Horror Movie Reviews
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Title: Unnatural and Accidental (2007) |
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Review of Unnatural and Accidental
- Based on the shocking true story of Vancouver's most frightening serial killings.
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Comments for Unnatural and Accidental
- Posted on 2008-03-22
Not a True-Crime Narrative
The cover of this DVD says the film is about a series of Vancouver murders, and one is naturally led to assume it will be an at least semi-factual account of the on-going investigation into the notorious "Pig Farm" murders. That's the case of a large number of Vancouver prostitutes who went missing and who were eventually discovered to have been murdered and ground up on a pig farm outside of town. However, this movie isn't about the Pig Farm murders. It's about a less-well known series of murders involving alcohol poisoning.
Actually, the film isn't an exploration of any true-crime tragedies at all. It just seems to use that strange set of killings as a hook on which to hang a montage of hazy, artsy images connected by only a thin plotline. There is a murderer on the loose here. He/she/it lures people on the down-side of Vancouver street life into drinking binges, then as they pass into unconsciousness - kills them.
However, it's all just too impressionistic to hold a person's interest. The dead talk to us, intoning enigmatic snippets of philosophy, never quite revealing who did it to them; the killer seems to shape-shift in people's eyes, changing from real person to Death personified; an eerie wind of music blows down the mean streets, along the flophouse corridors of Vancouver; various tribal people come forward to be interviewed and to vouchsafe circular wisdoms about Life and Death.
You do get to see some location shots of parts of Vancouver that tourists wouldn't ordinarily visit. But overall, this looks too much like an earnest film student project - before the students got their act together.
Score: 3
- Posted on 2007-10-30
disturbing, creep and controversial-
Unnatural & Accidental is a dramatized film version of Marie Clements' stage play The Unnatural and Accidental Woman. The only reason why I wanted to see this film is because I am a fan of Tantoo Cardinal, but there are many other good reasons to see the film. This movie was intense! This was a very painful movie to watch: disturbing, creepy, and controversial. To me, those are some key elements of a good film.
The film is based on true events, referring to the deaths of 10 native Canadian women on Vancouver's east side in the 1980's from acute alcohol poisoning. The women were known heavy drinkers of skid row and it was assumed they had died from self-induced alcohol poisoning until it was learned that each had been seen with the same man before their deaths.
Rebecca is the daughter (played by Carmen Moore) of one of the victims. After the death of her father, she begins going into the skid row district to search for her long missing mother (Tantoo Cardinal). There were a few themes going on at the same time; deliberate avoidance of justice, racism, alcoholism, the heinous affects of colonization on indigenous families; women and children. There is a quote from the movie that I think that plays well to the one of the themes of the movie and the filming technique prevalent through the whole movie, "alcohol is a spirit, it fills you up with something if you didn't have enough spirit in you" (quote is not verbatim). At times I felt like my equilibrium was off because of the swaying of the camera. It was an effective technique in feeling like your actually having a drink with these ladies rather than just observing the film. The women give a very haunting performance; their images of drunken despair reaching out to lost loves and orphaned children are chilling.
The film starts off hard, gripping and promising, then by mid film you start to feel it shake and not follow through. There a couple of other drawbacks as well. The film is difficult to follow; some of the scenes are filmed with a vague dreamlike quality to it that feels almost like an amateur filmed it. I wasn't sure what was real or not. I started getting lost with the time sequences of the film. The other most apparent thing amiss was that there was not enough character development. I felt there could have been some more work on Rebecca's and her mother's past. Why was Rebecca chosen to find her mother's murderer?
Another disappointment is The film starts off with a strong implication in how racism played a huge role in how the killer got a way with killing for so long, but then it falls short in supporting this or even spending time developing this. I believe the film would have had a much harder impact if this had been more emphasized and not left as an implication or bad taste in your mouth.
Over all, I recommend the film. Put on a pot of coffee, invite some friends over (the more diverse crowd the better), and then enjoy some good discussion!
Score: 3