A struggling couple goes to a cabin to work and reconnect. Soon, a Death Dealer is involved and things get violent.
Trigger warning: Suicide, abuse
Written and directed by Joe Hollow, Flesh of the Unforgiven is one of those horror movies where big chunks of it feel more like a drama than a horror film and the horror elements often feel disconnected from the drama itself. There is something here story wise, but something feels off, like it’s missing. The writing and direction are not bad, there’s is just something that feels like it’s either missing or off, like the pacing is a bit all over the place. The way the story develops is decent, it works here, but it has lulls and bit where things are just not moving fast enough. Otherwise, there are some solid ideas here and some of them that feel like they’ve been seen before, multiple times. The horror elements are mostly entertaining with a few scenes veering into the iffy territory by going just that touch too far, maybe?
The cast here is decent with Joe Hollow in the lead, sort of, where he gets some juicy scenes as an actor, most of which he does well with and some of which, well, not so much. Debbi Rochon plays his wife, a true tortured soul who caused her own situation and is often seen sulking. Her work here is mostly decent but, getting nitpicky, the haircut/style is not working and impeding her performance by covering the big part of her face and facial expressions, thus robbing her of being to fully her show her acting range here. Joining these two and stealing a few scenes is August Kyss as Vivienne, a woman who made a bad choice is making a few more while gaining some new form for herself. Her work her is a touch mysterious and a whole lot of tortured soul. She shines. The rest of the cast doesn’t get a bunch of screen time and quite a few of them have their faces obscured or covered in heavy makeup looks, so while they are good, subtlety is lost here.
The film’s cinematography by Kevin McMillan is a bit uneven. The parts in the cabin and the bar look decent but nothing particularly impressive about them, the images work, but that’s it. Then you get scenes like where August Kyss is in the tub and when she is in her final sequence where the images look fantastic, there is something in that last bit with her that elevates the scene and the film itself. More of that throughout would have been fantastic.
Flesh of the Unforgiven is an uneven film with a lot of potential, not all of which gets to be fully realized. The writing is decent, the direction is decent, the cast is decent overall, but something is missing to make it a truly sensational horror film. The drama seems more on point than the horror here which makes one wonder if perhaps the story was meant to be told in a more traditional manner.