Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Coventry What's the worst thing that could happen to a director? I imagine it would be getting accused of shamelessly ripping off an original movie idea, even though it never was the intention and everything's just a matter of bad timing. When "The Unknown" came out, not too many people were interested in seeing it because most press reviews stated it wasn't much more than a lame imitation of "The Blair Witch Project". But in reality, this modest Swedish low-budget film was as good as finished when "BWP" played in the theaters and, even if it did influence Michael Hjorth in some way, it must have only been during the post-production phase. In all honesty, "The Unknown" is also a much better film than the annoying and way overrated "Blair Witch Project", which – by the way – is nothing more than a hypocrite imitation of "Cannibal Holocaust". That being said, the script for "The Unknown" obviously found most of its inspiration in the classic Sci-Fi concept of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". The use of hand-held cameras, with shaky movements and extreme close-ups of the inside of people's nostrils, might be reminiscent of "Blair Witch", but the premise of something unearthly and evil prowling a remote area and gradually taking humans is purely old-fashioned horror greatness. The plot centers on five friends and amateur environmentalists driving up north to research the effects on the fauna & flora after an immensely destructive forest fire. On the first day already, the quintet stumbles upon some type of unidentifiable and rotting carcass and decide to perform a pathological examination. Meanwhile, one of the girls falls ill and inexplicably runs into the woods at night. Ingar behaves increasingly freakish, as if she's no longer herself and taken over by someone – or something – different. Hjorth clearly couldn't rely on a large budget, so don't expect any gory Alien-esquire situations or even detailed glimpses at the "thing", for that matter. "The Unknown" purely thrives on an atmosphere that is constant and sheer ominous from start to finish. For some reason I cannot quite formulate, the Swedish woods appear to be far more menacing than the American ones and the characters are at least amiable and "normal". Sadly enough, the story and style characteristics are far from perfect. The unstable camera gives the impression there's a sixth group member tagging along and the sets are underexposed. But the giant holes and severe elements of indistinctness in the script are what truly bothered me. The actual link between the forest fire and the alien substance is never made clear. Did he cause the fire or did he specifically select the dead region because it's the best biotope? The finale is predictable and clichéd, but endings like this will always remain at least a bit unsettling nevertheless, so no harsh complaints there. Interesting and worthwhile film, as long as you're not too demanding and/or expecting something groundbreaking and new.

dualexaust2002 Well I had been searching for this movie for over a year before I finally got my hands on it. Afterall this movie is from Sweden and I live in the US.I had heard the rumors: Blair Witch Project copycat. This statement is not entirely true though... There is a lot of simularties, and its obvious that the director was heavily inspired by Blair.. But this one is good enough to stand on its own.No ghosts, no aliens (you don't actually see any kind of creature other then the dead chicken looking thing in the beginning).. This movie relies on suspense alone. Was there something out in those woods that made these 5 scientists go insane? We don't get the answer.What irritates me the most here is that the movie is shot with a shaky handcam... yet there is no explanation of it. Why is the movie shot like this when there isn't a 6th person with them shooting the footage? I honestly think adding a cameraman to the story would be more reasonable then the shakeyness for no reason... you can even see the cameraman's shadow at one point.. come on now, if you're gonna ride on Blair's success at least go all the way with it.Other then that - a perfect horror movie.

Magnus-83 Plot, short version: "Det Okända" ("The Unknown") is a low-budget horror/suspense flick about five young biologists investigating the environmental effects of a forest fire in a woodland area in northern Sweden. After a couple of days and nights in a camp consisting of a caravan and a couple of tents, they discover something else... Or maybe it's more pertinent to say that something discovers them? I like this movie. The actors/actresses are young, talented and believable. The setting and environment used for shooting this flick feels OK too - Although it was shot in a national park just south of Stockholm (Sweden), about a thousand kilometers from where the movie is supposed to take place. But most of us won't notice such differences, trees are trees to a city slicker like me.This movie suffers from a unjustly deserved reputation as a kind of "Blair Witch Project-rip off", probably because it was released a couple of years after BWP. In my opinion, this is totally wrong. Yes, it is a low-budget production, and yes, it takes place in a wood. But I would personally demand more similarities than that to deem it a BWP-rip off. (Think about it, there are quite a few low-budget horror flicks shot in some dark forest somewhere.) If I'd make a comparison between those two movies, I would definitely pick "Det Okända" as the better one. The actors are more skilled and experienced, the plot feels more solid*, and actually comes to some kind of conclusion, although it won't conclude much. And of course, what's more entertaining than three hysterical youngsters in a dark forest? Well, five hysterical youngsters in a dark forest. ;-) So, summan av kardemumman, as we say in Sweden, I give this movie 6 acorns out of 10. Not really a screamer, but not a dozer either, for that matter.------------------ * With "more", i mean in the way that a tree is likely to be more intelligent than a rock, duh.

Nikita Averin Five geologists go out to a forest, where a quite big area has burned down, to investigate the reasons for this happening. They find a species that has never been seen before and soon, one of the geologists starts to behave strangely. Does this creature has anything to do with the fire and with the accidents that occur?I can't really say that I had high expectations on this hybrid of "The Blair Which Project" (1999) and "Body Snatchers" (1993), but I have to admit, that it wasn't bad at all. The acting and the directing is fair, not sensational, but still good. The script is cleverer than I could ever have imagined from this movie: there are surprisingly many one-liners and some sequences are exciting and even kind of scary in its best bits. The only thing that drags the rating down a bit is the shaky camera work, similar to the one in "The Blair Which Project". I honestly felt sick after half an hour, not to mention how I felt afterwards. Otherwise, an overall good movie, but don't forget to bring a bag with you - simply in case of emergency. Rating: 6/10