Moral-Flexibility.Net

Unsettled (2005) directed by Sam Thompson.
(Proposed Title: “I’m sure they’ll blame it on the Indians..”)
Starring Mary Morales, Gabriel Flowers, Don Hammel, Steve Dean and Karen Gauger.
Zombie Film Rating:

Teaser: In 1585 a group of pilgrims landed at what is now North Carolina. As winter set in their numbers were savaged by a chronic shortage of supplies and disease.

New evidence has been uncovered that suggests the diseases they encountered may have resulted in both the death and reanimation of their compatriots. Was it these zombies that ensured their demise?

This film suggests that very possibility.

Plot Summary: The films opens with “geneologist” Bob Thompson describing the tragic end of a group of pilgrims that landed in what is now North Carolina in 1585. Although off to a good start, as winter set in the pilgrims found themselves with insufficient supplies, and no immunities to diseases prevalent in the “new world”. He then suggests that he has found evidence that a third factor may have contributed to their failure.

We are now introduced to Pilgrims Mary and Willam. Mary sits in the forest while Willam chops wood nearby. Mary sees Thomas, a member of their group who had been presumed lost when he had failed to return from foraging nearby, stumbling over the crest of a hill. Rushing to him she discovers he is no longer the Thomas she knew, and is instead badly decomposed and intent on eating her. She’s saved by Willams timely intervention and they return to camp to ponder this development.

The group of Pilgrims has been reduced to just four members. Mary, Willam, the Reverend and Sandwhich. In response to Marys queries about the zombies the Reverend launches into a sermon, while Sandwhich loads his musket and Willam flees the camp.

Moments later zombies descend on the camp, bypass it’s sole fortification (a stack of firewood) and consume Sandwhich while Mary and the Reverend cower in a lean-to. The zombies breach the lean-to fairly easily, and while Mary grapples with a zombie the Reverend runs away, getting a few feet before a sharp branch pierces his eye and leaves him flapping his arms as zombies feast upon him.

Mary seizes this opportunity to run a few feet, kneels down and begins praying. If she was asking the lord for zombies her prayers are almost immediately answered as a zombie begins snacking on her clasped hands.

Willam returns to the camp (from where we’re never entirely sure), finds the dismembered corpses of his fellows and showing the faintest glimmer of common sense grabs Sandwhichs musket before fleeing the camp for the second time this night.

Despite his random and rapid flight he soon finds himself surrounded by zombies and climbs a tree, seeking shelter just out of arms reach of the half dozen zombies gathered below.

Critique: I like “shambling” zombies and this movie delivers good old fashioned zombies devoid of intelligence and dexterity. Sadly the same seems true of the living characters. Either through a defect in writing or execution we’re not given any insight into the characters, and barely know their names before they are relegated to zombie fodder. We’re left wondering where the zombies originated and indeed where they went after the incident detailed in the film, and worse we’re never given a glimpse of the “evidence” that suggests this version of events.

The acting and effects are sufficient, but the dialogue is trite, and serves neither to develop the characters or to advance what little plot there is. Unsure of exactly who the characters are (even in relation to each other) we watch in apathy as they are consumed in turn. I wanted to care, I really did.

I can forgive the monetary shortcomings of the film, but this effort is almost incoherent. This is not a short film so much as a montage of zombie related clips featuring period costumes.

The set and props were everything a film maker should avoid. Filmed in a national park the “pilgrim camp” is little more than a stack of firewood, an amateurish lean-to and a small fire. Even a mediocre effort at scouting should have found a better location, or more effort should have been made in the pre-production set-up. The lone firearm (a pseudo-musket) in this film appears to be home made, and is little more than a block of wood with a pipe bolted to it. It occurs to me that someone, anyone could have cobbled something more convincing together before filming began.

The Final Word: Interesting effort, but considering the length of the film I feel they could have made this a “lean and mean” zombie movie, instead of the “short and confusing” one it turned out to be. Give it a miss, unless you’re a fanatic.

Comments RSS