This slasher flick directed, written and produced by Marc Selz starts out interesting, but by the finale the twists and turns are so convoluted it becomes a mess. Two teenage couples are found in rural, small-town America and are feared the victims of an escaped lunatic. Sounds too damn familiar. Two detectives(Nicole Buehrer and Joe Morowitz)and the local sheriff(Joe Estevez)try to unravel the mystery. Some answers have already been answered though. How this got an "R" rating, I'll never know. It seemed to have very little objectionable content...except for the bad acting. Others in the cast: Amy Brown, Linnea Quigley, Circus-Szalewski and Robert Z'Dar.
31 Reviews
Not very enjoyable but shows some promise
bigchin_0023 December 2005
Warning: Spoilers
Most elements of a good story all appear to be here. There's a crime (really a series of crimes), some suspicious characters, and the potential for the murderer to strike again. But as I watched the story develop and progress there is one thing missing, the story lacks a hero or a heroine. It almost has the feel of a documentary as things happen (murders, suspects arise and fall) and you don't have a sense of heightening suspense. I don't agree with some of the comments here that put down a lot of the actors. I especially liked Joe Estevez as the town sheriff and Linnea Quigley as the old lady who may or may not be the murderer who turns up with hulking horror icon Bob Z'dar, they do a decent job even though burdened with some lifeless and artificial lines to say. The real actors are very good esp. compared to the rest of the cast, who I never heard of. My biggest problem is like someone else said, the ending is disconnected to the rest of the movie. It's almost impossible to judge the DVD version put out for Rockville Slayer because the image and audio quality have a lot of problems and some parts are mangled up pretty bad. Maybe it was better in the movie houses. When push comes to shove here you have some fairly good actors and actresses working against a story that is intricate but at the same time doesn't make complete sense if thats possible.
Son of Barney Fife
scott-goring24 September 2005
Warning: Spoilers
Sometimes it pays to have friends in the biz, sometimes it doesn't. My buddy works in a film distributor's office and got hold of a screener for a film called Unaware. After seeing it he called me and invited me to watch a film that would simply "rot my mind." He told me the director is notorious for faking reviews and whining to people who say they don't like his movies. The notes for Unaware said it was supposed to be about knowing who you really are. I was expecting something in the vein of Hitchcock. What I saw was something along the lines of Ed Wood, Jr. on a bad day. The story is really about some psycho who goes around skewering the usual set of cardboard characters in a small town that might have some secrets in its history. When the town's only hope rests on the narrow shoulders of a deputy who looks like he was cast as Barney Fife's twin, and whose played by some guy named, I swear, Circus, I knew there was no hope for either the town or for me. You have a whole cast full of nobodies and suddenly bad b-movie stock actors Robert Z'Dar and Linnea Quigley show up (and show their age) and you immediately know they have to be the bad guys. They get theirs in a simpleton shootout ending and then Barney Fife drives away and leaves town. One of the Fed cops is good looking but she can't act a bit. The red-herring psycho girl looked promising but she gets wasted too early. Joe Estevez proves yet again why the rest of his family shows up in A-movies and in television series and he does not. When it was all over I asked myself why do the make movies like this? What did we do to have this junk shown to us? Show this to agitated criminals and save on medication money.
So now they changed the name but they should have changed the movie. Do not waste a dime on this. See Hitchock's Frenzy instead. Or don't watch anything at all.
So now they changed the name but they should have changed the movie. Do not waste a dime on this. See Hitchock's Frenzy instead. Or don't watch anything at all.
Rubbish. Using the term actually insults true rubbish
lookinglulu20 June 2006
Warning: Spoilers
After dallying through almost 20 minutes of this amateur film my hubby remarked "What's going on with that music?" What was going on, and continued to go on until the movie finally, mercifully, faded away was that the person scoring the film apparently fell asleep with his head nudged against the same eternally dull chord on his synthesiser. One note bellows endless, mindlessly, throughout nearly the entire movie, no matter what is happening in any scene, it gets the same blaring note. Honestly, if you can't expect the composer to stay away, please don't expect the viewer to do so either. One only wishes that the composer was a restless sleeper so that he could have nudged against some different keys from time to time.
This video appears to be an amalgam of three or four different stories. It starts out as a teenage video nasty, morphs into a psychological melodrama, veers out of control into an incomprehensible police copper programmer, and then succumbs uncomfortably into a pseudo-horror sequence. At the end of the day, nothing that you've been watching can possibly gel into one story that you can hang your hat on.
The world at large blames a lot on the Yanks these days but if this is what you all are watching then perhaps some of the behaviour we see on the evening news can be excused.
This video appears to be an amalgam of three or four different stories. It starts out as a teenage video nasty, morphs into a psychological melodrama, veers out of control into an incomprehensible police copper programmer, and then succumbs uncomfortably into a pseudo-horror sequence. At the end of the day, nothing that you've been watching can possibly gel into one story that you can hang your hat on.
The world at large blames a lot on the Yanks these days but if this is what you all are watching then perhaps some of the behaviour we see on the evening news can be excused.
