The Unseen (I) (2016) User Reviews

The excitement is Unseen

[HEFILM · 5/10 · 9 December 2016]

Most of this is what you'd call kitchen sink drama--or the Canadian version of that. Dour uneventful life presented in a dour uneventful way. The set up is good and the final 20 minutes also finally mix invisible "problem" with real life problem into a satisfying ending. But at 97 minutes you feel you've seen a first draft screenplay for a short film tortured into a feature length.

Now it's not just that there aren't invisible "Gags" every other scene, it's that as a drama it's all very slow paced and in the worst sense Canadian.

Effects, what ones there are, are very well done but the connection and balance of existential invisibility and kitchen sink drama--really melodrama, isn't there.

Another thing is, it chooses to present invisibility as a sort of genetic problem not really talked about. This works well. Then unfortunately they introduce some mystical Chinese tea into the story? Either make this a supernatural or existential story--here they kind of mix the least exciting elements of both.

The writer and director just doesn't really have a handle on what would make this all work.

It has a first timer feel to the pacing--where everything just goes on and on so we hang for every last small nuance of performance. The performances are good, but the whole thing has the pace of a hangover.

Nicely produced. A good idea. But the script isn't there. Somewhere where between the over-the-top dumb exploitation of The Hollow Man and the small mostly-nothing-happens approach to this film is the film they were trying to make. As they say A for effort....

A great idea, done average.

[kjjames81 · 5/10 · 24 May 2019]

Just finished watching this film.

My rating is five, I was going to give it less but I thought the execution of the story was good, the acting was also good the only thing wrong with this film they didn't use the story to it's full extent.

My feeling is that the film was a wasted potential for the director.

Give this a watch, it's quite slow in parts but it has it's moments.

Give it a watch and see what I mean when I say it's a missed opportunity.

Chinese- good medicine.

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 14 April 2019]

The write up for the film gives out too much information, things that are not disclosed until the last scenes.

Bob (Aden Young) works for Gorman Brothers Lumber in BC. He once played in the NHL. He left his wife Darlene (Camille Sullivan) and daughter Eva (Julia Sarah Stone) years ago. He has some kind of wasting disease which is the mystery of the film. Bob gets into a jam and agrees to be a mule as he returns home to Vancouver to see his daughter who has become unruly. She wants to go to the abandoned asylum where her grandfather was once a patient.

This is a different kind of film, one that went on a little too slow. The main characters were rather plain. The film ends at a point it would have been more interesting to start one.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

Storyline very poor

[garrymaclachlan-78415 · 3/10 · 16 February 2019]

We found the acting in this film pretty decent and believable but the storyline was all over the place. So much more could have been done with this great concept of visually disappearing skin and flesh. We couldn't wait for it to finish.

Good but slow start

[Dave_douell · 7/10 · 8 March 2019]

This was a good movie, you just have to get through the first half which is a slow start. I really liked the cast. Julia Stone is really good, you can see a lot more of her in season 2 of The Killing. She's really good in that and it's one of my favorite series. This movie is well worth your time.

Time I'll never get back.

[danielgore80 · 3/10 · 8 March 2018]

Vague story with potential to be decent but nothing happens for ages then it all happens in 10 mins. Glad I watched it at work, less painful losing hours of my life.

It was okay.

[Irisballoon · 6/10 · 21 April 2020]

The movie was okay. The begining was wicked slow and kind of boring. It got a little more fast paced around halfway through. It was kind of confusing, they didnt explain the condition the man had and I hated the ending.... didnt even explain what was going to happen to them later on in life or anything. The acting was good. Very mysterious.

