The Unknown

Dogma-esque horror flick. Five biologists camped out to examine the site of burned down forest discover early an odd, unidentifiable but immediately and mysteriously disgusting "thing." Though the ending's too pat, as if somebody's seen too many b/w "Outer Limits," color video, real actors, lots of daylight, and just enough relationship horror expertly mixed with the horror film horror make this much scarier than "Blair Witch." Note also that, though all the action takes place in the open, in the somewhat desert-like burned out forest, the story's claustrophobic. No journeys, no premature attempts to trek out. It's all pretty much right there where it starts. You end up knowing the place, and dreading it, nearly as well as the characters do. Didn't hit me until just now, but Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Distance" has a structure similar to both this film and the much inferior "Blair Witch." "The Unknown" and "Distance" both resemble the surreally claustrophobic "The Exterminating Angel.

Five geologists go out to a forest, where a quite big area has burned down, to investigate the reasons for this happening. They find a species that has never been seen before and soon, one of the geologists starts to behave strangely. Does this creature has anything to do with the fire and with the accidents that occur?

I can't really say that I had high expectations on this hybrid of "The Blair Which Project" (1999) and "Body Snatchers" (1993), but I have to admit, that it wasn't bad at all. The acting and the directing is fair, not sensational, but still good. The script is cleverer than I could ever have imagined from this movie: there are surprisingly many one-liners and some sequences are exciting and even kind of scary in its best bits. The only thing that drags the rating down a bit is the shaky camera work, similar to the one in "The Blair Which Project". I honestly felt sick after half an hour, not to mention how I felt afterwards. Otherwise, an overall good movie, but don't forget to bring a bag with you - simply in case of emergency. Rating: 6/10

a really scary and entertaining movie!see it! it really freaks you out! don't watch this alone if you are easy scared! i was really freaked out when I saw this and me and my friends were really scared and after that we watched the hot chick (bad and predictable) so we could relax...

The comments above sums it up quite good, but there is one thing that is worth to point out. For some reason, most horror movies from Sweden tend to keep an ironic distance towards them self (Evil Ed and Frostbite for instance). This is an exception. It feels serious and it would be a shame if it will be forgotten.

The actors are great. Better than a lot of bigger productions.

The comparing with Blair which project are totally uncalled for. A lot of movies where filmed with hand held DV-cameras those days. The equipment triggered a lot of new low budget films, thats all.

(sorry for the crappy language, but I seldom write in English)

This movie is in the same mould as Blair Witch Project, but this time with five Swedish people to encounter strange happenings. The director manage to create realism into the characters, how would you react? The film manage to lift itself up from mediocrity, it is so easy to compare with similar movies and discard this, but it has something going for it. I would say it is fairly well made (even though it is a low-low budget movie, filmed in only 7 days) and will give credit to the makers of this film to take the chance on this project. I watched it and found it entertaining.