Poor DVD actually makes the movie interesting
Gracie_Cea25 February 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I sat watching this and I was drifting off into dreamland so many times. I mean, what's the point of this movie? There's nothing even remotely interesting about the story or the technique. It just goes from one scene to the next trying to be interesting but really just adding confusing elements that don't matter at all in the end. And the ending just shoots outta left field. But back to my first point. I was watching and slipping in and out of sleep and I thought I was dreaming when people were talking and it was so outta synch that I was expecting Godzilla to show up and just stomp on the stupid deputy and put an end to my misery. To my disappointment, the Big Fella never showed up. Robert Zdar and Joe Estevez are a guys you will remember seeing from lots of videos in the 1980s. They were pretty cool in Vivian Schilling's vanity piece "Soultaker" but they have no chemistry at all here. Maybe it was just bad direction but Zdar looks like he doesn't care much and he's really in sad physical shape (my prayers for him). Estevez tries his best like a pro but the weight of the silly story is too much for his shoulders. Linnea Quigley is badly miscast as a harridan and you really start to remember how far removed she is from some of her quality roles in the 1980's/90's too.
What I really want to know is if anyone ever saw this movie in a movie theater? Was it so badly synched then too?? I cannot believe that a studio would put out a film so bad technically. Maybe the technicians fell asleep and didn't notice that the sound went off. But even with such unimportant films like this, studios should pay more attention when making the DVDs. It's not fair to the indie filmmakers who try so hard and then get their films treated like so much dust on the floor. The end result is going to reflect badly on the guys who made the film. OK, it's not like the film was going to be good if the sound was properly synched up but it could have avoided being an unintentional comedy. They turned a snoozefest into a laff fest.
What I really want to know is if anyone ever saw this movie in a movie theater? Was it so badly synched then too?? I cannot believe that a studio would put out a film so bad technically. Maybe the technicians fell asleep and didn't notice that the sound went off. But even with such unimportant films like this, studios should pay more attention when making the DVDs. It's not fair to the indie filmmakers who try so hard and then get their films treated like so much dust on the floor. The end result is going to reflect badly on the guys who made the film. OK, it's not like the film was going to be good if the sound was properly synched up but it could have avoided being an unintentional comedy. They turned a snoozefest into a laff fest.
Rockville Slayer? A skunk by any name will still stink
nivasch20 August 2005
The producers are changing the name from Unaware to The Rockville Slayer: it won't help. I think they are changing the name because this was supposed to be marketed as a psychological thriller about knowing who you really are. That whole idea is completely lost in the clumsy writing, middling acting & unimaginative direction. Maybe now the producers think they are going to exploit the angle of the killer on the loose. But there's no terror inflicted by the slayer here. Each scene is lifted from the b-movie play book and you know who is going to get skewered 5 minutes before each plunge of the knife. There's some nice looking newcomers in the cast and they carry most of the action. If you can call it "action." There's a lot of standing around and talking and crying and self-pity. The lead cop is badly miscast. The veterans in the cast are clearly slumming for a check and probably forgot about their visit to the imaginary Rockville the day after their check cleared. Especially wasted are Joe Estevez and Robert Z'Dar. Haggard ex-scream queen Linne'a Quigley has never looked more tired. Whoever photographed her should never work again. I doubt you will ever hear from anyone else listed in the credits. Not worth a video purchase or a rental. Watch The Town That Dreaded Sundown instead.
The Rockville Slayer
Scarecrow-8815 September 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Just plain rotten "thriller"{..well, that's what it's called anyway}about three teens supposedly murdered by an escaped convict. There was a fourth "victim" named Steve who knows more about the mysterious happenings that night than meets the eye. Also unearthed is the unfortunate secrets withheld from policeman Charlie. His mother was a looney played by cult-queen Linnea Quigley(..who must've REALLY needed the money)and he slowly begins to see bad memories of visiting the asylum for which his nutjob mother was being kept. Sheriff Duncan(Joe Estevez who needed to speak up a little louder so we, the viewer, might understand what the hell he was saying)and Charlie's dad(Bob Farster, whose acting is a farce)finally come right out and spill the beans about why he was never told about his real mom. Meanwhile, Det. Amy Rodgers(Nicole Bueher, who might need to keep her career options opened) can not shake the feeling that the case of nutzoid Jessica(Amy Brown)isn't as guilty as laid out in the perfect package as it seems that the one remaining survivor of that fateful night, Steve(Michael Kessler, who needs to try out those wonderful acting schools that have the ability to shine turds like this actor)might know more than he has spoken. On and on this deadened paced movie goes, but I left my enthusiasm to care around the opening credits..they moved like a turtle just as the film does. Nothing about this film is professional. I felt like some supposed filmmakers and their friends got the bright idea to make a movie. Perhaps they had friends in low, low places such a Robert Z'Dar and Quigley who both never get enough screen time to build strong enough characters. Quigley does bare her breasts momentarily and the film shows moments of blood, but even the crime scenes are uninspired. The shoddy script and limp acting, bad editing..all lead to one thing, a director who just doesn't know how to tell an interesting thriller or inspire a viewer to care.
Beware of this DVD; dull and derivative
capkronos9 November 2006
Warning: Spoilers
With this low budget film, you know you're in trouble right from the beginning. It's your typical slasher movie set-up featuring two football players and two cheerleaders getting killed, but what makes this grueling to sit through isn't the amateurish acting (which I expected anyway), but the absolutely pathetic dialogue the characters are given. The guys communicate via walkie talkies from separate cars as they prepare to get laid, using (ugh) football lingo ("I'm at the ten yard line!" ... "I'm going for a touchdown.") The filmmakers could have at LEAST given us a cheap jump scare or a bloody murder as compensation. Nope! Just a quartet of off-screen kills that are tame, boring and poorly staged.