Dumb if not Stupid

[westsideschl · 2/10 · 14 March 2019]

Most of the movie is the usual dysfunctional male w/issues resolved w/drugs & alcohol. Usual can't connect well w/family, or anyone else for that matter. So he's off to rescue the troubled, hasn't seen in ages, teen daughter as our plot focal point. Oh, and in some not explained, failure to pass grade school science sort-of-way, they both are slowly disappearing. Yes, like ever expanding parts of their body don't physically exist - OK!. Except some how those parts can still touch the real physical world. Usual green screen to fill in the missing parts w/background. It's not even fantasy, it's just dumb!

The Unseen review

[JoeytheBrit · 6/10 · 26 June 2020]

Unusual film that successfully blends various genres without providing a definitive conclusion to its tale, focusing instead on the closure of one stage of a man's life, and the beginning of another. What's different is this man (AdenYoung) is slowly turning invisible. His infliction primarily serves as the unspoken backdrop against which a rather ordinary domestic drama is played out. Good effects, though, and decent performances from all concerned.

Slow & boring

[Draysan-Jennings · 4/10 · 25 May 2020]

Well that was a waste of time. Didn't care for this film. It was extremely slow and unentertaining. I didn't stick around to find out why he was disappearing. I turned it off with about 30 minutes left.

One of 2016's Best

[gavin6942 · 8/10 · 24 July 2016]

A man (Aden Young), who years earlier mysteriously abandoned his family and isolated himself in a small northern Canadian town, returns for one last chance to reconnect with his troubled daughter (Julia Sarah Stone). When she goes missing, he risks everything to find her, including exposing the fact that he is becoming invisible.

The marketing on this film presents it as "a modern retelling of the 'Invisible Man' story", which is simultaneously true and also a bit of a red herring. This does remind us that historically the Invisible Man is sort of the redheaded stepchild of the Universal Monsters. He is never as celebrated as Dracula or Frankenstein, and even in the various toy lines you're more likely to find the Metaluna Monster than a Claude Rains figure. Among remakes and rip-offs, the only film that really comes to mind is "Hollow Man", which committed cinematic suicide with its abysmal sequel.

Now, "The Unseen" does have an invisible man, so the marketing isn't wrong. But there is a key difference here: the lead character's invisibility is really more of a subplot, something in the background. Sure, he has to deal with it day in and day out, but the real thrust of the story is the man's attempt to reconnect with his daughter, which involves him working both with and against drug dealers, an underground Chinese pharmacy and some other shady characters.

The strength of the plot comes from writer-director Geoff Redknap's bold decision to never actually explain the cause of the invisibility. We are left to infer that it is some sort of genetic disorder that is passed down through the generations. But how many generations back does it go? Was some sort of environmental factor a root cause? We don't know, and again, this only makes the tale a stronger story – because just as with many things in life, answers are not always forthcoming.

Although Redknap has previously dabbled in directing, he is best known for his career in effects and makeup. You may not have heard of him (behind-the-scenes crew never get the love they deserve), but a quick search will reveal that you've seen his work dozens of times. Most notably, you will find he worked on "The X-Files", both in its original run and its more recent reboot. I say "notably" because if you were to compare the tone of "The Unseen" to anything, it would be to one of the better "X-Files" episodes. Most likely this is just a coincidence, but perhaps not.

The direction is as solid as the script, and while I presume this was a lower budget film, it never comes across as such. Everything seems top notch, not the least of which are the effects. Hollywood hit a high water mark in 1993 with "Jurassic Park" and has grown increasingly lazy, with the SyFy Channel pumping out low-grade movies-of-the-week that feature creatures who look like awful cartoons. I'm looking at you, Roger Corman and Jim Wynorski. The folks working on "The Unseen" are pushing back. While the effects in this film could have looked like a cheesy green-screen job, the tech crew instead went all out and made it look about as real as possible for such a fantastic theme. Skin invisible allowing us to see inside? Oh yeah, we got that.

