UNEARTHLY STRANGER On Blu-ray From Kino

 

How do you make a science fiction film with no special effects? The 1963 British movie UNEARTHLY STRANGER managed to pull it off. A black & white low-budget feature with no major stars and no major FX sequences might not seem very promising, but this is a creative and imaginative tale that is ahead of its time in some ways. Kino Lorber has recently released it on Blu-ray. 

John Neville (who played Sherlock Holmes in A STUDY IN TERROR) plays British scientist Mark Davidson, who is working on a top secret project involving the use of concentrated thought to allow humans to project themselves into outer space. Mark is troubled by the fact that a number of other scientists around the world working on the same idea have been killed--their brains have been literally blasted by an overwhelming force. Mark starts to suspect that there is some sort of conspiracy to stop the project from coming to fruition, and he's also worried about his beautiful young wife Julie (Gabriella Licudi), a woman he recently married despite barely knowing her only a few days. Julie has a number of strange attributes. 

UNEARTHLY STRANGER is a quite underrated movie that has an X-FILES "everything is a conspiracy" feel to it. (John Neville would go on to play a small but important role in the original THE X-FILES TV series.) Director John Krish and cinematographer Reg Wyer make up for the lack of FX by giving the story a disorienting feel, with all sorts of unusual shot setups and plenty of dramatic closeups. John Neville gives the story a solid foundation with his fine portrayal of the lead character, making the viewer buy into his plight. 

The small supporting cast includes Kubrick regular Phillip Stone as Mark's fellow scientist and friend, Patrick Newell (who played "Mother" on THE AVENGERS TV series) as a quirky security officer, and Jean Marsh as a secretary at the research center Mark works at. Gabriella Licudi does well with the notable part of Julie. It's obvious from the start that Julie is connected in some way with Mark's research, but Licudi gains the viewer's sympathy with her vulnerability. 

I won't discuss the climax of this film too much, so first-time viewers can appreciate it more, but the ending fits right in with the 21st Century vibe of "we're all being controlled no matter what we choose". 

Kino presents UNEARTHLY STRANGER in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1. The picture quality is very clear, but I have to say that the sound is underwhelming. The movie comes with a disc sleeve that has different promotional art than that of the actual disc cover (see above). Neither cover actually presents the film accurately, but any artwork would be hard-pressed to define the movie's ideas. 

This disc contains two different audio commentaries, one by Gary Gerani and the other by Bryan Reesman and Max Evry. I haven't had a chance to listen to either of them. The disc also contains original trailers for UNEARTHLY STRANGER and a few other films released by Kino. 

I liked UNEARTHLY STRANGER a lot. It isn't overwhelmingly great, but it's a nice little sci-fi feature that feels as if it was made for today's times instead of the 1960s. It is a genre film than should get more attention.