Despite the dull opening sequence and despite the fact this film was packaged and re-titled (it was originally called UNAWARE) to be a slasher film, it's anything but. I'm even hard pressed to even call this a horror film because it's seriously lacking in anything horrific. What it really is is an old-fashioned mystery-thriller with geeky small town deputy Charlie (Circus-Szalewski) teaming up with attractive female detective Amy (Nicole Buehrer) to investigate the aforementioned crimes. What's eventually uncovered is a secret from Charlie's own childhood that turns out to be the key to solving the mystery. Not that you'll really be all that interested in the mystery elements of this film because the whole thing is just so monotonous, derivative and uninteresting.
The highly variable acting and unimaginative direction don't help but the screenplay is what really does this film in. There is literally no original idea to be had in this entire film. Everything is a painfully worn out cliché, from the character interactions to the flashbacks to plot twists we've all seen used many times before. The explanation behind the slaying of the four teens at the beginning is downright absurd at best. Silly red herrings (including your token mental home escapee) are synthetically injected into the film to try to throw you off, but they really don't do much other than kill time. The three guest stars in the cast; Joe Estevez as a sheriff, Linnea Quigley as a batty harlot and a campy Robert Z'Dar as her sadistic partner, all do their jobs in an entertaining way.
Some people mentioned the music drove them up the wall, but it really didn't bother me much. What *did* bother me a lot was the sound quality on the DVD. I constantly had to fumble with the remote turning the volume up or down throughout the entire film. I'm not sure if this is incompetence on the filmmakers part or just a poorly and cheaply distributed DVD. The picture quality is surprisingly good for a film of this budget range and whoever the DP was deserves a shout out for a job very well done.
Despite the dull opening sequence and despite the fact this film was packaged and re-titled (it was originally called UNAWARE) to be a slasher film, it's anything but. I'm even hard pressed to even call this a horror film because it's seriously lacking in anything horrific. What it really is is an old-fashioned mystery-thriller with geeky small town deputy Charlie (Circus-Szalewski) teaming up with attractive female detective Amy (Nicole Buehrer) to investigate the aforementioned crimes. What's eventually uncovered is a secret from Charlie's own childhood that turns out to be the key to solving the mystery. Not that you'll really be all that interested in the mystery elements of this film because the whole thing is just so monotonous, derivative and uninteresting.
The highly variable acting and unimaginative direction don't help but the screenplay is what really does this film in. There is literally no original idea to be had in this entire film. Everything is a painfully worn out cliché, from the character interactions to the flashbacks to plot twists we've all seen used many times before. The explanation behind the slaying of the four teens at the beginning is downright absurd at best. Silly red herrings (including your token mental home escapee) are synthetically injected into the film to try to throw you off, but they really don't do much other than kill time. The three guest stars in the cast; Joe Estevez as a sheriff, Linnea Quigley as a batty harlot and a campy Robert Z'Dar as her sadistic partner, all do their jobs in an entertaining way.
Some people mentioned the music drove them up the wall, but it really didn't bother me much. What *did* bother me a lot was the sound quality on the DVD. I constantly had to fumble with the remote turning the volume up or down throughout the entire film. I'm not sure if this is incompetence on the filmmakers part or just a poorly and cheaply distributed DVD. The picture quality is surprisingly good for a film of this budget range and whoever the DP was deserves a shout out for a job very well done.
Aged actors Unaware that their careers are spiraling down
aristaddd30 October 2004
Amazing that an unknown director could get actors with sizable cvs like Estevez, Quigley and Z'dar to appear in a non-film like this. See what you can do if you dangle some dollars in front of people without jobs. If their careers had not already jumped the shark from now on they call check off "Unaware" as the sure spot where the bottom was finally hit. The plot is not so much a story as it is a series of scenes that must of sounded good in the writer's mind but don't translate into anything interesting on the screen. In the beginning they lead you to think a certain character is definitely the murderer but then the plot changes arbitrarily and goes somewhere completely different. Maybe the writer/director thought this was going to be accepted as a plot twist but it is only a cheat because it happens only as one incredible coincidence. Considering the acting, only the no-name actors/actresses seem to care about earning their paychecks. The photography is the best thing about the movie because everything seems to be in focus but there's something unsettling about the sound quality. What story there is centers around some murders in a small town with obvious red herrings and an ending that you can't possibly see coming because its so removed from the story that its a cheat on the audience. Quigley appeared in some good "bad" films in the 80s and 90s exploiting her looks and talent but this is just a bad film in every possible way and its sad to see her slumming in this. Z'Dar's career has been in decline for a long while and this should put the sad exclamation point at the end. Estevez better scratch this one off his resume and stick as close as he can to his employable relatives.
Uninspiring but interesting. Worth a look.
liudragon28 July 2004
I saw the premiere of Unaware and I'm not sure if they had the final print ready. That might explain some of the problems. The editing was kind of choppy and the story made very little sense. Too much went unexplained or inferred and it veered unsteadily between a slasher film and a Lifetime weeper-film. There's a killer on the loose and the local townies are too busy talking and practicing self-introspection to do much about it. The action sequences are good and definitely some of the performances are clearly much better than the story deserves. The two girls Nicole Buehrer and Amy Brown gave the best performances. The supposed pros in the cast didn't bring their A-game I don't think. Buehrer is a dark beauty with a bright future and Brown is the gal next door with bucket fulls of talent and a nasty knife in this instance. Might be worth a night's rental to see Linnea Quigley again and it future does seem to be in straight-to-video.