Aden Young (KILLER ELITE, RECTIFY) gives a dynamite performance, and if he wasn't noticed before, he will be now. Every second of the movie has him aching, inching forward with his life, struggling and creating tension. Young is the heart and soul of this film. Likewise, Julia Sarah Stone (THE KILLING, WET BUM) has already made a name for herself, but this may be her big breakout role if she hasn't already reached that stage. She has a strong screen presence and a very distinct look that sets her apart from the crowd. Her youthful, almost fragile persona in "The Unseen" is the perfect contrast for Young's dark and brooding, distant father. To say I was captivated would be an understatement.

Although "The Unseen" was only the first film of dozens I've had the privilege of watching for the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival, it set a high bar. For the next few weeks, everything has been and will continue to be measured with Redknap, Young and Stone.

Pretty cool, but awful soundtrack.

[casey-42712 · 7/10 · 16 November 2021]

No spoilers - cool movie, horrible music unfortunately, most sounds like Bjork meets Yoko Ono.

The sound levels are a bit uneven, dialogue is hard to hear sometimes.

Definitely a slow burner, not the typical trash we get from American film factories. Well done, eh,Canadians?

Trash

[kadenkgcampbell · 2/10 · 15 July 2020]

I'm a Canadian, this is a Canadian film and I think this movie was terrible and a waste of time. It's actually comical how bad it was.

Good but missing things

[mogoat · 5/10 · 17 August 2020]

There were several ends that were not tied up, the most prominent being the fact that the hospital was abandoned one day and had a full working staff the next. A video about a hockey match is mention and discussed in great detail but never shown. Some scenes felt unnecessary, but overall the story was interesting.

gemini

[ops-52535 · 6/10 · 15 February 2019]

This was a longlasting story about a lonely grumpy, and as it shows , a very ill person. lepra might be the keyword but it takes a while to get there and that drags down the impression. though the acting are good at times, its a bit stiff and clicheed. the last 20 min though are pretty nice, with some good visuall effects, that made me look away for a while.

the grumpy old man loved gemini in the late 70's, so if you can handle that, you can handle this one too.6 stars from me

Title is apt.

[gavinfitton · 3/10 · 1 November 2020]

Take the title in consideration and make sure this film stays, Unseen. Ridiculous storyline that is boring and forced. It has no logical progression or character development. Feels like a much longer story that was cut way down to make a 90 minute feature film. Film has passable acting and very dated effects. The invisible man hook feels like a pointless hook to have gotten an otherwise pointless film made. Not good. Not original. Not worth seeing.

Well, this was interesting...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 30 June 2023]

When I stumbled upon this 2016 thriller titled "The Unseen", I was immediately drawn to it, given the movie's rather interesting, if not unusual, cover.

Sure, I had never actually heard about the movie before sitting down to watch it. But after seeing the movie's cover, I had to see what writer and director Geoff Redknap had to offer.

The storyline in "The Unseen" is pretty straight forward, though the movie does go through some rough patches where the narrative slows down rather much. And the movie did suffer from that. But in overall, then I was genuinely entertained by the script and plot that Geoff Redknap conjured up for the movie.

"The Unseen" was rather nicely carried by the performance of Aden Young, playing Bob Langmore. I am unfamiliar with him prior to watching this movie, but he really did put on a good performance and managed to carry the movie rather well.

Visually then "The Unseen" does have good effects. Director Geoff Redknap gradually piles on more and more, well rather less and less if you think about, of effects for Bob Langmore as the narrative proceeds. And I have to say that I enjoyed that approach to the movie, and it worked out nicely because the special effects and CGI team put on a great display.

I was initially lead to believe that "The Unseen" was a horror movie, but it was actually a thriller.

"The Unseen" is definitely worth checking out and sitting down to spend 108 minutes on watching.

My rating of "The Unseen" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Another wannabe director

[pauljamesross · 1/10 · 12 April 2020]

Here's another example of amateur directing at its worst! Not only has this clown come from makeup department,worst part is thinking that he can direct! It's a all to common occurrence of this these days. Seen it with many movies,and some sequels to great original titles that were well directed and extremely profitable. Ain't gonna find the next Spielberg,from this clowns work! Keep looking, Pricks!

