Movie Review: The Unhealer

If Troma Entertainment produced a heartfelt Spiderman reboot it might just be The Unhealer. One Part teenage comedy, one part super hero coming of age story, one part high school horror, The Unhealer is a ton of fun with performances that are unexpectedly sincere.

The Story of The Unhealer

A bullied teenager gains the means to fight back when a botched faith healing bestows supernatural, shamanistic powers upon him. When his lifelong tormentors pull a prank that causes the death of someone he loves, the teen uses his newfound abilities for revenge and goes on a bloody rampage to settle the score.

The cast lead by a brief but hilarious over the top performance by Lance Henriksen as Pflueger the grifting faith healer who imparts his very real powers on Kelly (Elijah Nelson) mostly showcases a cadre of young starlets who have little to do but lots to look at. That is not necessarily a bad thing as the movie’s lack of ambition makes it an absolute joy to watch. The Unhealer is firmly planted in camp and everyone knows it. The silly patina that seems to pervade every element of the film somehow inoculates it against being over serious. The result is a movie that knows exactly what it is and that is refreshing.

Perhaps that inoculation starts with Kelly who has Pica a disease that causes him to eat everything (in this case mostly trash). The town bullies creatively call him trash boy and mostly make fun of his predilection for the actual cup in cup o’ noodles. This detail seems odd especially as it becomes clear the payoff at the end of the film doesn’t require the disease. I expected Chekov’s Pica but mostly that pica is used to vaguely target who Kelly wants to kill which seems a odd choice and could be accomplished in other ways.

While the movie is relatively simple, somehow there are moments of real emotion, most of which happen between Kelly and his mother Bernice played by a reserved but entirely believable Natasha Henstridge. The bullies and their abuse feel real, and the retribution they earn seems entirely justified. As someone who was bullied, nothing sounds better than allowing those that perpetrate violence to be the immediate victims of their bad intentions.

The movie has a few problems. The biggest being its insistence on using the Magical Indian Trope as a plot device. Branscombe Richmond brings an earnestness to Red Elk, the indigenous character who warns both Pflueger and eventually Kelly against using their healing abilities for nefarious purposes. Its not a great look in a movie that mostly avoids some of the pitfalls of traditional campy movies. We get very little about where the healing powers come from, rather that history is mostly provided by the same recycled commodification of indigenous culture delivered by Red Elk who seems to always be lit by a flashlight under his chin. This culminates in some sort of ritual/ceremony that is heavy on smoke and sage and light on logic and consistency.

As we all seem to be enjoying a rebirth of antihero stories (looking at you Ozark) The Unhealer embraces that darker storytelling while maintaining the lightness of our superhero tales. Kelly is every bit the antihero and The Unhealer deserves its place in the pantheon of origin stories of other villains like him.

If you are looking for a movie that does not take itself too serious, that seems vaguely in the vein of breakout campy movies from last year, like PG: Psycho Goreman, then The Unhealer might just be up your alley. It is now streaming everywhere including the Roku channel for free. It is definitely worth the free watch.