Z'Dar turns in another stellar performance
collinzo11 February 2005
Thought the film was OK. Z'Dar as always makes a silk purse out of a sows ear. If he wasn't in this flick I'd have given it maybe an 8/10. The amount of films this man has rescued is staggering. He was great as ass-face in Tyrone, a bad film lifted by him Even when his coasting like in Guns of El Chupacabra he lifts the film. incidentally his name in that, Z-Man Lord Invader is one of the all time great cinema monikers. I don't want to sound like I like everything that Z'Dar has been in. Frogtown 2 was nowhere near as good the original, he was partly to blame for this sadly. I also have too say his big break, sadly headlining a well respected horror franchise doesn't seem top count, but thats another issue. His big break in the brat pack mafia Mobsters. Well the film was such a stinker that all those involved suffered some career damage, sadly as the lowly goon Robert was bound to suffer more than most. Real shame.
PLEASE PLAY WITH ME
nogodnomasters1 January 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Two HS football stars Steve (Michael Kessler) and Tim (Mike Markoff) are making out with their cheerleader girlfriends Alison (Megan Lynn Stoudt) and Robin (Holly Ilyne Sari). What dates this movie is that the football stars communicate with each other (they are in separate cars) by walkie-talkie. They all get their throat cut. A woman (Amy Brown) who has escaped from the Clearbrooke Mental Hospital is blamed and subsequently killed.
Our investigator (Nicole Buehrer) who looks like Tina Fey, continues the investigation. As it turns out the town has secrets.
The transfer to DVD was not clean. The sound doesn't line up to the lip movement. The acting was substandard especially the touching scene between Charlie (Circus-Szalewski) and his dad (Bob Farster) as dad confesses Charlie's heritage, explaining his bad dreams. The plot is pushed and doesn't have time to develop, but considering the acting, that may be a good thing.
PARENTAL GUIDE: F-bomb, sex, nudity (Holly Ilyne Sari, Linnea Quigley)
Our investigator (Nicole Buehrer) who looks like Tina Fey, continues the investigation. As it turns out the town has secrets.
The transfer to DVD was not clean. The sound doesn't line up to the lip movement. The acting was substandard especially the touching scene between Charlie (Circus-Szalewski) and his dad (Bob Farster) as dad confesses Charlie's heritage, explaining his bad dreams. The plot is pushed and doesn't have time to develop, but considering the acting, that may be a good thing.
PARENTAL GUIDE: F-bomb, sex, nudity (Holly Ilyne Sari, Linnea Quigley)
Worst Movie I have Ever Seen
psycho_chik1030 January 2006
This is by far the worst movie I have ever seen and believe me, I've seen a lot of bad movies. The amateur acting was terrible, not to mention the plot was horrific. Half way through the movie, the sound was one second earlier than the rest of the movie so when nobody's mouth was moving, people were talking- and when people were seen talking, nothing was heard. This movie should have never been made. It truly was a waste of time and money. If anyone is considering seeing this movie, don't. You will only be disappointed and wish you hadn't wasted time out of your life to watch it. Then again, if you are an avid fan of low-budget, poorly written/produced/directed/acted movies, then check it out!
Just another run of the mill movie
kellicough0025 January 2006
You know, sometimes you just watch a movie because there is nothing else on television at that time. My friend and I had this DVD and fed it into the DVD player over the weekend because we didn't want to sit and watch all the football games. I think we were both snoozing off by the first 20 minutes or so. I got this movie because I wanted to see Joe Estevez. I met him at a convention 2 years ago and he is really nice. Since then I've watched a few of his movies and they can be decent time-passers. In the case of "Rockville Slayer" I didn't pass much time but I did catch up on some needed Z's.
Joe is pretty good in the movie, playing a sheriff in a tiny town. He brought some real gravitas to his role. I liked the way Nicole Buhrer acted. She kind of reminds me of a young Gillian Anderson kind of actress. But only one or two of the other actors was really believable and the story doesn't pack much oomph to it. When I sat down to watch the movie to completion; it took me 3 sittings to do it. I lost track of the story because the first part is about a murderer girl who escapes from a hospital (Amy Brown, reminds me of Beba in "Blood of the Virgins" running around in her nightgown) and then the rest is some kind of melodrama about one of the sheriff's deputies (this guy wasn't too good). And then in the last parts of it it looked like a dubbed movie because the lips didn't match the words a lot of time. Besides that, everything looks nice but nothing keeps me interested. Oh, the one villain guy (Robert Zdar) didn't look nice, wow, so scary looking. My friend didn't want to watch the rest of the movie when she woke up from her nap. I had to sit through it on my own over the last 2 days.
So all I can say is that someone put a lot of hard work into making this movie but I wish it was better and more interesting. Even after watching the whole thing I am not sure what kind of movie it was supposed to be.
