The Unborn (D- or .5/4 stars)
Oh, boy, what an awful movie 'The Unborn' (directed by David Goyer) is. But you know what, I was entertained by its awfulness. I mean, how can you NOT be entertained by the likes of the great Gary Oldman or multi-Oscar nominated Jane Alexander taking bit parts in this miserable, undesirable faux-horror flick? The plot: a young woman fights a demon spirit that is slowly taking possession of her. Hahaha. Why are these movies being made? And with an exploitative Holocaust subplot added in, it's hard to take anything seriously. There are a few 'shock' moments that work, but that's about it.
Casey (Odette Yustman, Megan Fox-lookalike) is a normal teen (kidding, her mom committed suicide & her dad is nowhere). But abnormal things start happening to her: a creepy little boy with bright blue eyes invades her dreams/daydreams (even popping out of medicine cabinets); a bulldog wearing a spooky mask follows her, etc. She's freaked, of course. So who does she go to for help/answers? Only an old lady (in a nursing home) who, of course, holds the key to the mystery of the spooky boy. Ugh. This woman is Sofi (Jane Alexander), an Auschwitz survivor who just happens to be Casey's long-lost, mysterious grandma. Grandma tells Casey not only that her own brother died in the death camps (when a Nazi experiment that changes brown eyes to blue went wrong ... hideous), but that Casey had a twin brother who died in utero when her umbilical cord wrapped around his neck ... and that he's the one haunting her; a dybbuk.
What's a dybbuk? Well, a malevolent spirit who refuses to leave the human world and inhabits the body of any person they choose ... of course. Sofi tells Casey to go home and break all the mirrors in her house (dybbuks don't like that), hang some chimes (dybbuks don't like that), the list goes on & on. After stealing an old book from a library, she ventures to a Rabbi Sendak (Gary Oldman) & asks him to perform a Jewish exorcism on her to remove the dybbuk for good. An exorcism is performed, but mayhem ensues as the dybbuk decides to run wild from body to body (anyone present for the exorcism). Hahaha, what a joke. And a twist in the last 2 minutes of the film doesn't go over well, either.
'The Unborn' is so many things, so many wrong things. It's a poor man's The Exorcist; fit with people crawling up & down staircases, rotating heads, etc.. The lead character has her token black friend; I wonder if she'll survive (thud). You've got bugs showing up in places they oughtn't; the obligatory shower scene; masks; candles; eyes opening when you don't expect them to; babies in a crib. Nothing is original. And though it's not based from one, this film is just like all these recent Asian horror re-makes. And the way in which the story tries to explain itself as the overblown, bloody conclusion comes to a head is practically laughable.
The first 15 min. are decent. There are some legitimate 'boo' moments. And I enjoyed the use of visual effects to create some haunting imagery. And as mentioned, the choice of actors here is humorous (in a good way); not to mention the almost intentional use of campy, juvenile dialogue. This PG-13 (ugh) film is definitely geared towards the minds of teens. The story is often incoherent (twins, demons, open portals into another world ... come on!). 'The Unborn' is increasingly dull, overcooked, and at times, inappropriate. It's VERY odd to make a supernatural sci-fi film with Auschwitz as a major setting (including showing dead Jewish boys in a morgue). You just don't do that. And yet, this movie 'goes there'. Fascinating, baffling & awful.
Casey (Odette Yustman, Megan Fox-lookalike) is a normal teen (kidding, her mom committed suicide & her dad is nowhere). But abnormal things start happening to her: a creepy little boy with bright blue eyes invades her dreams/daydreams (even popping out of medicine cabinets); a bulldog wearing a spooky mask follows her, etc. She's freaked, of course. So who does she go to for help/answers? Only an old lady (in a nursing home) who, of course, holds the key to the mystery of the spooky boy. Ugh. This woman is Sofi (Jane Alexander), an Auschwitz survivor who just happens to be Casey's long-lost, mysterious grandma. Grandma tells Casey not only that her own brother died in the death camps (when a Nazi experiment that changes brown eyes to blue went wrong ... hideous), but that Casey had a twin brother who died in utero when her umbilical cord wrapped around his neck ... and that he's the one haunting her; a dybbuk.
What's a dybbuk? Well, a malevolent spirit who refuses to leave the human world and inhabits the body of any person they choose ... of course. Sofi tells Casey to go home and break all the mirrors in her house (dybbuks don't like that), hang some chimes (dybbuks don't like that), the list goes on & on. After stealing an old book from a library, she ventures to a Rabbi Sendak (Gary Oldman) & asks him to perform a Jewish exorcism on her to remove the dybbuk for good. An exorcism is performed, but mayhem ensues as the dybbuk decides to run wild from body to body (anyone present for the exorcism). Hahaha, what a joke. And a twist in the last 2 minutes of the film doesn't go over well, either.
'The Unborn' is so many things, so many wrong things. It's a poor man's The Exorcist; fit with people crawling up & down staircases, rotating heads, etc.. The lead character has her token black friend; I wonder if she'll survive (thud). You've got bugs showing up in places they oughtn't; the obligatory shower scene; masks; candles; eyes opening when you don't expect them to; babies in a crib. Nothing is original. And though it's not based from one, this film is just like all these recent Asian horror re-makes. And the way in which the story tries to explain itself as the overblown, bloody conclusion comes to a head is practically laughable.
The first 15 min. are decent. There are some legitimate 'boo' moments. And I enjoyed the use of visual effects to create some haunting imagery. And as mentioned, the choice of actors here is humorous (in a good way); not to mention the almost intentional use of campy, juvenile dialogue. This PG-13 (ugh) film is definitely geared towards the minds of teens. The story is often incoherent (twins, demons, open portals into another world ... come on!). 'The Unborn' is increasingly dull, overcooked, and at times, inappropriate. It's VERY odd to make a supernatural sci-fi film with Auschwitz as a major setting (including showing dead Jewish boys in a morgue). You just don't do that. And yet, this movie 'goes there'. Fascinating, baffling & awful.