In writer/director Alejandro Cohen Arazi‘s debut The Unburied, Demián Salomón plays Maximiliano Espósito, a cash-strapped psychologist with a new book out called Tribal Education. The book signals a key undercurrent of the movie, namely the way our family/community impacts our behavior. There are some big ideas at play in this feature, and they’re juxtaposed with some revolting images.

Maxi lives in Buenos Aires and escaped his past a long time ago. An orphan, he’s contacted by one of his “brothers” after their “papa” dies. That brother is Hector, played by Héctor Alba. Maxi enjoys his life in the big city, thank you very much, and he really has no desire to return to the rural location of his childhood. However, when Hector mentions inheritance, Maxi is caught like a worm on a hook. He needs the money, hence his return. He’s reunited with his other brothers, though none of them really drive the story forward as much as Hector, an antagonist who exudes the masculinity that their papa apparently had, a type of manliness that Maxi shuns for his bookish ways. In fact, the most tension-inducing scenes often occur between Maxi and Hector, including one involving a game of chess. Let’s just say Hector hates losing. Maxi also has some serious baggage. He’s haunted by strange rituals his father forced upon him as a kid.

The Unburied is very much about Maxi’s struggle to still go against the grain once he’s reunited with his initial tribe. Will he pick up a gun and hunt? Will he eat meat from the slaughterhouse the brothers run? Will he partake in a new sort of sacrifice with his bros? Anyone with a weak stomach may want to avoid this one. There’s a prolonged slaughterhouse scene within the first 20 minutes that even I had difficulty watching. It’s bloody and gruesome and introduces the threat of violence that hangs over the rest of the film. This male clan can indeed be vicious. There are a few more disturbing and bizarre sequences that come later, but none quite as stomach-churning as that initial one. Meanwhile, papa lingers in the house, a corpse left unburied, seated at the dinner table, fully dressed and sporting a bracelet made of teeth.  The corpse haunts, a powerful patriarchal figure that looms over the brothers and the house. This is the film’s real nightmare, far more effective than cattle slaughter.

The main problem with the film is that while it has some interesting ideas at its core, the execution doesn’t always work. There are some real gaps and threads left unanswered. For instance, there’s a red-haired witch woman with little to no story who simply shows up during ritual time and then disappears. What’s the point exactly? Meanwhile, the purpose of the rituals remains murky at best, though the trauma they inflicted upon Maxi remains clear.

The Unburied shows a lot of promise for a new director. Arazi tackles some intriguing concepts here, and his feature contains some generally unnerving moments, especially the ones that rely less on shock value.  While the film is a bit uneven, it does signal that Arazi is a director to watch.

6 Out of 10