I have been watching a fair number of films for review in recent weeks that could be accused of sometimes taking themselves a little too seriously. It was nice then to see that Phil Herman (It's A Wonderful Slice) has helped make a new horror anthology - Phil Herman's Unearthed. As well as a wraparound segment, there are four short films contained within, revolving around the idea of a mystery being uncovered.
The wraparound segment written by Herman has a graverobber (Christopher Kahler) digging up the obscure grave of a woman. In the coffin he finds an old tome, which he takes. Later on he reads to the viewer four different tales about unsolved mysteries and what really happened in them. As a wraparound it was functional, aside from the prologue there wasn't actually a story to it. Perfectly fine, there doesn't always need to be one.
The first short proper is the Derek Braasch directed 'Ties That Bind', and at around forty minutes long, this was the lengthiest entry. This crime thriller starred Joseph Martin Jauch as Detective Herman. Years in the past he had solved a nasty murder in which his sister-in-law had been murdered. His work led him to the conclusion that it was his father-in-law who had committed the crime. However, in present day, he is starkly reminded of that prior crime when investigating the site where a woman went missing, and spotting similarities that seem to suggest the same killer has struck again. With the father-in-law still in prison, Herman begins to suspect he might have got the wrong person all those years ago. This one was interesting enough, even if part of the story did seem obvious from the get-go. I did like the ending to this that was pretty fun, and it had the biggest cast out of any of the films contained within the anthology.
Following this was the sci-fi themed 'Look Towards the Sky', written and directed by Will Devokees. A man who had gone missing three days earlier suddenly reappears, bringing with him tales of an alien abduction. The biggest problem with this twenty minute short was how little actually happens in it. A large chunk of the story has the abductee sitting in a room talking to his family about his experience. When there is a need for special effects, they were fine, if fairly obvious that they were CG and not practical effects. With a less dull character, and more sci-fi stuff shown, this might have been improved somewhat.
The third short is a slight improvement, 'Clean House' was directed by Marcelo Fabani and was the only one not to be in English. It starts off in a rough way with a prologue sequence that was silent save for the soundtrack. With the artificial film grain added to the footage it looked a bit strange. I did like 'Moonlight Sonata' being used as the backing music. This was a film about demonic possession, which finally got moving when it got to that part. The first five or so minutes of this seemed pointless and mostly unrelated to what follows. I always have time for demonic possession in horrors, and so that part saved this one for me.
The final short also happened to be the best, 'Highway Rivalry' was about a prolific serial killer who kills his victims while out on the road. After her deadbeat husband dies suddenly, Teri (Debbie D) decides to pack her bags and leave. Out hitchhiking, she is picked up by a stranger (Herman), who it turns out might be the killer. Out to stop him is Detective Athan (Mike E. Pringle), whose latest evidence has him finally getting a good lead. I liked this one, it seemed to take itself less seriously than others, in particular with the delivery of the lines, such as the amusing different voices playing out over a radio show at the start. Some of the twists might have been obvious, but later bonkers ones were certainly not. Decent enough makeup effects for corpses, and some nicely integrated flashback sequences.
Unearthed was very indie in its feel but it was enjoyable to watch. Herman and his anthologies are always at the very least entertaining. Some of the shorts here were definitely not as good as others, maybe a little too talky and light on action, but overall this wasn't a bad film. Phil Herman's Unearthed will be available at the end of December on DVD, Blu-ray and VHS, and will be streaming on multiple platforms in 2025.
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