Horror films usually rely on two things: the dead scaring the living, and the living being just smart enough to not deserve it. Unrest (2006), directed by Jason Todd Ipson, gives us a story where the cadaver has more personality than the cast, and where you’ll find yourself rooting for a corpse named “Norma” simply because she’s the only one with a real arc. This movie was part of the 8 Films to Die For festival, though the title should’ve been 8 Films to Nap Through—because death isn’t the real risk here. Boredom is.
The Setup: Grey’s Anatomy Meets Aztec Curses
We start with Alison Blanchard (Corri English), a fresh-faced med student ready to cut into her first cadaver. What she doesn’t realize is that her assigned corpse is basically the Freddy Krueger of body donors. Nicknamed “Norma” by her fellow students, this cadaver isn’t just dead—she’s vengeful, cursed, and about as welcome in your lab group as a roommate who doesn’t pay rent.
The premise is actually not half-bad on paper: disrespect the dead, and the dead disrespect you right back. Unfortunately, instead of a sharp, menacing supernatural thriller, we get an 89-minute hospital drama where the scariest thing is the fluorescent lighting.
The Horror: Death by Mild Inconvenience
“Norma” doesn’t leap out of freezers or crawl across the floor. She doesn’t even do the courtesy of popping up in mirrors like a proper horror villain. Instead, she kills people by sheer bad vibes. Look at her the wrong way? Dead fiancé. Say something mean while sawing through her sternum? Dead nurse. The body count stacks up, but the methods are so vague it feels like people are dying of narrative laziness rather than supernatural wrath.
There’s no gore worth mentioning. There’s no shocking jump scare that rattles you. Just… people mysteriously keeling over because the screenplay decided it was time. It’s horror by PowerPoint: clinical, predictable, and about as scary as watching a training video on how to wash your hands.
The Lore: Aztec Fertility Spirits, Because Why Not
Eventually, Alison uncovers Norma’s tragic backstory. Once upon a time, Norma—real name Alita Covas—was an archaeologist who unearthed an Aztec sacrificial site. Because horror movies need curses the way Taco Bell needs cheese, this means she’s now spiritually linked to Tlazolteotl, the Aztec goddess of fertility and prostitution. After digging up 50,000 sacrificial victims, she… became a prostitute herself? Then spiraled into madness, murder, and asylum death.
It’s a lore salad: Aztec gods, sex work, insanity, archaeology. You can practically hear the scriptwriters throwing darts at a board labeled “Exotic Horror Tropes” and calling it a day. By the time we reach the explanation, you’re less frightened and more exhausted—like listening to someone drunk at a bar explain The Da Vinci Code.
The Characters: Medical Students Who Flunk Common Sense
Corri English does her best as Alison, but her role is less “plucky protagonist” and more “person who delivers exposition while staring at corpses.” Her classmates and love interest blur into a single blob of lab coats and half-hearted concern. They exist to either die or help carry Norma’s remains to the furnace like pallbearers in a college stage play.
The doctors are either creepy, dismissive, or conveniently withholding information. Derrick O’Connor plays Dr. Blackwell, who feels like he wandered in from a different movie entirely—maybe a BBC hospital drama where the only horror is budget cuts.
Honestly, the most compelling presence is Norma herself. She lies there, silent, still, stitched up—and still manages to out-act half the cast.
The Climax: Ashes to Ashes, Audience to Sleep
Once Alison learns the truth, she decides the only way to stop Norma is cremation. She and her love interest lug the dismembered corpse through the hospital like a weekend DIY project. They finally cremate her, only for Alison to decide she must go to Brazil to scatter the ashes properly.
It should be climactic. Instead, it feels like a group project gone wrong: “Okay, you handle the torso, I’ll get the legs, and let’s meet by the incinerator at five.” Even the ending hint—that Norma’s spirit still haunts the hospital—lands with the impact of a wet sponge. It’s not chilling. It’s a shrug.
The Horror Festival Irony
Here’s the kicker: Unrest was named Best Picture at the 2006 International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival. That’s like giving “Best Meal” to a microwaved Hot Pocket. Maybe the jury confused “best” with “most presentable.” Or maybe the other entries were worse—always a possibility in a lineup called 8 Films to Die For. If this was the best, the rest must’ve been actual biohazards.
Corri English also won Best Actress, which says less about her performance and more about how barren the competition must’ve been. She spends most of the runtime frowning at corpses, which, in fairness, is the correct reaction to this screenplay.
The Atmosphere: Hospitals Are Already Creepy, Guys
Hospitals are naturally unsettling: sterile, cold, humming with machines, smelling faintly of bleach and despair. Unrestdoesn’t do anything with that atmosphere. Instead of leveraging the natural horror of medical spaces, it treats the hospital like a dull set where people occasionally bump into each other in corridors. The X-Files had scarier morgue scenes in its B-plots.
There’s no tension, no use of sound, no creativity with lighting. It’s as if the director thought the word “hospital” would do all the work. Spoiler: it doesn’t.
The Dark Humor: Cadaver Comedy Hour
If you squint, there’s comedy in the absurdity. A cursed cadaver who kills med students for “disrespect” feels less like a horror villain and more like a bitter professor in corpse cosplay. Imagine Norma slapping sticky notes on students mid-dissection: “F minus for technique. Also, you’re dead now.”
There’s also the fact that Alison’s solution—take Norma to Brazil—feels like a deranged study-abroad application. “Why are you visiting?” “Oh, I’m scattering the ashes of a vengeful prostitute-archaeologist who worships Tlazolteotl.” TSA would have a field day.
Final Verdict: Restless, Pointless, Forgettable
Unrest (2006) is proof that you can have a creepy premise, a creepy setting, and still botch it by refusing to commit to either scares or coherence. It’s a film where the dead overshadow the living—not in a scary way, but in a “why am I spending time with these bland students when Norma is right there?” way.
The movie isn’t frightening, it isn’t thrilling, and it certainly isn’t memorable. The real unrest is what you’ll feel trying to stay awake.
Final Score: 1 out of 5 scalpels. Watch it if you’re into horror films where the biggest villain is bad pacing and the scariest sound is the hum of fluorescent lights. Otherwise, let this cadaver rot in peace.
