‘Unholy Song’ (2025)

'Unholy Song' is a low budget horror that follows Terrence (Christopher Orozco) as he deals with a mysterious tape and recording. Plagued by a malicious presence, Terrence decides to rent out two rooms in his house to down-on-her-luck Viv (Jessica K. Caves) and struggling Fred (Sean Gestl), each dealing with their own issues.

With an intriguing animated opening credit sequence, the film quickly and firmly establishes itself as a low-rent horror flick on its opening. Tracking a young boy approaching Terrence's yard, a mysterious hand reaches for the boy from the ground. Warding the hand off, Terrence defends the boy and stops a 'witch' from emerging from her hiding. Haunting his dreams, Terrence is frequented by the malicious spectre, leading him to take in two tenants. Confusing and vague, Terrence's motivations remain murky, as he wants the company but potentially exposes the two new inhabitants to the dark force.

Entering their new home, Viv opens up about wanting to start again as she's trying to escape an abusive relationship. Striving to do better, Fred too seeks to get back on his feet as he wants to do better by his daughter and eventually reform the family with his wife. The two are warned not to go into a shed in the back yard under any circumstances. A visit to the backyard also reveals that Terrence has agreed for a trio of apparent vagabonds to squat on his property.

The expected happens when Viv and Fred have friends over for a house-warming. The group break into the shed and find a tape recorder. Inscribed with warnings against playing the tape, the group do so anyway and unleash a hidden evil. Confessing to Terrence, he reveals that the tape recording is cursed. As someone who used to haul junk to the junkyard, he was given the tape to dispose of also being warned not to listen to the material. Taking the haul home for the weekend, his wife Janine (Paula Vercudia) is tempted to listen to the tape. Unleashing the force within, Janine is haunted and eventually possessed, taking her own life.

Banding together, Terrence, Viv and Fred go to the man's house who asked Terrence to get rid of the tape. There they find him at the mercy of the unleashed force, trapped and doomed for death. Finding the man’s journal, they learn the evil force was his sister Rosanne (Quint Gabriel). Having endured her attempts on his life, the man had inadvertently trapped her spirit in a tape and has had to keep the force at bay up until now.

With the help of Father Bernard (Eric Parkinson), the group prepare to face off against the spectre, each suffering her wrath. With the backyard vagabonds vying for the witch’s attention, they subdue Terrence and Father Bernard with Viv trying to save them. In an unexpected turn, Viv is seemingly aided by the witch as she impales the vagabond ringleader and helps her escape.

Culminating in an awkward stand-off, Terrence and Father Bernard are taken out while Viv and Fred are locked out of the house. Deciding to re-enter the premises the next morning, the two disappear into the house, with prospective tenants approaching the property some time later.

Immediately noticeable, the film's budget weighs heavily on the tone and feel of the feature. With little by way of set designs, acting, writing and set pieces, the film unfolds in a clunky and jumbled way. Suffering from a poorly written script, the incoherent progression of the story and multiple plot-holes divert one's attention from what little story there is to follow. Stunted dialogue and delivery further detract from the narrative as the actors fumble from one scene into the next.

Not to take anything away from low budget features, 'Unholy Song' probably serves as a good example of the pitfalls that independently funded films can face and the shortcomings that are glaringly obvious to amateur film-makers. Besides the fact that some characters motivations make no sense or are not given any explanation, the core cast also suffer from poorly developed goals and identities.

Save for its genre designation, the film has little to no horror attributes about it. Lacking in dark atmosphere, any real scares or suspense of any kind, 'Unholy Song' feels like a wasted effort as it delivers nothing it promises and further disappoints by introducing nothing unpredictable and feeling more than it's 95 minute runtime. Be it someone's passion project or not, the feature is not worth seeing, save for an example of what not to do when making a horror, or even any kind of, feature.

Score: 0/4