THE UNNAMABLE

"From the depths of hell comes..."

1988 - Color - 87 minutes - R - Director: Jean-Paul Ouellette

"Two modern day college students who hear the tale of a lady in the 1800's who gave birth to a monstrous baby which, too ugly to name, became known as the "Unnamable". The creature having brutally slaughtered his family was trapped in a vault. Foolishly they decide to see the vault for themselves..."

A failed attempt to cash in on the success of Re-Animator and the cult status of From Beyond. The only thing this movie shares with the previous two is that it is named after an H.P. Lovecraft short story. What this movie has to do with the story its supposedly based on is the title and that the movie and story both start with two friends recalling ghost stories in a graveyard. From there the movie deteriorates into an attempt at a cliche 80's teenage slash romp. It only takes an hour or so to get to it, although, it feels like two.

The whole film centers around the haunted Winthrope house and if the hauntings are true or not. Is the story of "the Unnamable" actual fact or town lore that was passed down year after year for some unknown reason? The movie doesn't build at a fast enough pace and the little glimpses of the monster you do see are out of focus, in the dark or look like cheap leftovers from the Night Gallery effects department. When you finally see the monster at the climax (the last 3 minutes?) its not worth the wait and fairly under-whelming. Don't get me wrong the monster is really good. A blood spewig-androgynous-corpse white-goat demon that unfortunately spends its last moments battling to its death hissing at a tree.

Cheap thrills, boring predictable sex scenes and bad acting is what this movie is filled with. This film was obviously written by a huge Lovecraft fan because everything regarding "the Unnamable" would only make sense to anyone who has read his work. If you aren't familiar with the references you'd be pretty lost and bored by this movie. Case in point: the Necronomicon makes an appearance without the history or sheer importance of this tome explained. Its so casually presented I almost forgot it was of any value in the world of Lovecraft. 

My ultimate suggestion is pass on this or be smart and read the short story (it'll take you 10 minutes). Then watch the last 15 minutes of the movie. It'd be a better experience.

This movie has a sequel which is surprisingly much better and stars John Rhys-Davies.