Soon after walking out on her husband Tony (Douglas Barr), TV reporter Jennifer Fast (Barbara Bach) sets out along with her sister Karen (Karen Lamm) and friend Vicki (Lois Young) to cover a festival in Solvang, CA. Unable to get any room for rent in the town, they accept the offer from a local museum owner Ernest Keller (Sydney Lassick) to stay the night at his place, only to find themselves at the mercy of an unseen creature hidden in the basement.
The premise of The Unseen by Danny Steinmann is somewhat appealing to horror and thriller fans but far from mind-blowing. It’s the actual sequence of events on the screen that makes the movie fairly interesting to watch. The thrill of the murderous creature in the house and the mystery of the backstory of the creepy couple in the house make the movie bearable.
The Unseen is tame by today’s standards in all departments. The imagery, however, is fairly good for a horror/slasher on a low budget film. The editing is still better and the scary moments do capture the viewer’s breath. Screenwriter Michael L. Grace deserves credit for making the story thematically appealing by showing the childless wife running for her life from a child that became a terror in a subtly ironic jab at human judgment. The husband who couldn’t give her a child returns to protect her life from those whose child became a threat to her life.
Stephen Furst as Junior stands out for his performance in the movie despite being invisible for much of the movie as demanded the plot. Other actors did an okay job. On the whole, it’s a movie you can watch if you are a big fan of the ’80s horror or die-hard fan of any of the stars.
