The Unknown (2000) User Reviews

Totally OK

[film-16 · 6/10 · 4 October 2000]

This low-budget film is quite good, I must say. It smells Blair witch long way, but still it contains some new cool and different things. The actors is totally OK, and the dialog is sometimes really funny and way above average! This film is not so scary, Blair witch is far more frightening, but still it is very watchable. A big plus for director Michael Hjort!

The mark: 3 out of 5.

6/10

[Nikita Averin · 6/10 · 5 October 2000]

Five geologists go out to a forest, where a quite big area has burned down, to investigate the reasons for this happening. They find a species that has never been seen before and soon, one of the geologists starts to behave strangely. Does this creature has anything to do with the fire and with the accidents that occur?

I can't really say that I had high expectations on this hybrid of "The Blair Which Project" (1999) and "Body Snatchers" (1993), but I have to admit, that it wasn't bad at all. The acting and the directing is fair, not sensational, but still good. The script is cleverer than I could ever have imagined from this movie: there are surprisingly many one-liners and some sequences are exciting and even kind of scary in its best bits. The only thing that drags the rating down a bit is the shaky camera work, similar to the one in "The Blair Which Project". I honestly felt sick after half an hour, not to mention how I felt afterwards. Otherwise, an overall good movie, but don't forget to bring a bag with you - simply in case of emergency. Rating: 6/10

Unknown but not entirely Unloved

[Coventry · 6/10 · 13 March 2008]

What's the worst thing that could happen to a director? I imagine it would be getting accused of shamelessly ripping off an original movie idea, even though it never was the intention and everything's just a matter of bad timing. When "The Unknown" came out, not too many people were interested in seeing it because most press reviews stated it wasn't much more than a lame imitation of "The Blair Witch Project". But in reality, this modest Swedish low-budget film was as good as finished when "BWP" played in the theaters and, even if it did influence Michael Hjorth in some way, it must have only been during the post-production phase. In all honesty, "The Unknown" is also a much better film than the annoying and way overrated "Blair Witch Project", which – by the way – is nothing more than a hypocrite imitation of "Cannibal Holocaust". That being said, the script for "The Unknown" obviously found most of its inspiration in the classic Sci-Fi concept of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". The use of hand-held cameras, with shaky movements and extreme close-ups of the inside of people's nostrils, might be reminiscent of "Blair Witch", but the premise of something unearthly and evil prowling a remote area and gradually taking humans is purely old-fashioned horror greatness. The plot centers on five friends and amateur environmentalists driving up north to research the effects on the fauna & flora after an immensely destructive forest fire. On the first day already, the quintet stumbles upon some type of unidentifiable and rotting carcass and decide to perform a pathological examination. Meanwhile, one of the girls falls ill and inexplicably runs into the woods at night. Ingar behaves increasingly freakish, as if she's no longer herself and taken over by someone – or something – different. Hjorth clearly couldn't rely on a large budget, so don't expect any gory Alien-esquire situations or even detailed glimpses at the "thing", for that matter. "The Unknown" purely thrives on an atmosphere that is constant and sheer ominous from start to finish. For some reason I cannot quite formulate, the Swedish woods appear to be far more menacing than the American ones and the characters are at least amiable and "normal". Sadly enough, the story and style characteristics are far from perfect. The unstable camera gives the impression there's a sixth group member tagging along and the sets are underexposed. But the giant holes and severe elements of indistinctness in the script are what truly bothered me. The actual link between the forest fire and the alien substance is never made clear. Did he cause the fire or did he specifically select the dead region because it's the best biotope? The finale is predictable and clichéd, but endings like this will always remain at least a bit unsettling nevertheless, so no harsh complaints there. Interesting and worthwhile film, as long as you're not too demanding and/or expecting something groundbreaking and new.

Oh My God, What's THAT!?

[frankgaipa · 1 January 2003]

Dogma-esque horror flick. Five biologists camped out to examine the site of burned down forest discover early an odd, unidentifiable but immediately and mysteriously disgusting "thing." Though the ending's too pat, as if somebody's seen too many b/w "Outer Limits," color video, real actors, lots of daylight, and just enough relationship horror expertly mixed with the horror film horror make this much scarier than "Blair Witch." Note also that, though all the action takes place in the open, in the somewhat desert-like burned out forest, the story's claustrophobic. No journeys, no premature attempts to trek out. It's all pretty much right there where it starts. You end up knowing the place, and dreading it, nearly as well as the characters do. Didn't hit me until just now, but Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Distance" has a structure similar to both this film and the much inferior "Blair Witch." "The Unknown" and "Distance" both resemble the surreally claustrophobic "The Exterminating Angel.

