No, 'Unrest' is not the story of a demonic rest area. It is a solid little low budget horror film that lives up to the name "Horror" without being overly swamped with unnecessary plotting crap. There is plenty of tension and trust me, plenty of gore but done in a way that not only works but makes sense in the essence of what is going on on the screen. There is also just enough humor to help release that tension until the next moment why you grab your armrests.
Dealing with Alison (English), a young attractive (aren't they all?) female med student who finds that one by one, her classmates are being killed. Who is doing it? The police think serial killer, and Alison is beginning to believe that as well, except for one problem. Alison believes that one of the corpses in her gross anatomy class is actually a Mayan demon who has invaded the halls of the school. Alison, who is an atheist, comes to a point where what is happening around her forces her to question her own ideas about the afterlife and confront her own demons, as well as the one trying to kill everyone around her.
Ipson has done a very good job with the budget he had, using English and her simple beauty to pull the rest of the cast around her, turning what could have been another "Oh, look at me. I'm so pretty they can't kill me" film into a decent ensemble movie and a credit to the genre. Alison struggles with what she fears is a loss of sanity, while also dealing with these 'feelings' of something wrong around her.
Helping her to convince her professor is a School Psychiatrist, who while disbelieving in evil spirits is willing to take a stand in support of one of the students. Which I thought was admirable, and also told me this was fiction. HAH!
Sorry. One of the more impressive scenes is where one of the other med students has to open a cadaver in the class. Using actual cadavers (Dead Bodies) and not dummies, these kids honestly cut into each body, fumbling around inside of them, removing flesh and organs.
Which really freaks the viewer out when they start talking about body temperature and breathing.
But, lets go back a moment. As far as I can find out, this is the first time Hollywood has used real Living Challenged actors. Gotta wonder if they were paid scale?
"Unrest" is a personal look into one persons quest to understand what happens after death. It does not try to smash anyone over the head with an idea or force a belief onto anyone. I think it does ask the viewer to open their mind and consider what else there could be, just as a 'What if?'
Ipson has done a first class job with "Unrest" and this film deserves a full cinematic release. But it probably won't get it, for just the reasons we discussed here. The gore and body parts are used only as they are needed to move the story forward, there is no nudity, and no explosions.
This is one reason the movie is so good. But it is also not quite dumbed down enough for the average American horror fan of today.