Tim F. Martin 2008-10-24
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I saw _Unearthed_ on the Sci Fi Channel recently as one of its Sci Fi movies of the week (usually every Saturday night and sometimes on Sunday night). Though in years past they had been unwatchable and awful I think the last two years they had considerably improved in terms of casting, acting, writing, production values, and special effects. Heck even the titles have gotten more sophisticated; it used to endlessly amuse my friends and I that it wasn't hard to guess what _Ogre_ or _Basilisk_ was about.
The premise of this movie was pretty good. There is a small town in the American Southwest, the site of some mysterious dig in Anasazi ruins, a dig that unearths something awful, something alive. We don't know much about what is uncovered at first but it is terrible and the creature unleashed kills the driver of a tanker trunk of much needed gas for the town's apparently only filling station, destroying the truck and blocking the road. The townsfolk, mostly ranchers, and a few people passing through the area are stranded, at first merely upset at the inconvenience but later worried as something is killing livestock and then people.
It is up to the town's sheriff, Annie Flynn, played rather well by the attractive Emmanuelle Vaugier, to investigate. She is apparently something of an alcoholic, not because she is a worthless individual but because she is still dealing with stress and grief from some un-discussed (at first) trauma in her recent past involving a little girl and a hostage situation. Most in the town dislike her, saying openly to her face that they will gladly vote her out of her job at the next town meeting (there are overtones of sexism too). Annie acknowledges this but still says she has a job to do and with her loyal deputy does the best she can to calm the townsfolk and find out what is afoot. She does have a few supporters, including the grandfatherly Native American man who owns the filing station and his visiting botanist daughter who is there ostensibly to help her grandfather but really still doing research (thus explaining the useful lab equipment at the gas station that come to such good use later).
The movie becomes basically a story of the scientist trying to understand the creature and find a way to defeat it (its background, while underdeveloped, I have to admit was interesting) while in other scenes Annie tries to keep the townsfolk and travelers alive and kill the monster.
The monster special effects were pretty good though the creature could have been shown more often. I think they still have problems making CGI creations really "live" in a physical environment with sets and actors, probably part of the reason why these movies tend to gravitate towards flying creatures (look at all the Sci Fi Channel movies of the week involving gargoyles, sphinxes, gryphons, pterosaurs, and dragons). At times it still didn't seem part of the same world but I think they have made great strides in that area.
The movie does have its flaws. I thought some of the characters were a bit underdeveloped or even stereotypical, such as the very loyal, over earnest deputy, the hateful, boastful, arrogant, sexist rancher tycoon, and the urbanite African-American traveler. The person doing the dig, the one who uncovered the creature, and his motives was very undeveloped and I thought the weakest thing about the movie. He came off as a bit crazy with unclear motives, not like any real scientist I have ever heard of.
