orr. She's a drifter, arriving in a small town in hopes of discovering what happened to her mother, Millarca Karnstein (Kylie Brown). All Carmilla really has to go off of is Millarca's last known address, which just so happens to be in the small southern town where Laura (Hannah Fierman) and her father, Troy (William Katt), live. She meets them and Troy explains to her that the house she thought Millarca lived in has been sitting vacant for ages.
Shortly thereafter, Carmilla runs into Laura at a restaurant. They sit down and talk and it quickly becomes obvious that Laura is attracted to Carmilla in some fashion. She also tells her that Troy wasn't completely honest with her about Millarca because although she didn't live in the house she did live in a trailer nearby on the property. Armed with this knowledge, Carmilla decides to stick around a bit and try to figure out just what it is that happened to her mother and much to Troy's dismay, Laura winds up helping her with this. As it turns out, however, Troy has his reasons for not being at all pleased with this turn of events…
This one definitely takes its time getting going and even when it does find the right pace with which to execute it story, there are a few noticeable missteps made. There is, however, some really impressive atmosphere here. Wood has a keen eye for locations and the cinematography in the movie is typically very strong as is the lighting. Relocating the story of Carmilla to the modern south is an interesting choice and from a visual perspective, Wood definitely makes it work. The movie also offers up the sex and blood that you'd expect or even require from an adaptation of the story. Granted, it doesn't really get there until later and once it does, because of the pacing, it feels a bit jarring but the lesbian vampire overtones are no longer overtones and they wind up taking center stage, at least for a while.
The acting is okay. Not amazing by any stretch but Christen Orr has pretty decent screen presence that works to the movie's advantage. Hannah Fierman also has good screen presence - her large, dark eyes framed by her long black hair give her a very striking appearance that really suits the character she's been cast as. Those who know her only from her work in V/H/S will be intrigued to see her in a more restrained role here and she pulls it off. The rest of the cast are hit and miss, but the two female leads do decent enough work here to at least keep us in the moment.
Had the pacing been tighter and the supporting players more interesting, this would have probably gotten better reception than it has, but as it stands this is a decent slow burn of a lesbian vampire movie with some interesting twists and quirks.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Unwanted arrives on Blu-ray in AVC encoded 1080p high definition looking just fine here framed at 1.78.1. Shot digitally the image is as pristine as you'd expect it to be while fine detail is consistently impressive. Color reproduction is spot on and there are no problems with any blooming or over/under saturation. We also get nice inky blacks and plenty of muted earth tones and grays used throughout that contrast nicely with some of the more colorful bits in the movie. Skin tones look great, nice and accurate, and there's never any waxiness or smearing. Contrast is solid and aside from a little bit of shimmering here and there, the image is a very strong one.
The only audio option on the disc is an English language LPCM 2.0 Stereo track, there are no alternate language options or subtitles provided here. The levels jump around more than they should on this track, meaning that you'll turn things up to hear some occasionally hushed dialogue and then find yourself reaching for the remote to turn it down when the music kicks in. As such, the balance isn't so hot and definitely could have been better. Aside from that, things are clear enough and there are no hiss or distortion related problems.
The main extra on the disc is a making-of documentary that runs just over nine minutes. Here we get a look at what went into making the movie by way of some footage shot during the production and some cast and crew interviews. The disc also includes a short film that Bret Wood made called The Other Half. It's a seventeen minute piece made in 2008. Aside from that, we get a few deleted scenes (just over thirteen minutes of material here), two theatrical trailers, menus and chapter selection.
The Final Word:
The Unwanted has moments that really work and it tells a decent story but it does occasionally get buried under its own ambitions. It's slick in terms of its look and it is an attractive looking picture but some of the performances are uneven. Still, fans of southern gothic style horror with a taste for low budget/indy movies will probably find enough to like about it to give it a shot despite its imperfections. Kino's Blu-ray has some problems with balance in the audio department but it does look quite nice and the extras included are fairly interesting.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