Joe is pretty good in the movie, playing a sheriff in a tiny town. He brought some real gravitas to his role. I liked the way Nicole Buhrer acted. She kind of reminds me of a young Gillian Anderson kind of actress. But only one or two of the other actors was really believable and the story doesn't pack much oomph to it. When I sat down to watch the movie to completion; it took me 3 sittings to do it. I lost track of the story because the first part is about a murderer girl who escapes from a hospital (Amy Brown, reminds me of Beba in "Blood of the Virgins" running around in her nightgown) and then the rest is some kind of melodrama about one of the sheriff's deputies (this guy wasn't too good). And then in the last parts of it it looked like a dubbed movie because the lips didn't match the words a lot of time. Besides that, everything looks nice but nothing keeps me interested. Oh, the one villain guy (Robert Zdar) didn't look nice, wow, so scary looking. My friend didn't want to watch the rest of the movie when she woke up from her nap. I had to sit through it on my own over the last 2 days.
So all I can say is that someone put a lot of hard work into making this movie but I wish it was better and more interesting. Even after watching the whole thing I am not sure what kind of movie it was supposed to be.
Hmmm...not great.
squire8726 September 2007
First, let me just say the movie looks great. The DP knew exactly what he was doing when he shot this film because it looks very professional. However, he may have been the only guy on the crew who knew his job.
Yes, the acting is bad. So is the direction and the plot. But, my biggest gripe is with the post-production team. Specifically, the sound...
I have a question for whomever was in charge of post.....was this movie ever even sound mixed? The mix is unbelievably awful from a technical standpoint. Some of the dialog is so quiet, I couldn't hear it unless I turn my TV nearly all the way up. Then, I'd almost immediately get sprung from my chair because some sound effect would slam in at what seemed to be 90 decibels. Of course, there I am flying to the remote control to drop the volume back to a human level. Hey guys, next time, mix your friggin' movie. This "mix" is so bad, I wouldn't even insult amateurs by calling it amateurish. Plus, as the other poster noted, the sound jumped out of sync with the picture for like 5-10 minutes near the end. What's the story with that? To be fair, I don't want to put ALL the blame on the filmmakers/post-production crew. Freestyle Home Entertainment (whoever they are) NEVER should've released a film this poorly mixed. I mean, it's just flat-out unfinished. What were they thinking?
Yes, the acting is bad. So is the direction and the plot. But, my biggest gripe is with the post-production team. Specifically, the sound...
I have a question for whomever was in charge of post.....was this movie ever even sound mixed? The mix is unbelievably awful from a technical standpoint. Some of the dialog is so quiet, I couldn't hear it unless I turn my TV nearly all the way up. Then, I'd almost immediately get sprung from my chair because some sound effect would slam in at what seemed to be 90 decibels. Of course, there I am flying to the remote control to drop the volume back to a human level. Hey guys, next time, mix your friggin' movie. This "mix" is so bad, I wouldn't even insult amateurs by calling it amateurish. Plus, as the other poster noted, the sound jumped out of sync with the picture for like 5-10 minutes near the end. What's the story with that? To be fair, I don't want to put ALL the blame on the filmmakers/post-production crew. Freestyle Home Entertainment (whoever they are) NEVER should've released a film this poorly mixed. I mean, it's just flat-out unfinished. What were they thinking?
Bloody awful
iarepacman5 August 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I watch a lot of horror, I watch a lot of bad horror. Even in bad horror there is usually something of note, or something decent to latch onto and say "at least this part was good". not here. from the opening sequences which contained 2 of the worst performances ever captured on camera, I guess I knew what level of crap i was in for. On a technical level, it was amateur at best. the audio is atrocious fading in and out with different scenes. The special effects were sad and lacking, the plot full of so many unnecessary and just plain ridiculous twists and turns, and once again, some of the worst acting I have -EVER- seen. The plot tries to go for that "Scream" vibe where you suspect everyone, but it does so with no rhyme or reason, and definitely no clarity. Funniest of all, someone attached to the project seems to be voting nothing but 10's on here, but it still only has a score of 3. nice try. Avoid this one at all costs.
What the Hell Did I Just Watch?
Scars_Remain16 January 2008
This movie, if you can call it that, is a complete joke. Some no name director gets a bunch of no name actors and makes a piece of crap entitled "The Rockville Slayer." Avoid it at all costs, even your life.
The story is absolutely idiotic and it plays out like a bad soap opera with a few "suspense" scenes even though I didn't feel tense even once during the whole film. The acting is completely laughable except for Joe Estevez but he has a pretty small role.
I found this movie for cheap at a used bookstore and thought it would be worth the price. I was gravely mistaken and now I have to live with the fact that I sat through this entire film. Don't make the same mistake I did.
The story is absolutely idiotic and it plays out like a bad soap opera with a few "suspense" scenes even though I didn't feel tense even once during the whole film. The acting is completely laughable except for Joe Estevez but he has a pretty small role.
I found this movie for cheap at a used bookstore and thought it would be worth the price. I was gravely mistaken and now I have to live with the fact that I sat through this entire film. Don't make the same mistake I did.
