The Unhealer is an interesting, quasi-comic book/horror film that follows the tried and true tropes of origin stories to offer a movie that really works when it works. It follows nebbish teenager Kelley (Elijah Nelson) as he is imbued with superpowers only that lead to his peril. Forgive the spoilery intro, but we have seen this before. Yet writers Kevin E. Moore, and J. Shawn Harris have a few very interesting approaches, along with a few strange ones, that raise the level of interest. Paired with director Martin Guigui and a few very talented bright spots in the cast The Unhealer is a solid tale of power in the wrong hands.

The story opens on Kelley (Elijah Nelson), a nebbish nerd with the strange habit of eating trash. We will get to that. He is “trash-canned” outside of a convenience store by a clatch of bullies who post the event on social media before school. Love interest Dominique (Kayla Carlson) attempts to assist but is of no use and rides off to school with bestie Sarah (Angeline Appel) en tow. The next day Kelley is laid up on the couch as his mother Bernice (Natasha Henstridge) summons a doctor only to receive the diagnosis of malnutrition due to an eating disorder. The next day Kelley and his mom run into a rando faith healer named Pflueger (Lance Henriksen). Bernice pays the healer to make a house call and in a miraculous occurrence, Pflueger passes his healing powers on to young Kelley before plotzing in their double-wide living room. What are the powers? Invincibility, mainly. Essentially, any entity that tries to inflict harm on Kelley suffers the intended injury on themselves. Furthermore, our young hero can now heal and essentially absorb the ability to possess the sensations of others. Yeah, that’s where things get muddy.

At first, Kelley lets his mom in on the secret, and the two marvel at the endless possibilities. This is a bright spot in the film created by writers Moore, and Harris and the endearing performance by Henstridge that felt honest. Then again there is the recurring problem of the bullies at school and their insistence on trying to torture Kelley. Things come to a head while local Navajo Red Elk  (Branscombe Richmond) hopes to finally remove the otherworldly powers that Kelley has acquired.

There is a lot going on in The Unhealer. Consequently, the story has far too much to tell with a simplistic story of powers against morals. The fact that Kelley had the strange habit of eating trash was superfluous and unnecessary, not to mention a bizarre choice. We get to his powers only to have the strange element of him being able to possess other people’s sensations. This move needed judicious trims that could have strengthened the overall product. Instead we have a mildly entertaining movie tentpoled by a number of solid performances, an interesting idea, and some fun practical effects. Overall, an entertaining yarn that, for the most part, works.

6 out of 10