Above mediocre

[mix-scene1 · 5/10 · 4 February 2001]

This movie is in the same mould as Blair Witch Project, but this time with five Swedish people to encounter strange happenings. The director manage to create realism into the characters, how would you react? The film manage to lift itself up from mediocrity, it is so easy to compare with similar movies and discard this, but it has something going for it. I would say it is fairly well made (even though it is a low-low budget movie, filmed in only 7 days) and will give credit to the makers of this film to take the chance on this project. I watched it and found it entertaining.

This movie is a must see if you are interested in Swedish horror cinema.

[ekwall_peter · 6/10 · 20 April 2008]

The comments above sums it up quite good, but there is one thing that is worth to point out. For some reason, most horror movies from Sweden tend to keep an ironic distance towards them self (Evil Ed and Frostbite for instance). This is an exception. It feels serious and it would be a shame if it will be forgotten.

The actors are great. Better than a lot of bigger productions.

The comparing with Blair which project are totally uncalled for. A lot of movies where filmed with hand held DV-cameras those days. The equipment triggered a lot of new low budget films, thats all.

(sorry for the crappy language, but I seldom write in English)

awful movie flick!

[Aarseth1721 · 1/10 · 4 November 2005]

When I was going to see this movie, I had an open mind. Low budget Swedish film should have lit a warning lamp in my head, but not enough to avoid seeing it! 'Cause this is a really, really horrible movie with a plot that is sooo cheasy, you can't possibly imagine why, oh why, they got money whatsoever to make this movie. The whole story is set to the no-man-lands in Sweden where it have been a forest fire. 4 young Swedish scientists comes to this area to see what the impact in the nature have been. As they search through the area for evidences, one of the crew members find a dead thing in which they can't identify. They take it with them home, due to perform an autopsy later. When they later on do that, it turns out that this thing is something none of them have ever seen. They leave it outside, but a little bit later, they find out that it's gone. In fact, this "thing" start to infect one by one of the crew with a disease that make them go crazy, and makes them start to hunt on the others. Just as crappy as the plot, the movie is a real horrific show-off in "how to not make a movie"-genre! Mark my words, this is a movie you WANT to avoid!

Not bad at all

[Magnus-83 · 6/10 · 6 June 2005]

Plot, short version: "Det Okända" ("The Unknown") is a low-budget horror/suspense flick about five young biologists investigating the environmental effects of a forest fire in a woodland area in northern Sweden. After a couple of days and nights in a camp consisting of a caravan and a couple of tents, they discover something else... Or maybe it's more pertinent to say that something discovers them?

I like this movie. The actors/actresses are young, talented and believable. The setting and environment used for shooting this flick feels OK too - Although it was shot in a national park just south of Stockholm (Sweden), about a thousand kilometers from where the movie is supposed to take place. But most of us won't notice such differences, trees are trees to a city slicker like me.

This movie suffers from a unjustly deserved reputation as a kind of "Blair Witch Project-rip off", probably because it was released a couple of years after BWP. In my opinion, this is totally wrong. Yes, it is a low-budget production, and yes, it takes place in a wood. But I would personally demand more similarities than that to deem it a BWP-rip off. (Think about it, there are quite a few low-budget horror flicks shot in some dark forest somewhere.) If I'd make a comparison between those two movies, I would definitely pick "Det Okända" as the better one. The actors are more skilled and experienced, the plot feels more solid*, and actually comes to some kind of conclusion, although it won't conclude much. And of course, what's more entertaining than three hysterical youngsters in a dark forest? Well, five hysterical youngsters in a dark forest. ;-)

So, summan av kardemumman, as we say in Sweden, I give this movie 6 acorns out of 10. Not really a screamer, but not a dozer either, for that matter.

------------------

* With "more", i mean in the way that a tree is likely to be more intelligent than a rock, duh.

Det okända= Not very good at all

[mr_dark · 2/10 · 7 March 2002]

Det okända is like a Swedish copy of "Blair witch project", so if you have seen BWP you know the concept. A couple of people decides to take a trip in the woods, to do some experiments and stuffs like that. But the monster isn´t a witch,it is a creature that looks just like "grilled chicken" Not very scary at all, but this movie is actually better than BWP. I didn´t like BWP at all, and i´m not so fond of Det okända either. But if you like B-style horror movies, and have BWP as your favorite movie. See Det okända, perhaps you like it. I did not,now im going to check Halloween instead. 2/10

Terror in the burned forest.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 7/10 · 16 October 2010]

Five young biologists stumble across what looks like the remains of an alien creature while conducting soil research in a burned Swedish forest.The members of the group start to act strange one by one..."The Unknown" by Michael Hjorth is obviously inspired by "The Blair Witch Project" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers".The acting of unknown cast is convincing and the atmosphere of paranoia is well-captured.The film was shot with hand-held cameras.We can't even see 'the creature' properly."The Unknown" relies more on the power of suggestion than cheap shocks and gore.If you enjoyed "Dark Woods" or "The Blair Witch Project" give this one a chance.The burned forest is truly eerie.7 out of 10.

