Unearthed (2008)

Unearthed starts late one night as a petrol tanker drives along an isolated desert highway, suddenly something runs out in front of the truck & in an attempt to swerve the driver loses control & crashes. The Highway is completely blocked & with the local gas station out of petrol no-one is going anywhere fast. Sheriff Annie Flynn (Emmanuelle Vaugier) investigates the crash & finds a strange chunk of flesh on the truck, taking it to local biologist Caya (Beau Garrett) to run some tests on the results are surprising, the substance seems totally alien & unlike Caya has ever seen before. Then the small town comes under attack from a mutant alien creature that has been dug up by Kale (Luke Goss) after being in suspended animation for thousands of years, the alien is now awake & looking for food as it viciously kills anyone it comes across...Also known as Alien Rising & Deep Fear this was written & directed by Matthew Leutyler & was one of the '8 Films to Die For' shown at the 2007 Afterdark Horrorfest & to be fair I don't think Unearthed was nearly as bad as some of the IMDb comments would suggest, as far as routine Alien (1979) rip-offs go I'd say Unearthed was alright & even had a few positive aspects. When I say Unearthed is an Alien rip-off it is in the sense that some nasty slime drooling alien creature is running around in extremely dark locations killing any human within spitting distance, the only real difference is that Unearthed is set on Earth rather than in space but for all the difference it makes it doesn't matter. The script feels a little unfinished or maybe Unearthed was cut down to come in under 90 minutes, character's & situations are set-up but never come to anything. The Sheriff & her drinking problem, the hostility of the locals towards her, some kid or other dying that has something to do with her, the two women in the truck, the guy broke down on the side of the road, the annoying Native American mysticism that is hinted at, Kale's personal grudge, the grandfather's mission & other details that are never properly followed up or resolved or explored. Unearthed just feels a little unfinished with the plot trying to go in various directions but never succeeding for whatever reason. The character's are the usual clichés, the town Sheriff, a handy biologist who gets all the scientific exposition, a cowardly one, a wise old one, an antagonist & some cardboard alien food. To be fair the film moves along at a decent pace, there's enough incident, gore, slimy alien attacks & near misses to keep one entertained. While certainly not the deepest or most original alien on the loose film Unearthed is perfectly watchable to an extent.Again, while the other IMDb user comments may suggest the special effects are awful they really aren't that bad at all. If you've ever seen any of the awful CGI effects work from any Sy-Fy Channel film or (shudder) The Asylum then you will think the ones in Unearthed are brilliant by comparison. The alien here looks too much like the alien from Alien, if you know what I mean. All tall, thin, lots of sharp pointy teeth that drip slime everywhere & a long tail. There's some really good gore here, there are ripped apart cattle, ripped in half bodies, a guy with half his head sliced off, a guy with the top of his head missing, plenty of slashings, bites, blood splatter & chewed up, mutilated bodies. If your looking for an Alien rip-off with blood & gore then look no further.Filmed in Salt Lake City in Utah the production values are very good, Unearthed is generally well made but it does get far too dark towards the end. So dark in fact it's sometimes impossible to tell what's going on which is a shame, there's a little too much shaky camera work & quick fire editing as well at times. The acting is alright, former British pop star Luke Goss has a small role.Unearthed is a decent little Alien rip-off, it has competent CGI work, a large body count & lots of gory violence. It moves along at a nice pace & at least tries to be scary & suspenseful even if it can't quite pull it off, by no means the worst horror film out there but at the same time nothing new or particularly special.

These scuzzball horror flicks share the same handful of shopworn techniques and stock characters. In this case, there are the dimly lit interiors and nocturnal exteriors, the cartoonish "urban" black guy, the cute but ditzy starlet-wannabe, the noble Native American, the don't-mess-with-me hardass, the alarmed scientist nobody listens to until it's too late, the "Alien" ripoff monster, the interminable and absolutely pointless conversations and creeping around cluttered sets -- and, last but not least, one character who's gone all guilty and depressed and alcoholic over some mistake he or she once made, and who, we have to admit, would probably be better off dead. In this movie, it's ***************SPOILER ALERT*************** the lady sheriff, whose flashbacks about the little girl she accidentally killed make it very clear that she will sacrifice herself in the end to kill the monster and save her friends. Which she does. The scientist and the ditzy blond survive, everyone else is killed. And most of the time when there's a sudden noise and everyone spins around and points their guns at it, it's just one of the other characters tripping over something. Also, I think it has something to do with nuclear testing (it takes place in New Mexico), so it's kind of a Godzilla movie underneath it all. There, now you don't have to see it.

You mention similarity to the film Relic but it seems to me that Unearthed is a slightly altered form of the story line of the popular film Tremors. The doughty townsfolk of a small, isolated town band together to battle creatures that suddenly appear from underground. The town is conveniently cut off by something blocking the only road. The creatures seem to be of this earth but unknown until now. But where Tremors had humor and excitement and great special effects, this film has nothing. While watching Tremors it's easy to believe these creatures are real. While watching Unearthed I was constantly jarred by changes in sound level and inexplicable changes in mood from a psychological study of a young, female sheriff to a typical monster slasher film with odd bits of Indian legend and modern science thrown in. Add the dark, fuzzy action scenes and you have a real mess. It's like a stew made by an inept cook. Go rent a copy of Tremors and avoid watching Unearthed. You'll be glad you did.

Officially in the top 3 worst movies I've ever seen. The lightning, or lack thereof, is astoundingly horrible, 80% of the time you will be trying to figure out what's going on. The plot is inane and you never really care about anyone or anything that's happening, character development is non-existent, and the monster is boring. For me, the bad CGI is forgivable, but everything else in this train wreck is not.Worst of all , this movie is about as scary as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. There are no good scares and nothing memorable. Although, there is one hilarious scene worth mentioning; an explosion that blows a character back and she does a full flip in mid-air.Painful to sit through, the best part was the end.