An Ordinary Man

An Ordinary Man

Grief has yet to be mined in “An Unquiet Grave,” a small-scale horror film that is as grim as it seems: To what lengths would you go if you believed a loved one could alleviate your private pain? That’s the crux of this supernatural character study, though it’s unclear whether that question or any others trouble Jamie (Jacob A. Ware), a fretful widower. One year after the accidental death of his wife, Julia, Jamie has merely turned more inward and self-pitying. He goes back to Julia’s grave, where he meets up with her equally devastated sister Ava (Christine Nyland). And after some hemming and hawing, Jamie and Ava make a perverse pact: They’re going to bring Julia back from the dead. But Jamie’s plan isn’t what it appears.

Trapped themselves by an engulfing uncertainty and by the shared belief that any kind of action is better than none at all Jamie and Ava are really only just getting started.

That’s where “An Unquiet Grave” picks up its plot; without giving too much away from here on out, I’ll just say that fans already fond of “Pet Sematary” and “Hellraiser” may get an extra kick out of this movie, which doubles as a pleasant surprise.

“An Unquiet Grave,” unlike many recent indie horror films, doesn’t feel weighed down by 40 years’ worth of American genre history. It’s a spartan mood piece whose just so dialogue, too tight close ups and deceptively slack pacing tease out small but crucial revelations about these two essentially unknowable characters. More emotional lightning rods than audience surrogates, they are designed to flicker when touched: He knows more than he lets on, so his actions inevitably force her into becoming a reflection of his carefully concealed emotions.

You can hear some unresolved tension in the way he corrects her after she offhandedly describes the death of her twin sister: Julia didn’t die in her car, “she was thrown” from it. He blindfolds her and avoids any unnecessary hand-holding as they complete well, some kind of arcane ritual involving burning sage, a disinterred body and a little fresh blood. “Nothing’s happening,” Ava says right before something incredible does. “Jamie?” she asks over her shoulder. “Jamie, say something.”

Thankfully, “An Unquiet Grave” is less about that stuff than it is about what comes next. This is not a trial of a movie; we are not meant to make easy judgments about two clearly unbalanced characters. Instead, Krey and Nyland invite us to plunge headlong into an already out-of-control situation and watch Jamie and Ava grope toward their own sense of direction.

Like many great micro-budget horror films, this one is much more interested in hiding things than showing them. If it works for you at all, you’ll spend less time wondering how you’re supposed to feel than wondering what could possibly happen next an important distinction in a film that wants us to hang out with two emotionally spent protagonists.

There are things that we can never know. The background of Jamie and Ava, for example: it lasted how long; what exactly was its shape? But we do know how it feels when someone says “You can’t just pretend it didn’t happen” or “There’s something outside. I didn’t get a good look at it, I didn’t see.” Those leading statements in half-light are a sign that we’re on the outside of their grief. They’re trapped and they want to get out. “It feels like it’s on me,” says Ava later, but by now she isn’t quite herself. “It feels like it’s holding me together.”

As you’ve probably guessed, I’m trying to avoid talking about the plot of “An Unquiet Grave”: being on the outside of a very insular story is part of its charm. Sometimes usually the movie’s sketch like details (both visual and narrative) are suffocating in their restrictiveness. But mostly “An Unquiet Grave” is as absorbing as it is lean; a quietly executed high wire act whose sustained mood is all the more impressive because its creators only occasionally call attention to their hyper-pared down style. My favorite scene in this movie consists of several spare images of unoccupied, mood-lit furniture living room couch, unmade bed and the repetitive thump of a spade hitting pay dirt somewhere off-camera. It doesn’t sound like much but if you’re there then trust me: It’s plenty enough.

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