“Unspeakable” stars Dina Meyer (“Starship Troopers”) as a psychologist who wants to understand the minds of serial killers. Not content to sit back and simply do ‘profiler’ work, she chooses to use a machine that allows one to really ‘see’ into the mind of her subjects. Against the better judgment of a prison warden (Dennis Hopper), he allows her to test the device on convicted killer, Jesse Mowatt (Pavan Grover). The images she gets are more than disturbing. Might I say they are downright unspeakable? (I had to, man… I had to….) When it comes time for his execution, everything goes wrong and it becomes clear that Mowatt might be something more than just your average every day serial killer. Movies about serial killers are pretty much a dime a dozen, but occasionally you get a good one. Or at least a creative one. The idea behind this premise is similar to “The Cell”, just without the big budget.

“Unspeakable” isn’t what I‘d call a great movie, but it is saved by a fairly good cast. Lance Henriksen turns in one of the better performances of the film, as does Hopper.

The film’s weakness is that it sporadically goes off into these strange tangents that cause a bit of head scratching. Granted, this is a film that is dealing with the mind of a serial killer, so thoughts and images can be somewhat sketchy. But some of the confusion finds itself outside the arena of the mind and sits squarely in the ‘real world’ of the film. Even the ending is a bit questionable.

MGM’s DVD release of “Unspeakable” includes a few extras, but few that are really worth spending a lot of time with. For the most part, you get outtakes and extended scenes, none of which really add a lot to the story. However, there is an interesting scene with Hopper that is worth a quick look. You’ll know it when you see it.

I really cannot recommend the film very highly .Fans of the genre might get into it for some of the gorier aspects of the film, but I would have preferred a lsighlty more coherent plot.

Directed by: Thomas J. Wright
Starring: Dina Meyer, Lance Henrikson, Pavan Grover, Jeff Fahey, Dennis Hopper
Extras: Deleted Scenes, Extended Gory Scenes, Outtakes
Specifications: Widescreen (1.85:1) Enhanced for 16x9 Televisions, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: MGM
Release Date: 10/5/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: R (Strong Violence and Gore, Disturbing Images, Language and Some Sexuality)
Website

We'll give Unspeakable a C-.