AN UNQUIET GRAVE

Stars: Jacob A. Ware and Christine Nyland.
Writers: Christine Nyland and Terence Krey.
Director: Terence Krey.

WORLD PREMIERE: Sunday October 11 at NIGHTSTREAM Virtual Film Festival, U.S.A.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 

A sly, slow-burn two-hander exhibiting a genre heritage best described as ‘supernatural-noir’, An Unquiet Grave tightens the narrative screws with a mix of psychological thrills, grief-infused drama and OMG horror. Kept real by grounded depictions of desperation, sorrow and fear by two terrific lead performances, director Terence Krey’s high-end low-budgeter builds empathy and understanding for its protagonists before getting down and dirty in a pulse-quickening third act.

An established and respected ensemble player (notably in TV series like Boardwalk Empire and Graves), Jacob A. Ware takes full advantage of leading man status as ‘Jamie’, fleshing out the nuanced psychosis impacting a man still struggling with the death of his wife, Julie. A year on, he has taken to driving in the dark of night with Julie’s sister, Ava (Christine Nyland, who co-scripted), to the site where Julie died. Their shared hope is that Julie may not have lived her final days if what Jamie has learned is true.

Along the way, interaction between the pair waivers from warm and understanding to edgy and devious. Nyland and Krey’s script is a work of considerable skill, with each line playing a carefully constructed role in complicating character traits and strengthening the conceit. When the setting shifts from the front seat of the car to a cabin in the woods and the narrative spins from sideway glances and ambiguous wordplay to shovels and shallow graves, the transition is seamless. 

If, by the hour mark, you are wondering why The Unquiet Grave is bowing at the Nightstream horror fest, one especially challenging sequence will silence your concerns. While certainly a great visceral horror sequence, the reveal also reinforces the notion that the true horror in the story of these lost souls stems from their broken hearts.  

Krey, Nyland and Ware stay focussed on character and mood over genre tropes and histrionics, aided immeasurably by the artful eye of DOP Daniel Fox, who works wonders with a lot of single-source light/night-time location work. An Unquiet Grave is an assured genre exercise in the corrosive nature of profound sadness and how it can dissolve the moral core of good people.