Scary as hell

[SicMX · 9/10 · 13 January 2005]

This is an awesome horror movie. It's a very creepy movie that will make you at the woods in a different way. It's a good movie to watch in a trailer or cabin in the woods, just to spice things up. I don't get how the rating is so bad cause this one should have deserved way more. It's also not as scary if you don't understand Swedish. There are basically no visual effects in the movie that are scary it's just that the atmosphere and the characters reactions that make is frightening. There is one visual thing in the end that they should have left out cause that looked really Johny, but other that that this film is great.

This goes for all horror movies, don't watch it at daytime, it spoils the atmosphere

Better than "The Blair Witch Project"

[Psycho Mantis · 8/10 · 20 June 2001]

Five young biologists are sent to the northern regions of Sweden to investigate a forest fire. They will live in a caravan and tents out in the woods for some weeks, while they perform some tests. But something does not smell right... Soon they find a peculiar and burned carcass, which kind of look like an animal, only not. But this is just the beginning. Pretty soon, the biologists start behaving strange, one by one. Against their will, they have walked into the unknown...

At first, "Det Okända", or "The Unknown" in English, was accused of being a Blair Witch-rip off, but those were actually the words of the people who had seen the trailer and not the film itself. The trailer looks pretty much like The Blair Witch Project, but the movie is very different. It might have been a bad idea to market the movie in this way, which might be one of the reasons that the movie didn´t do that well at the Swedish theaters.

No, "Det Okända" is more like the masterpiece "The Thing", by John Carpenter, in which you never really knew who you could trust. The only things that reminds of BWP are the location and the shaky hand cameras. In fact, "Det Okända" is better than BWP in all ways. Better acting (all the actors are great), it´s much scarier and the script is more interesting and suggestive. It feels like a classic B-movie, really. It´s not just the best Swedish horror movie I´ve ever seen, it´s actually one of the best Swedish films ever!

Camping will never be the same.

* * * * out of * * * * *

This movie is actually really good!

[asperyd · 8/10 · 31 October 2001]

I didn't have very high expectations when I started watching this movie, but it is actually a really good! Its style reminds about the Blair Witch Project, but it is not exactly the same since the scenes are not supposed to be filmed by the persons in the movie as is the case with Blair Witch.

The acting is surprisingly good, and I would also say that despite the low budget the filming is excellent and effectful. Maybe I'm easily frightened, but I think this movie is at least as scary as Blair Witch.

To conclude: if you enjoy horror movies that does not follow the typical hollywood style, and actually want to watch one where the focus is on building up an interesting and frightening story rather than creating cool effects, then this might be the movie for you!

Really Really Good!

[linneanor · 31 January 2004]

a really scary and entertaining movie!see it! it really freaks you out! don't watch this alone if you are easy scared! i was really freaked out when I saw this and me and my friends were really scared and after that we watched the hot chick (bad and predictable) so we could relax...

It is actually kind of creepy!

[Motorskallen · 9/10 · 13 January 2004]

I liked this movie! The director of the film, Anders Jacobsson, who is more wellknown for the splattermovie "Evil Ed", did an excellent job when he did this creepy horror movie. I voted and gave it 9 out of 10. The only thing I miss is good acting. And this is - except from Poltergeist - the only horror movie I've ever seen in which nobody dies, and I got dissapointed on the end.

And I never understood one thing - what was it they found in the forrest? Was it a fried chicken or an overlarge rotten hamburger?

The shaky camera project.

[Libra-4 · 9 October 2000]

Stop me if you heard this before- A small group of people in a remote isolated place, encounters a strange alien being who begins to take over their bodies and... oh you have heard it- okay- how but this- A small group of people goes in to a deep forest to investigate a strange phenomena. They gets lost in the woods and are soon being chased by some unknown... okay- you have heard that too. Okay- this is simply "The Blair witch project" and "The thing" mixed together with the help of some "dogma-we-shakes-the-camera-until-it-falls-apart-because-we-are-not-American " type of film making who makes it look like the camera sometimes are hanging from the neck of a psychotic kangaroo with a severe drinking problem. The movie is a very good example on what happens when a couple of people with no original ideas makes a movie. A tip- buy a tripod.

