Starring: Jessica Lange, Phil Berbig, Jarrod Crooks, Shannon McDonough, Rachel Grubb

Written & Directed By: Ric McCloud

DVD Release: March 1, 2009

Grade: B

Unholy Reunion takes ideas of killing being an art, bringing meaning to otherwise empty vessels. The film follows this artistic notion through the look of the film, actions of the villains, and even through the arts of deception and revenge. This gives the film a lot of room to experiment.

The film opens up on Monica Telmig (Grubb) who is cheating on her husband, Adkov (Berbig), a passionate artist who works with her as well as the man she is sleeping with. This man is promising the world to Monica convincing her to leave Adkov since he believes he can treat her so much better. However, when Adkov bursts in to the room in a violent rage all of these promises quickly vanish. After he murders Monica’s lover right before her very eyes, he kisses her only to hack her to pieces.

The film then takes us to present day where Rebecca (Lange) is going home to introduce her fiancé to the rest of her family. She is surprised by a party of all of her friends at her house to celebrate her law school graduation and promising career as a prosecutor. Quickly after Rebecca arrives her parents have to leave. This leaves Rebecca and her friends to party. When Rebecca finds out that her old boyfriend, Scott (Crooks), is there and has been having doubts about his current girlfriend, Vicky (McDonough), she uses this opportunity to try to get close to him. She claims that she has gotten over him, but it seems that she just can’t let go. However, soon they have bigger troubles. “The Blood Painter” has escaped from prison and her family fears that he will be headed for the house. Rebecca’s father, Daniel Davis was the state supreme court justice in his case and found him guilty 20 years ago. He is the one who put him in prison awaiting his death. They fear he will come back to attack his family for his revenge.

Rebecca and all of her friends are terrified at this thought. The police come by to check on them. This doesn’t seem to be enough protection since it isn’t long before people start to die. When these dead bodies are found everyone is in complete panic. The killer is already among them and it very well might be too late to stop him. In a turn of events, Rebecca learns that she is Adkov’s daughter who was adopted by Daniel Davis when she was just a baby. Rebecca has to figure out what to do with this information that could change her perception of her entire life. If she doesn’t act quick her and the rest of her friends will be brutally murdered.

The acting was one of the lower points in the film. Especially towards the beginning before the horror really ensues, it seems more cheesy and unrealistic. However, once the killer appears and serious tones are in tact the acting does improve. Jessica Lange is one in particular who followed this. She makes a transformation in her performance from mediocre to powerful, intense, and completely convincing. The revelations that her character rises to make you take a second look. Cossondra McCloud as Rebecca’s gothic and pothead sister gave one of the weakest performances of the film. She played her character very flat and didn’t bring any believability . Luckily, there were exceptions through those who gave solid performances throughout. Phil Berbig as Adkov Telmig was without a doubt the best performance of the film. He embodied the killer completely and really showed his instability and very skewed way of thinking. He really brought life to the artist in him displaying how meaningless his victims were to him, actually believing that he was doing them a favor by murdering him. Berbig gave us the most lively and multi-dimensional character. Although, she had a short amount of screen time Rachel Grubb excelled in her portrayal of Adkov’s wife, Monica. She didn’t play the role just as someone having an affair on her husband. She gave more depth to it by showing confusion and a great need to feel wanted. Her character loves her husband but simply feels that they are not right for each other. Clearly she is handling this the wrong way, but there is still a level of humanity in tact so we sympathize with her during the brutal slaying of her lover and her.

The film begins with a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche saying, “Live your life as a work of art”. This gives a landscape of what the film is really setting out to do and the spirit that it is built upon. Like I said earlier, the artistic elements are very strong in the film. The visuals especially towards the beginning show this the most. Nearly every shade of color is shown. We go from black and white, faded blues, bright colors, and even all red that signifies the danger of the blood that has been shed and that which will be in the future. Some of the paintings of Adkov are even shown up close with him on a very intimate level, giving us a hint of how sensual and emotional his art is to him. This is right after he murders his wife and the man she was cheating on. Knowing his name as the blood painter it is very possible that their blood was used in that painting, which is what made is so passionate for him. This was his way of continuing to love his wife, getting revenge on her, but still keeping her remains to combine it with his passion of painting.

The film actually had some good fight scenes, rather than a bunch of helpless victims. One scene in the garage, shows the defendant beating up on the killing just as much, making us believe the killer could be defeated. Some wanted to just hide and wait it out while others wanted to attack him and get out of there, saving as many as possible. There was a bit of questioning in what the best logic really was and acknowledged several courses of action. Earlier on in the film there is questioning whether Adkov deserves the death penalty or weather a prison sentence is justified enough. It explores both sides of this, but has many of the victims wishing he would have already been executed since he managed to escape.

One of the most impressive elements of the film is how drastically it twists yet in doing so puts everything in great perspective. Trickery has been going on in several different cases to family, friends, and those who are supposed to protect you. The policeman even offers deception, which is a very appropriate choice given the revenge against the law that is desired. We are given examples of how hard forgetting and moving on can be. However, the true cause of the evil might not be the one that seemed so clear to us and dwells on selfishness more than anything. The language of Adkov in particular is very strong. It is a result of the demented but very creative outlook he has. He claims that the souls he takes are already gone and he turned them in to something inspiring. Although completely immoral in doing so, he takes his own justice in the world. Unholy Reunion takes a very creative mindset and gives us the unexpected; both shocking and intriguing.