Can't be spoiled because the story is unintelligible
futuramafanfry7 April 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Someone below said that this film insults real rubbish. That line is funnier & more interesting than anything that appears on screen in this unending and unendurable "movie." There is a lot of people on screen coming and going and saying stuff but no one does or says anything interesting and you never even know who the hero is supposed to be until the end of the movie when there are only two characters left on screen. I guess that's the writer/director's way of telling you who you were supposed to be rooting for all along. I could tell you everything that happens from start to finish (murder, red herrings, late-entering characters trying to add some twists, and a limp cop who would be better cast as Ichabod Crane instead of a policeman) and it couldn't spoil the story for you because you could never enjoy it in the first place. I don't think any of the actors who's name you might recognize have done a major film since this one. Perhaps Rockville slayed their careers. The actors you've never heard of before you will never hear from again. The shame of it all is that it looks like they threw a lot of money on the screen, production values are high. The problems are many: bad direction, bad self indulgent impenetrable story, bad acting, poor sound, and a very bad quality DVD release.
Must See! Definite plus!!!
smilam-13 August 2004
I attended the premiere of Unaware in Chicago, and I must say that I was more than impressed! I went into the theater not expecting much, and wow! This is only the second feature film from Writer, Director Marc Selz who has a lot to bring to the table. He has jumped leaps and bounds from his first film, Short Cut Road. Don't just take it from me, watch them both to fully see the difference. It looks and sounds like a high quality studio film.
Unaware was a smart thriller that kept me and the audience jumping and on the edge of our seats. The story was straight and to the point with a lot of cool twists. This is one movie that you must pay attention to from beginning to end to understand, otherwise you'll miss key elements. Isn't that what the audience is supposed to do anyway?
The movie's running time was an hour and 40 minutes, but felt like an hour. There was always something going on in each scene which kept you intrigued in the story. By the end of the film, I still wanted more. The performances from the actors were great, some were stronger than others, but what do you expect from a low budget film. It was great to see the B actors like Joe Estevez, Robert Z'Dar and Linnea Quigley back on the big screen again, where they need to be. Also look out for the new talent of Circus Szalewski and Nicole Buehrer, they have a promising future. The wacky motel clerk put some humor into the film. The High Definition picture and Dolby mix was fantastic! The flashback sequences were unbelievable and the mental patients were very creepy. This definitely looks like a high end film. I asked all sorts of questions at the end of the movie to get the facts. The music score was great! This movie paid a lot of homage to classic horror/thriller movies from the past. It's great to see that in films again nowadays. I see a bright future ahead for Marc Selz and his team. Can you smell a hit sleeper? I can! All in all, if you like horror/thrillers, this is one film you don't want to miss!
Unaware was a smart thriller that kept me and the audience jumping and on the edge of our seats. The story was straight and to the point with a lot of cool twists. This is one movie that you must pay attention to from beginning to end to understand, otherwise you'll miss key elements. Isn't that what the audience is supposed to do anyway?
The movie's running time was an hour and 40 minutes, but felt like an hour. There was always something going on in each scene which kept you intrigued in the story. By the end of the film, I still wanted more. The performances from the actors were great, some were stronger than others, but what do you expect from a low budget film. It was great to see the B actors like Joe Estevez, Robert Z'Dar and Linnea Quigley back on the big screen again, where they need to be. Also look out for the new talent of Circus Szalewski and Nicole Buehrer, they have a promising future. The wacky motel clerk put some humor into the film. The High Definition picture and Dolby mix was fantastic! The flashback sequences were unbelievable and the mental patients were very creepy. This definitely looks like a high end film. I asked all sorts of questions at the end of the movie to get the facts. The music score was great! This movie paid a lot of homage to classic horror/thriller movies from the past. It's great to see that in films again nowadays. I see a bright future ahead for Marc Selz and his team. Can you smell a hit sleeper? I can! All in all, if you like horror/thrillers, this is one film you don't want to miss!
Great Story Idea; Variable Acting; Really Bad Writing
bababear4 October 2010
Warning: Spoilers
I'm in a good mood, so I gave this a 5. If this gotten into the hands of a strong screenwriter, that score would have doubled.
We start with the standard teenagers in lovers' lane. Blood, guts, you've seen it all before.
The setting is a small town in Illinois, population between 500 and 500,000. Since we never get a sense of the town, we don't get a sense of what binds the characters together. It seems that pretty well everyone knows everyone else.
One of the victims was the brother of a Sheriff's Deputy. Charlie has Father Issues: dad was prouder of his younger son, now deceased, and Charlie feels that he's been a disappointment to his dad, Bill.
A detective begins investigating the crime. The detective is a young woman who looks to be about 19 years old. we don't know what law enforcement agency she's affiliated with. She shows up with a badge and a partner, introducing herself as Detective Rodgers. That doesn't help.
Eventually the script stumbles into William Inge territory. This is a Small Town with a Secret. Before he got married, Charlie's dad (now a widower) was involved with Mary Burns, a local tart (played in the third act by Scream Queen Linnea Quigley, now 52 years old). He got Mary pregnant. She had the baby and left town and hasn't been seen since. It turns out that Charlie is her son.
OK. Bill shows up with a baby boy. Mom goes ahead and marries Bill, raises Charlie as her own, gives birth to another boy, nobody in town questions where the bonus son came from. Uh, I'm from a small town. Ain't gonna happen.
But I digress. Bodies continue to pile up. Charlie is a suspect, but it can't be him. But there's such a shortage of other suspects that there's nobody else (the detective? the sheriff?) to suspect.
Then the cardinal rule of mystery writing is broken. Yea, shattered. A very major character is clumsily introduced in the third act.
We find that Mary Burns is out of the mental hospital, and she has a friend with her, B-movie veteran Robert Z'Dar (fondly remembered from MANIAC COP). Playing The Man (it's too much trouble to give a brand new character a name) he's been the killer all along.