Blair Witch fans should apply.

[dualexaust2002 · 10/10 · 7 October 2006]

Well I had been searching for this movie for over a year before I finally got my hands on it. Afterall this movie is from Sweden and I live in the US.

I had heard the rumors: Blair Witch Project copycat. This statement is not entirely true though... There is a lot of simularties, and its obvious that the director was heavily inspired by Blair.. But this one is good enough to stand on its own.

No ghosts, no aliens (you don't actually see any kind of creature other then the dead chicken looking thing in the beginning).. This movie relies on suspense alone. Was there something out in those woods that made these 5 scientists go insane? We don't get the answer.

What irritates me the most here is that the movie is shot with a shaky handcam... yet there is no explanation of it. Why is the movie shot like this when there isn't a 6th person with them shooting the footage? I honestly think adding a cameraman to the story would be more reasonable then the shakeyness for no reason... you can even see the cameraman's shadow at one point.. come on now, if you're gonna ride on Blair's success at least go all the way with it.

Other then that - a perfect horror movie.

Blair Witch meets Alien

[insomnia · 19 July 2002]

It's bad enough to see a film that's so totally derivative of a film like "The Blair Witch Project" (which I found a yawn, anyway), but to then add insult to injury by adding the key premise of "Alien", to the plot, is not only absolutely ludicrous, but an insult to viewers. Through directors like Ingmar Bergman, Sweden has produced world-class cinema. This film, "The Unknown", has set the Swedish Film Industry back decades.

Much better than its reputation

[paxter · 10/10 · 7 April 2001]

Was actually quite surprised over how scary this movie is. Saw it on a Saturday afternoon and picked it off the shelf quite randomly. The dialogue is sometimes hard to follow due to lack of subtitles (saw it in Swedish), but it is really nothing like BWP. I gave BWP a 10 out of 10 and this one deserves the same rating. What it does have, that BWP lacks is a story. There is actually a plot in this film. It is really a combination of a psychological thriller and a horror movie. With some parts from both genres, which, combined, makes a really good 1 1/2 hour of entertainment. You don't want to go camping the day after, though.

Scary

[Musicbear · 22 August 2004]

First of all, I really don't know why people keep comparing this to 'The Blair Witch Project'.

Yes, it's a low budget movie that takes place in a forest, which REALLY isn't unique for 'The Blair Witch Project'. In fact, most low budget horror movies I have seen have been shot in some nearby forest. And that's also where the similarities end since this movie has actors, a script, a story with a plot that is far more similar to 'The Puppet Masters'/'Body Snatchers' and, best of all, no hysterically screaming teens.

I haven't rated it yet, since I'm not yet sure exactly what grade I'm gonna give it, but it's gonna be higher than 'The Blair Witch Project'.

just a though :)

[edh · 10/10 · 5 September 2002]

I write this because all my friends hate this movie, ..think if it would have happened to you and your friends in real, then it would be very scary!. Myself i think this is a movie with good atmosphere, spookie characters and a nice place to do a horror film in - The Wood.

A rental is it well worth, i think this is a love or hate movie just like the movie "Natural Born Killers" ;-- love this flick too :)

Swedish low budget treasure

[scndsky · 8/10 · 19 November 2015]

I came across this rather obscure title in my local library. I'm a fan of psychological horror movies and the description of The Unknown spoke to me. It's made by a couple of friends who decided to shoot a horror in a week time with a tight budget. The acting is surprisingly good and the actors used their real first names as their character names. The scenario inherits elements from its teachers: there's some Alien, some Body Snatchers and some The Thing. The sometimes shaky camera, the forest setting and the low budget approach may remind you of The Blair Witch Project, a movie that was released in the same year and sadly overshadowed this movie.

My opinion? The Swedes pulled it off great. It's one of my favorites in the genre. But before you think this is the new Alien, I must say that The Unknown doesn't come close to the perfection of those classic Hollywood productions. It has certain flaws (some plot twists are textbook examples, some questions are left unanswered), but, and this is of most importance, the atmosphere is right, the tension is ever present and you can really be "in" the movie.

I also recommend this to fans of blond Swedish women in red turtlenecks.

Captivating

[searchanddestroy-1 · 9/10 · 29 January 2022]

Of course, it belongs to the dozens CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST or BLAIR WITCH PROJECT rip offs. The last one I saw was titled RITUAL from 2017. Footage or not movies and horror oriented. This one is rather effective, thrilling, powerful, and not boring at all. It is always the same scheme and ingredients too but if you are stuck to it, it makes it in the end. Among the best I have seen in the genre.