Synopsis
The Ultimate Hidden Terror
A trio of female reporters find themselves staying overnight in a house occupied by a hostile being lurking in the basement
1980 Directed by Danny Steinmann
A trio of female reporters find themselves staying overnight in a house occupied by a hostile being lurking in the basement
Gemidos en la oscuridad, 恐怖のいけにえ, 恐怖のいけにえ/呪われた近親相姦の館, 未知物, Das unsichtbare Böse, La scala buia, A láthatatlan, Les secrets de l'invisible, Невидимый, 欲孽狂魔, 초능력의 신비
If you don’t come out, I’m gonna come in and get you.
what starts off with strong nods to Psycho, a trio of female reporters are in need of a hotel to stay in and who better than Sydney Lassick to accommodate them, he’s friendly, his inviting personality is infectious, so of course staying in his home with his wife is a perfectly reasonable solution, unfortunately something lives in the basement but isn’t the worst thing in that house! this movie has a lot of tricks up its sleeve, twists and turns to keep you constantly guessing, themes of domestic abuse and incest come into play but it’s such a slow paced mess that even as wild and unsettling as Lassick’s performance is, it never quite delivers on what it’s promising. I’m usually in the mood for something as depraved as this, but the ultimate payoff is pretty lackluster and couldn’t save this little unseen oddity. :(
I had never really heard more than lukewarm reviews for this so I wasn’t expecting much, but I ended up really enjoying it!
The whole “people spending the night in a strange creepy house” setup is one of my favorites so as usual, my opinion here is slightly skewed, but this does have some great atmosphere. I love Babs Bach as much as I love calling people “Babs” and she really puts in a genuinely dedicated final girl performance here. Even soaking wet (honestly, especially soaking wet) she is flawless. In a just world where horror got the same recognition as every other genre, Stephen Furst’s performance as the actual “unseen” would have raked in tons of awards because he…
This is one of those obscure eighties horrors that flies under the radar somewhat. Sort of a mix of Psycho and The Ghoul, The Unseen focuses on a trio of female reporters that end up staying at a creepy farmhouse after failing to find a motel for the night. However, it would appear that there is something in the basement! This is really quite old school for the first hour or so - it's a slow burn, relying a lot on Sydney Lassick's bizarre performance as the farmhouse owner, and the mostly unseen monster that is picking off the girls. It's all atmosphere too, with the creepy house playing a big role, helped along by the sound effects (lightning etc)…
for the most part, this is a fairly interesting film, it just takes way too long to really get going. the first hour feels so slow aside from one or two somewhat exciting moments and that only leaves approximately half an hour of actual entertainment.
the true villain of this film is introduced early on when the main character finds that there are no available hotels for her and her friends to stay at. because of this, she takes up an offer to stay in a room in the home of a man named ernest. you can immediately tell that something isn't quite right with this man. there's more to worry about than just him though. living in his basement,…
"It's not ok, but ok."
Three female reporters hit the road to a town that is hosting a festival that they intend to cover. When they arrive they discover that all of the hotels and motels are fully booked due to tourists visiting that same event. Out of options, they take up the offer to stay in the house of the strange proprietor of the local museum. What they don't know is something dangerous lurks in the basement of that god forsaken house, and they're about to find out what it is.
Danny Steinmann directed four films in his career. One was one of the shittier Friday the 13th entries. Another was a porno, and the other was the niche…
Released during the early 80s slasher cycle, The Unseen is more of a throwback to 60s psychodramas, with director Danny Steinmann taking his cues from Hitchcock; Psycho in particular. Barbara Bach is a beautiful woman but only her eyes can act so to put her in the lead role here means you're stuck with her flat affect for the entire film. Fortunately, the inimitable Sydney Lassick is on hand to gnaw through the scenery for all he's worth, in the role of creepy museum-owner Ernest Keller and host to the three stranded news reporters, led by Bach's Jennifer Fast.
There's a little fun to be had along the way, but this is a fairly rote something-in-the-basement, return-of-the-repressed jam. Two parts…
First time watch!
The Unseen is a early 80's film that is somewhat predictable early on, but still draws in the attention from the insane, depraved performance by Sydney Lassick in his role which carried this film and other notable performances by "Lelia Goldoni" and "Barbara Bach".
A decent well acted horror that doesn't really rely on blood and gore (although has some) but does hold interest with it's crazy, and insane characters.
6.2/10
Worth a rewind! Be kind, please rewind!
2023 Watches Ranked
👉 boxd.it/mlvpW
🌠Daily Horror Hunt #33 (Mar. 2021)🌠
[3] Watch something featuring the first actor listed for The Great Alligator (Barbara Bach).
Barbara Bach was the one who put this film on my radar, and I was curious to see what else Danny Steinmann did outside of Friday the 13th: Part V, but holy shit did SYDNEY LASSICK ever come along and make this movie into something truly wild! Cuckoo's Nest can't touch the cuckoo lunacy oozing off of every bit of his unsettling performance here!
This starts off with some major Psycho vibes – a charming little creep who invites three blonde boarders to stay at his big ol' mansion with his “wife”, while pervin' through keyholes and delving deeper and…
A Review of The Unseen
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Barbra Bach Bop
"The unknown brings terror. The Unseen death!"
A more restrained horror flick from sleaze-o director Danny Steinman. Barbra Bach is a TV reporter sent along with two of her co-workers to cover a Dutch festival. (Something about ovens?) Sadly, there was no room at the inn, (Don't feel bad Barbra, Jesus had the same problem.) Luckily there's an offer from local weirdo Sydney Lassic to stay at his home in the country. This fine home comes with gas heat, porcelain fixtures, hardwood floors, and a mutant in the basement. (Every house in the '80s had mutants in the basement.)
The drooling, screaming man-baby played by Stephen Furst kills the co-workers and…
Yep, this was from the director of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning.
A few nights ago on the Shudder app I saw the first few minutes of this movie via one of the the three streaming channels on the app. It made me laugh so hard that I knew I needed to see this in full soon; besides, it's a picture I first heard about it on some site anyhow. You're in an apartment and from photos on a table it is clear that it's owned by a man. Heavy labored breathing is heard and perhaps it was me knowing that director Danny Steinmann made really sleazy films and apparently was sleazy in real life also... it sounded like…
Do you think they mind if I took a hot bath in a little while?
I sure don't. And neither does Ernest Keller, played by Sydney Lassick. He was nice enough to give the women a place to stay. His place. How friendly. Not so friendly is peeping through the key hole when one of them undresses, seeing Ernest's jittery and sobbing wife makes you wonder what is wrong with their marriage (a lot, believe me) and who or what the hell is making those noises downstairs?
Something's fishy in this large farmhouse and we're about to find out what, although this movie is not in a hurry. It takes its time explaining what's going on and building up towards…