The plot is whipped into some semblance of order at the end. Charlie's dad and the sheriff are killed by The Man, Charlie is wounded, the detective is unconscious but manages to kill The Man first, and Mary wanders into the night just before the police get to the house.
In a peculiar and very limp coda Charlie puts his dad's house up for sale, says goodbye to the detective, and drives away.
These are not bad actors. They're actors working with substandard material. Performances are primarily at a level I'd call pretty good for community theater, but this isn't the stage at the American Legion hall.
Film is a very unforgiving medium. Houses are houses. Cars are cars. Bars are bars. Motel rooms are motel rooms. This isn't an actor in ROMEO AND JULIET announcing "This is Verona," and our imaginations filling in the rest. Realistic settings call for realistic performances.
These very same actors might have delivered compelling performances if the material had been shaped by stronger hands. But as is, this is a interesting Amateur Night that should have been much better.
These are young actors. I wish them all the very best, and would urge them to do as much stage work as possible so as to have the experience of working with really strong material.
Better luck next time, guys.
THE ROCKVILLE SLAYER is definitely worth watching, but don't expect too much for it.
We start with the standard teenagers in lovers' lane. Blood, guts, you've seen it all before.
The setting is a small town in Illinois, population between 500 and 500,000. Since we never get a sense of the town, we don't get a sense of what binds the characters together. It seems that pretty well everyone knows everyone else.
One of the victims was the brother of a Sheriff's Deputy. Charlie has Father Issues: dad was prouder of his younger son, now deceased, and Charlie feels that he's been a disappointment to his dad, Bill.
A detective begins investigating the crime. The detective is a young woman who looks to be about 19 years old. we don't know what law enforcement agency she's affiliated with. She shows up with a badge and a partner, introducing herself as Detective Rodgers. That doesn't help.
Eventually the script stumbles into William Inge territory. This is a Small Town with a Secret. Before he got married, Charlie's dad (now a widower) was involved with Mary Burns, a local tart (played in the third act by Scream Queen Linnea Quigley, now 52 years old). He got Mary pregnant. She had the baby and left town and hasn't been seen since. It turns out that Charlie is her son.
OK. Bill shows up with a baby boy. Mom goes ahead and marries Bill, raises Charlie as her own, gives birth to another boy, nobody in town questions where the bonus son came from. Uh, I'm from a small town. Ain't gonna happen.
But I digress. Bodies continue to pile up. Charlie is a suspect, but it can't be him. But there's such a shortage of other suspects that there's nobody else (the detective? the sheriff?) to suspect.
Then the cardinal rule of mystery writing is broken. Yea, shattered. A very major character is clumsily introduced in the third act.
We find that Mary Burns is out of the mental hospital, and she has a friend with her, B-movie veteran Robert Z'Dar (fondly remembered from MANIAC COP). Playing The Man (it's too much trouble to give a brand new character a name) he's been the killer all along.
The plot is whipped into some semblance of order at the end. Charlie's dad and the sheriff are killed by The Man, Charlie is wounded, the detective is unconscious but manages to kill The Man first, and Mary wanders into the night just before the police get to the house.
In a peculiar and very limp coda Charlie puts his dad's house up for sale, says goodbye to the detective, and drives away.
These are not bad actors. They're actors working with substandard material. Performances are primarily at a level I'd call pretty good for community theater, but this isn't the stage at the American Legion hall.
Film is a very unforgiving medium. Houses are houses. Cars are cars. Bars are bars. Motel rooms are motel rooms. This isn't an actor in ROMEO AND JULIET announcing "This is Verona," and our imaginations filling in the rest. Realistic settings call for realistic performances.
These very same actors might have delivered compelling performances if the material had been shaped by stronger hands. But as is, this is a interesting Amateur Night that should have been much better.
These are young actors. I wish them all the very best, and would urge them to do as much stage work as possible so as to have the experience of working with really strong material.
Better luck next time, guys.
THE ROCKVILLE SLAYER is definitely worth watching, but don't expect too much for it.
Not the best
Bezenby23 June 2016
Spoilers: This film contains Joe Estevez Woohoo – it's another slasher film. In lover's lane, two jocks and their girlfriends are brutally stabbed by an murderer and only one of the jocks survives. The other is the brother of the local deputy, who has a rocky relationship with his father. You've also got Joe Estevez as the chief of police also trying to deal with an escape from the local asylum. There's an FBI agent in there too, plus other folks I'd imagine.
For a slasher film, there's an awful lot of interaction between the characters I mentioned and not a lot of actual slashing. The films also seem to tie together about three different plot lines and just ended up raising about a billion questions.
Without spoiling the film, let me say that when that other character did that thing, was it a coincidence that the other character turned up at the same time to do that other thing? Or, in the same scene, how come one character managed to do that thing to himself while the other character did that other thing to that other character? How come that guy didn't notice the other guy doing that thing? And how many characters have (things)? Or (thing) from that (thing)? (thing) (thing) (thing) (thing) (thing).
Loads of red herrings in this one. Things pick up when Robert Z'Dar and Linnea Quigley turn up. It's definitely not the worst slasher film I've watched, and it's free from any of that smug Scream self-referential crap. It just tried to cram too much drama, and not enough scares.
