The Unborn (2009)

Sunday, 11 January 2009 00:00

Reviewed by Carol Sullivan

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Released: January 9, 2009
Rating: Unrated

Director: David S. Goyer
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I had been waiting for the release of The Unborn since I saw the trailer for it back in November. There's something incredibly creepy about a little kid in a suit, right? The Omen got us all worrying about evil children a long time ago...

The Unborn begins with a strange bang...

As we find ourselves in Casey's dream (Odette Yustman, Cloverfield), she is jogging alone down a wet, wintry road when she comes upon a lone glove on the ground. She stops to pick it up and a strange little boy suddenly appears, just standing in the road. The boy then changes into a pit-bull wearing a mask of the little boy. Startled, Casey runs into the woods, where she finds the boy-mask in the leaves. She begins to dig and soon unearths a jar with an unborn baby in it. Upon closer inspection, this baby's eyes suddenly open.

Strange things like this begin to happen more frequently to Casey and this creepy little boy seems to be everywhere she goes. When one of her eyes suddenly begins to change from brown to blue, she visits her optometrist. The doctor tells her that this change is common in twins and when Casey questions her father about it, she finds out that her twin brother died at birth.

Wanting answers, Casey delves into her family history and learns of the family curse that began in the German concentration camps. Seems that a demon wants to be born and has been using their family to do it; and this nasty demon especially prefers twins.

Enlisting the help of her Rabbi (Gary Oldman, Dark Knight) , Casey must send this demon back to hell before it takes her over completely, but this demon can jump from person to person, and is not giving her up so easily...

I've read a few reviews that criticized The Unborn for copying other films, and I did see a few scenes that were similar to other movies: the creepy, Omen-type kid in a suit glaring at his next victim; the classic upside-down-spider-walk on the stairs like The Exorcist... But what horror filmmaker hasn't been influenced by other horror movies? I didn't find these similarities too overly-done nor were they a blatant copy of the other movies' scenes.

Many folks are also frustrated and asking why the demon is the little boy. I found myself trying to explain this to someone; the demon can appear as anything it wants, but is is showing itself as its first victim; Casey's great-uncle. The demon got him while he was a little boy in the concentration camp (we get to see a picture of him during the movie).

I did enjoy the fact that Writer/Director David S. Goyer (Blade Trinity) came up with a fairly interesting storyline for The Unborn, since it's much different than many of the other pretty-girl-possessed themes we've all seen before -- utilizing the Jewish kabbalah and a determined Rabbi instead of the Catholic priests and holy water. And, yes, they do leave it open for a sequel.

The Unborn is full of Boo-Factor and, while I could see many of them coming from a mile away, a couple of the BOO's got me jumping right along with the other movie-goers. It is a short, entertaining movie packed with some good scares. While it's not overly impressive, The Unborn is worth seeing. Or maybe you should just wait for the rental to come out...

Overall Rating: 2 1/2

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Last Updated ( Sunday, 11 January 2009 11:29 )