Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘An Unquiet Grave’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the motion picture, ‘An Unquiet Grave’.

What’s fascinating about most stories that revolve around loss and grief and the long road to recovery that accompanies that… is that they follow the unfortunate stigma that surrounds this devastating process to a tee. Which means that the ‘healing’ process that the poor character is subjected to, is rushed and incomplete and oddly sappy and happy. Reflecting the fact that the modern world and a great many of its inhabitants believe that we should only take a finite time to grieve for our loss before sucking it up and moving forward and well, that’s problematic for certain. Simply because we are beginning to learn that grief is a complex emotion/experience, one that doesn’t have a timeline or standard symptoms and requires some fascinating care to overcome. 
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Because losing someone we love dearly really does rip at one’s soul and no one is the same after they say goodbye. Which is why it is important for those that grieve to have some kind of support network that holds them up when the sorrow washes over them to help them to process that the person they love isn’t coming back. For when a person doesn’t receive that kind of support, they can go to some dark places and be lost to their grief forever and that harsh reality and difficult recovery process is something that is so daunting and fearful that it makes sense as to why most stories won’t cover it. But they should, because this is something we will all experience and that’s why stories that take the time to offer this in the raw should be celebrated. Since they are brave enough to expose the process and the dangers of letting grief take over and it just so happens that Shudder is now host to a film that offers an earnest look on this topic in An Unquiet Grave.

Now in this particular film, we are introduced to a man named Jamie and a woman named Ava and they are simply besides themselves. For Jules, Ava’s sister and Jamie’s wife… recently passed away in a horrible accident and they are struggling to comprehend how their lives will function going forward. For Jules and Ava were as thick as thieves and Jamie loved her with all of his heart and well, they’re both so broken and so devastated that they decide that the only thing left to do to ease their pain, is to try and erase it by way of a bold and dangerous plan. One that involves black magic and spilled blood in order to resurrect Jules from the void. But it doesn’t take long for Ava or Jamie to come to realize that this plan comes with a lot of unexpected surprises, the kind that neither party might be able to live with and it will be up to Jamie to decide if this decision is really worth the damage it is about to cause.

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Which is a plot that is delightfully grounded in the roots of the horror genre. Because rituals and blood and sacrifice are all occult themes that work well within the genre and those elements do a fine job of making the scares happen in this particular tale. Because everything that Ava and Jamie do to bring Jules back to life, is mired in strange moments and noises and shadows that make one’s arm hair stand on end. Plus, some of the decisions that lead up to the return of Jules give the audience a horrifying pause since part of the process involves lies and cruelty and downright selfishness and oddly enough, it is those specific sour elements that allow for this motion picture to speak to the dangers of unchecked grief and why a support network is critical to those suffering.
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Because in essence, Jamie is the personification of all that can go wrong when someone is left to their own devices to grieve. For the death of his love breaks him and shatters his soul, and the isolation and time with dark thoughts motivates him to hold out false hope that she will somehow come back and of course, it makes him toxic to others. Since now he is willing to cause harm to reach his ultimate goal and while that is of course, displayed in the extreme here, his actions serve as a parallel to someone that is grieving and chooses to push people away to surround themselves in the memory and pain of their loss, rather than even remotely attempt to heal it and that makes for a powerful film for certain. One where you really do come to realize that letting someone suffer on their own in this manner is dangerous and scary on so many levels and that it might not be a bad thing to at least reach out to someone in need the next time we have a grieving friend… since that might save them from slipping into this darkness.

If anything, all of these elements make this a painfully dark and bleak motion picture. One that holds nothing back in its exploration of the power of grief and loss and the dangers that come with letting it run through our souls unchecked, and those elements also make this film, brilliant to say the least. Because this is also at its core a brave story, one that shows the human condition in the raw by pointing out how much the loss of someone we love impacts us on an emotional level, and that we are foolish for not acknowledging that and for not embracing it in a more compassionate manner. So, if you’re looking for a powerful film that gives you a lot to chew upon once it has come to an end, then please swing by Shudder, and give An Unquiet Grave a look. Because this one, is poignant and special and powerful, and a true pioneer on a topic that we have avoided talking about for far too long.

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