Sam Panico Danny Steinmann started his directing career with the adult movie High Rise and worked on the films Savage Streets and Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning along the way. After that film, he was injured in a bicycle accident and was unable to return to directing. He also produced the Gene Roddenberry made-for-TV movie Spectre. Today, though, we're here to discuss his 1980 effort The Unseen.Keep in mind - Steinmann had his name removed from the movie as he was upset with the final cut. He's credited as Peter Foleg.Jennifer (Barbara Bach Lady Starkey, the wife of Ringo Starr who also was in The Spy Who Loved Me, Black Belly of the Tarantula and Short Night of Glass Dolls) and Karen (Karen Lamm, the wife of Beach Boy Dennis Wilson), along with their friend Vicki, are in Solvag, CA to cover a folk rock show and town festival. A mix-up over their reservations leads the girls to stay with Ernest Keller (Sydney Lassick, Skate Town U.S.A., Lady in White), the owner of a museum.Jennifer is in town to report on the town's parade and festival, but has to deal with her soon to be ex-boyfriend Tony (Douglas Barr, TV's The Fall Guy's Howie, as well as Deadly Blessing), who wants to talk about their relationship. Ugh.Meanwhile, Vicki just wants to get naked while creepy old men stare at her through vents. Sadly for her, The Unseen pulls her through one of those vents and slams it down on her beck, killing her. Soon after, Karen is also killed. Their bodies are discovered by Ernest's wife Virginia (Lelia Goldoni, who was in Cassavetes' Shadows and the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers).That's when we learn the secret: Virginia and Ernest are husband and wife, as well as brother and sister. He killed their father two decades ago and they've lived here ever since, along with Junior (Stephen Furst, the guy from Animal House in the role one wonders if he was born to play), their inbred son. Ernest is keeping up the cycle of abuse that his father started, beating his son and keeping wife/sister in submission. Now, Jennifer must die to keep the secret.Ernest lures her into the basement where she finds her friends' bodies. She panics and runs into Junior, who she discovers probably didn't mean to kill anyone. Ernest tries to kill her, but Virginia tries to save her. This leads to a family fight and Ernest kills his son with a board with a nail through it.Just as Ernest is ready to off Jennifer with a hatchet, her stupid ex saves her. Well, he tries to, but an old leg injury flares up, Oh, you inept moron! It's up to Virginia to save the day by shooting her husband/brother and going back in the house to hold her dead son.The Unseen was originally written by Kim Henkel and Michael Viner. While Henkel is best known for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Viner was a producer and audiobook pioneer who also assembled the Incredible Bongo Band, whose song "Apache" is one of the most sampled songs ever. Their screenplay was adapted into the book Deadly Encounter by Richard Woodley.Bluntly put, this movie is all over the place. The reveal of The Unseen stays on the monster so long that you wonder why this movie is called The Unseen. It starts with so much promise, but by the end, you may find yourself staring at the time left, hoping that it ends quickly.

Wizard-8 "The Unseen" does manage to stand out from many other independent horror movies of this period. The production values are pretty good, for one thing. More importantly, much of the movie is creepy enough to make you genuinely uneasy. Much of this is due to the performances of the two lead male actors. Cult star Sydney Lassick makes his Ernest character a very uneasy figure - you can tell he's hiding something, as well as hinting that his character is a very disturbed individual long before secrets are revealed. And Stephen Furst is very convincing as "Junior", the out of control secret who is extremely unpredictable.Both actors bring in some genuinely creepiness and chills, and the direction adds some genuine atmosphere at times. Still, the movie remains somewhat tasteless to a degree. When we learn how disturbed Ernest is, and how he treats his "wife" and Junior, there is an uneasy feeling of genuine cruelty. Also, the character of Junior often comes across as an unfortunate, and a victim to a degree. The treatment of this unfortunate leads to some uncomfortable moments.Is the movie worth seeing despite the lapses in taste? Maybe. I would recommend it to viewers who are (1) fans of independent horror movies from this period, and (2) are not easily offended. Though even these people might find some moments of the movie tough to sit through.

BA_Harrison A trio of babelicious newswomen (played by Barbara Bach, Karen Lamm and Lois Young) arrive in the town of Solvang, CA, where the locals are holding a festival to celebrate their Danish ancestry. Unable to find a hotel with a vacancy, the tasty threesome accept the offer of a room for the night from Ernest Keller, a kooky museum curator (Sydney Lassick) who not only shares his large, creepy house with his timid sister Virginia (Lelia Goldoni), but also a fugly homicidal hulk named Junior (Stephen Furst), the result of the strange siblings' incestuous relationship.Originally scripted by Kim 'Texas Chain Saw Massacre' Henkel, and subsequently re-written by then-unknown make-up artists Stan Winston and Tom Burman, this entertaining shocker features surprisingly little in the way of gore or graphic nastiness. It does, however, still manage to be quite disturbing thanks to its delightfully twisted premise, a convincing performance from Furst as the mentally disabled, man-child lurking in the basement (a great achievement, since he is acting under heavy make-up by Craig Reardon), and a chilling turn from character actor Lassick, who proves to be the real monster of the film—a mean spirited bully who rules his household through fear, intimidation and violence.Goldoni, Lamm and Young also give solid support (with the latter providing the obligatory T&A during a bath scene), but unfortunately star Bach is rather forgettable in a role that requires her to do little other than look good, bicker with her superfluous on-screen ex-boyfriend (played by Douglas Barr, The Fall Guy's Howie Munson), and scream hysterically at Junior, who—as movie monsters go—really isn't all that scary.6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

TonyDood This is not a film for the typical horror fan; this movie appeals to those who enjoy a little mental disturbance with their terror. Or even a laugh or two. I can't believe they didn't know that it was funny to watch Stephn Furst acting like a mentally challenged mutant monster, ala "The Goonies," it HAD to be intentional, and as such I applaud the filmmakers!The story is about something horrible in the basement and Barbara Bach finds out what it is, after the usual set-up story points. There's little more to it than that. The reason to seek this film out is if you are a lover of mutants and like a little madness in your scary movies.Otherwise, stick to something more safe and traditional.