I Knew It, I Knew It!!!

[treycemone · 7/10 · 21 March 2020]

About 50, no, about 45 minutes into the movie I'm like this has to be Canadian, so I checked IMDB, and sure enough, it's Canadian. Canadians sure got a way with movies jack. DO NOT READ THE STORYLINE, it has a major spoiler, I'm glad I didn't see it till well into the movie. A very different movie, I appreciate movies that are very different

What A Slog

[Mehki_Girl · 1/10 · 12 May 2019]

Been watching this for literally hours. Why? Because it's so boring, I keep pausing it to play video games and I'm only halfway through this hot mess. Its raining outside, so I'm in this for the long haul. I have no idea what's going on and don't care.

Very enjoyable.

[russelkhan-96230 · 8/10 · 7 January 2020]

I don't understand why there are so many negative reviews for this. It's sad that people are now so used to big budget action franchise movies that they have the attention span of a goldfish and need everything explained to them. This is a terrific little movie, made with real heart. The performances are good, and it had an intriguing premise that did not disappoint. The sci-fi element is what lifts it though, without it this would have been another mundane movie about mundane people and their mundane problems. The protagonist suffers from a unique condition, and the gradual reveal is very well done. And I like how not everything is tied up neatly at the end, leaving some things to the imagination. This director is one to watch out for. I hope he gets to make more movies.

A slow start but hang in there.

[livtomchuroo · 7/10 · 15 January 2021]

Canadians are clearly a much more patient viewing audience than their american counterparts. Stick with this one guys its unusual and I think worth the wait.

Makes no sense

[Internet-Police · 4/10 · 21 March 2020]

Plot all over...its like he tried to fit 5 movies into one. Jumps around without explanation. Pacing is terrible and slow.

It is a social drama movie

[SamALMan · 3/10 · 2 January 2020]

The movie concentrate on family drama and a struggling father connecting with his only child. The bonus part is the "invincibility" of the father. The father is getting invisible by vanishing little by little (by the last third of the movie it showed that the invincibility is a genetic condition that is passed from generation to generation). The acting is mediocre by the majority of the acting staff, the story is slow paced, some scenes were unnecessary or at least could be wrapped quicker. The CGI is good. I enjoyed the movie in overall for the emotional impact that left me with and making the invincibility condition a mystery that of no need to ravel.

An exciting, creative new take on an old trope.

[canlin05 · 7/10 · 6 August 2022]

Can't believe the low reviews this is receiving. I found The Unseen to be a very creative, suspenseful, and beautifully shot take on The Invisible Man story. It appears this is Geoff Redknap's full-feature debut, and judging by the tone he was able to set and maintain throughout the film, he has a bright career ahead of him.

One criticism I have is that the film could have been more poignant and sorrowful had it ended 10 or 15 minutes earlier than it did. When Bob Langmore said his goodbyes to his little girl and departed to end his torment in the gears of the lumber-mill, that should have been it. Cold Stop. Instead, he went for the happy ending, which seemed slightly out-of-place in the story.

That said, it was still a great ride, and I did get a chuckle out of the method of disposal of the drug pushing, gallbladder-stealing Crisby. I could see justice in that bear's eyes.

Aden Young's performance really stood above the rest, though you can see stars in the future for Julia Sarah Stone.

One final note: I really appreciated Redknap's decision to present this film as a Canadian movie, shot in Canada. Unafraid to be true to the locations. It wasn't Vancouver dressed up as Seattle or Portland, in an attempt to 'appeal' to an American audience (an idea which has always been really stupid anyway). Vancouver was Vancouver. The steel skies pushing down on the snowy mountains throughout the movie was the right decision and set the dreary, if somewhat claustrophobic and panicked tone perfectly. I really look forward to more from this director.