Unsane

It's the Angela Lansbury syndrome: a mystery writer is being caught up in a murder mystery. This time, though, the killer is taking a page from writer's novel, literally. Pages from Peter's book find their way into some of the victims. Like the killer in the novel this one is choosing targets based on societal deviance: a crook, a couple of lesbians, and the like. This is Unsane.

Peter and those around him are caught up in the mess. Their meddling starts putting new names on the killer's hit list. Peter adds to the trouble by taking it upon himself to investigate the killer rather than relying on the police. After all, if he's wrong he'll look like a dope, but if he's right what great publicity that would be! But writing about detectives doesn't mean he is one.

It's a decent murder mystery. It throws a couple of curves to keep the viewer guessing. Unfortunately, not everything plays out to be logically clever. I can't go into details without spoiling things so suffice it to say the ending leaves unanswered questions, and by that I don't mean the ambiguous, rhetorical kind. These are more like plot holes.

Aside from John Saxon the cast is completely unknown to me. This appears to me to be a joint effort between Americans and Italians. Since I don't know many Italian actors that would be why they're unfamiliar. Still, most of the acting is decent and even good at times. It's enough to give the story a good boost.

One big negative is the editing. The scenes often feel too abrupt and the cuts can be jolting. Along those same lines, there's a recurring dreamlike sequence of a girl on a beach. They feel unnaturally different from the rest of the movie and are confusing. Even with the clarity that comes with learning of their significance to the story I feel like they could have been presented in a much better way.

The efforts to hide the killer's identity often feels corny. For example, the killer speaks in whispers as a form of voice disguise which, when goading Peter on the phone, makes sense, but there are other times when a voice disguise is unnecessary and even illogical. It's only done to keep us viewers in the dark. These moments pulled me out of the movie.

MORALITY:

This is a pretty violent movie. People get hacked and slashed a lot with copious amounts of blood and some gruesome moments. The closer it gets to the end the more it begins to feel like a slasher film as much as a mystery.

There are a couple of nude scenes and some sexually oriented dialogue.

The strong language is bad throughout.

SPIRITUALITY:

Not unlike John Doe in Seven, the killer is slaughtering people he sees as being amoral in some way. He doesn't put it in the same religious context as Doe does, but the idea is similar.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

This is no Sherlock Holmes level mystery. Heck, it's really not even a Hardy Boys level one, but compared to other movies like it, it's actually not bad at all. It's old, it has it's problems, but it's entertaining and interesting.

#Unsane #Tenebre