Up in Michigan, Emily (Midori Francis) is a doctor who has been kidnapped by her psychotic ex-boyfriend, Charlie (Michael Patrick Lane). Charlie takes her to a cabin in the woods, where he ties her up and brags about the revenge that he’s going to take on her. Emily manages to break free and temporarily incapacitate Charlie but, in the process, she breaks her glasses. Nearly blind, Emily stumbles out into the wilderness. Despite not knowing where she is and not being able to see more than a few inches in front of her, Emily has to find her way back to civilization before Charlie finds her.
Down in Florida, Sam (Jolene Purdy) arrives for another day of work at a gas station where she spends most of her time dealing with a broken Slurpee machine. From the start, it’s not a good day, with a rich woman named Carol (Missi Pyle) demanding a refund just because she accidentally put the cheapest brand of fuel into her BMW. Sam finds herself looking down at the card that she has from the suicide prevention hotline and we immediately know that Sam is not happy with her life. Then, suddenly, her phone rings.
Emily and Sam don’t know each other but when Emily tries to use her phone to call for help, Sam is the one who ends up getting the call. Once Sam realizes that Emily is being stalked by her murderous ex, Sam agrees to become Emily’s eyes through video call. Sam guides Emily through the woods, keeping her informed of whether or not Charlie is nearby. Along the way, they talk about their different lives and how they came to be in their current situations. Sam gives Emily the strength to keep fighting for her survival while Emily gives Sam a reason to keep on living. And while Emily is having to constantly deal with Charlie and his attempts to re-capture her, Sam has to deal with things like exploding slushee machines, a dying phone battery, and eventually Carol and an apparently insane (and heavily armed) man who appears to be her husband.
Unseen is a bit of a disjointed film. The scenes in Michigan are very serious and very intense, with Emily suffering serious injury as she flees from Charlie. At one point, Emily begs Sam to call her mom so that Emily can say goodbye to her and it’s a genuinely emotional scene. At the same time, the scenes in Florida are often broadly comedic, with Sam sliding across the floor and, at one point, locking herself behind bullet-proof glass while Carol and her husband, who is dressed like a yacht captain, scream at her to come out. The tonal shifts between the two locations can be a bit jarring but the film is still effective, largely due to the sincerity of the performances of Midori Francis and Jolene Purdy. Their friendship feels real and it’s hard not to get a little misty-eyed at the film’s final moments.
Unseen deserves a lot of credit for only being 76 minutes long. It tells its story quickly and without any unnecessary padding. This is a film that does not waste any time getting to the point and, in this time when even the simplest of genre films will often run for more than two hours, it’s hard not appreciate the nicely paced efficiency of Unseen.
Through the Shattered Lens 