When I first offered to review this movie, I wasn't really sure what to expect. The trailer was equal parts intriguing and slightly concerning. On the plus side, it had an awesome theme song. On the more negative side, it looked like there were a lot of tonal inconsistencies. The trailer ended up being accurate. You can watch it and get a very good sense of whether or not this is a movie for you.
It's clearly a pretty small budget, but they used it in very solid ways. The town of Possum Trot all looked like they were actual buildings instead of just some soundstage, and there was an emphasis on practical effects over CGI. There was one image of a fiery cross that was particularly cool. It's the little things, but they add up.
There's also some interesting things happening on a general worldbuilding level. Nothing revolutionary, but this felt like a rich setting that held a lot of interesting stories. There were a lot of monsters and powers. More than I would have expected, which is always fun. I had also initially assumed that Dan's "mission from God" was metaphorical, but the emphasis on faith, redemption, and free will suggested that it was a bit more literal. I wish that the story had dug into that a bit more.
That was something that I thought often. The Sheriff is the best example of this. He was a far more interesting character to me than the Remington family. His story would have worked very well with the overarching theme of faith and redemption, and his struggles with it would have felt more earned than what we got with Dan.
Although that might say more about the Remingtons than about him. Dan is a pretty unlikable protagonist, though, and I never warmed up to him. Nor did I really warm up to Jesse or Junior. Junior really only had a couple of lines, but Jesse is positioned to be the audience surrogate/humanizing element. Unfortunately, she falls into the same trap that a lot of Strong Female Characters do in that she’s snarky, abrasive, and arrogant to everyone around her without being challenged in any way.
I do want to talk about some of the negatives on a production level. The lighting in the night scenes was way too dark, to the point where I often had no idea who was actually on screen. This is especially problematic when a lot of the fight scenes happen at night. Characters get injured or die, and I have no idea what happened or who is involved.
It also made it almost impossible to see what was a really great monster face in the opening scene. At least, I think that it was possibly great. The millisecond where I could actually make it out was great, and I really wish that I could have seen more of it.
My main drawback, however, is the script. Don’t get me wrong: it’s not bad. It’s perfectly serviceable and honestly would be right at home with any of the SyFy movies. It might actually even be one of the better ones. (I swear, that isn’t a backhanded compliment.) But every line somehow sounded and felt like an exposition dump. And while, yes, part of that has to fall on acting, I’m still assigning the majority of that to the writing itself.
It’s just overwritten. Everything is stated. Out loud. Clearly and directly. Characters regularly announce exactly what they’re thinking or feeling. There’s no room for subtext or subtlety. Sometimes, the best thing a script can do is give the actors room to convey something nonverbally, and there’s just none of that here.
It did get lampshaded a few times with Junior, but just because you scold a character for announcing their exact plan at the worst possible time, doesn’t mean you’re absolved from having him announce it in the first place.
Also, and this is getting more nitpicky, but the language used gave me whiplash. It wasn’t sure if it wanted to be modern, with insults like “dickhead,” or if it wanted to lean heavily into the “what in tarnation” side of Westerns. And hey, maybe that is an era-accurate insult. If so, I’ll gladly take this back. But it sounded wrong to my ears and distracted me a little.
Overall, Unnatural is fine. It's probably the definition of a 5/10. I have definitely seen many movies that are a lot worse, and I've seen others that are a lot better. It's fine.
Random Thoughts
For any wrestling fans, Dan Remington is played by Al Snow.
According to IMBd, there are two sequels in the works. I could be persuaded to check them out.
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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.
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