For a slasher film, there's an awful lot of interaction between the characters I mentioned and not a lot of actual slashing. The films also seem to tie together about three different plot lines and just ended up raising about a billion questions.
Without spoiling the film, let me say that when that other character did that thing, was it a coincidence that the other character turned up at the same time to do that other thing? Or, in the same scene, how come one character managed to do that thing to himself while the other character did that other thing to that other character? How come that guy didn't notice the other guy doing that thing? And how many characters have (things)? Or (thing) from that (thing)? (thing) (thing) (thing) (thing) (thing).
Loads of red herrings in this one. Things pick up when Robert Z'Dar and Linnea Quigley turn up. It's definitely not the worst slasher film I've watched, and it's free from any of that smug Scream self-referential crap. It just tried to cram too much drama, and not enough scares.
A pleasant surprise
Woodyanders9 May 2006
Warning: Spoilers
The drab tranquility of the sleepy little town of Rockville gets harshly thrown out of wack after four teens are viciously murdered. It's up to stalwart Sheriff Duncan (a strikingly good portrayal by the usually lacking Joe Estevez) and sincere, but rather inept Deputy Charlie Fisher (the engagingly geeky Circus Szalewski), assisted by obsessively thorough Detective Amy Rogers (well played by ravishing brunette Nicole Buehrer), to catch the culprit. The most probable suspect is a young lady who just escaped from a nearby asylum. The young lady is arrested, attempts to get away and is subsequently killed while making her attempt. But the seemingly simple cut and dried case is far from over or solved. In fact, it's just the opening of a whole can of worms which will change several people's lives forever. "The Rockville Slayer" rates as a most pleasant and unexpected surprise. For starters, it's a complex and involving mystery thriller instead of the mindless slasher horror flick its misleading title suggests. Moreover, the well-drawn characters are refreshingly real, flawed and recognizably human. Director Marc Selz, working from his own intricate and intriguing script, delivers a nice smattering of nudity and grisly violence, effectively creates a creepy and unnerving atmosphere, offers plenty of truly startling plot twists, and keeps the pace moving forward at a pleasingly speedy clip. The fine cast all contribute excellent performances, with especially nifty appearances by Linnea Quigley as a local harlot who went crazy and the ever-intimidating Robert Z'Dar as her brutish husband. Kudos are also in order for Joe Harris' crisp, handsome cinematography and Karl Sundstrom's neatly spare'n'shivery synthesizer score. Overall, this baby qualifies as a real strong and satisfying unsung little sleeper.
Pretty decent low budget thriller
mvario18 November 2005
Surprisingly good film, though I question whether it's a horror film. It opens with a very slasher-esquire scene, and maintains much of that ambiance throughout the film. After that it moves into crime drama territory and the focus for the remainder of the film is on various law enforcement folks. But it also borrows much from the giallo, including changing the character focus, a few red herrings, a killer with black gloves, a lot of twists and turns, and a slightly contrived conclusion that somehow brings resolution. Unfortunately it leaves out the bloody kills. There were a couple of parts that dragged a little but overall the pacing was adequate. This is low budget fare, but if that doesn't bother you and you're looking for a dark crime thriller with a little giallo flavor thrown it then this is worth a look. 7/10. A tiny bit of gore, and a couple of short nude scenes.
A skinny man who keeps frozen broccoli in his glove compartment hunts down a serial killer
jcaraway325 March 2010
Warning: Spoilers
This movie,about a killer on the loose in a small town, could have been better. Much better. But keep in mind that it also could have been worse. The audio was what bugged me the most. It was totally out of sync with the movings of the actors' lips, and sometimes it would be so quiet I'd have to lean in closer to hear what was being said, while other times it was so loud I'd have to turn the volume down. For that reason, this movie scores a 4 out of 10. If the audio was better, I'd probably rate it a 5 or a 6. ( By the way, I just found out you can change the audio on the DVD, but I don't feel like sitting through the film again to see how much of a difference it makes.) The plot is not as predictable as it sounds. It has plenty of twists and turns and some fun mystery elements to it that kept me watching to the end. The musical score is not bad either. It gives the film the feel of an episode of the X Files, or some other 90's crime drama, and that's not a bad thing.The cast is not too bad either. We get Martin Sheen's lesser known brother Joe Estevez, from MST3K favorites "Soutaker" and "Werewolf", big chinned Robert Z'Dar "Soultaker" also and another MST3K episode, "Future War", and Linnea Quigley from "Night of the Demons" and "Return of the Living Dead". So this really wasn't too bad for an indie flick, with a well thought out script and nice character development. And yet, there's that audio problem. And the acting was pretty bad too, by the way.
Is There an Option for Zero Stars?
matt-gruger27 June 2021
Quite possibly some of the worst acting and writing I have witnessed. The sad thing is that it seemed as if the actors really thought they were being convincing and true to their craft. I haven't seen so many fake cries or unnatural deliveries of lines in my life. Believe me when I tell you that my friends and I made better movies with more believable characters at the age of 14. Also to note I thought it was just my TV but as other reviews noted the sound quality is horrible as the lines came out like whispers through most of the film. I beg you do not buy this movie. Walk away. It's not even in a category of good bad films where you want to see it just so you can comment on the absurdity of it with others. The only plus for me was that I saw a movie with Joe Estevez in it which can not be said by many others. In all fairness he was probably the most believable in his acting minus his death scene.
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