I was at a loose end last night so I popped to the local Blockbuster and picked up a copy of The Unborn.....
The Plot
Casey Beldon starts to have horrific nightmares, which contain visions of a strange looking dog (that wears a mask?), and an evil zombie looking little boy.One evening Casey is baby sitting at her neighbours house. She hears Matty (the neighbours little boy) chatting over the baby monitor. When she goes upstairs to check on Matty, and his newborn baby brother, she finds Matty holding a mirror over his little brother's face,getting him to look at the reflection. Weirdly Matty suddenly turns and attacks Casey with the mirror stating "Jumby wants to be born now".
The next day, Casey's friend, Romy, tells her of a superstition involving newborns and mirrors: "they shoudn't see their reflections for at least a year". (you just know something bad is going to happen now!)
The next day while returning from a jog, Casey sees an ambulance outside her neighbours house, and is told by one of the other neighbours "the baby wasn't breathing". Romy was obviously right - spooky thought.
After being hit with the mirror, Casey's eyes begin to change colour, which an optician explains is something that can happen with twins. Twins?! She never realised she was a twin. Consequently after questioning her Dad she learns that she was infact a twin and that her brother died in the womb.
Casey starts to believe that the little boy in her nightmares is infact the soul of her unborn brother.
Casey tracks down a woman called Sofi who turns out to be her grandmother. Her grandmother explains that she had a twin brother who was killed in Nazi experiments when they were both just children during World War II. (are you following this so far?)
Two days after Sofi's brother was killed he reappeared. Sofi explains to Casey that he was brought back by a dybbuk who intended to use his body as a portal into the world of the living.
Her grandmother was forced to kill her twin to stop the dybbuk, and now it haunts her family for revenge.
The only way to stop the dybbuk is for Casey to have a Jewish exorcisim... enter Rabbi Sendak (Gary Oldman), who doesn't believe her at first, until he sees a dog with its head twisted upside down in his synagogue!
My Opinion
Oh dear, oh dear I feel like a wasted 84 minutes of my life.
Firstly, it was a slow starter and the pieces didn't fit together for me. I got the film because Gary Oldman was in it and thought it must be watchable if he's in it - how wrong can one be.
It's classed as a horror film, but I think that's a bit of an exageration!!
Casey was played by Odette Yustman (who also starred in Cloverfield) I really should have put the film back on the shelf for that alone. (I didn't rate Cloverfield at all).
It was a very predictable film and ok it made me jump twice (but that could have been because the cat knocked something over in the kitchen when the boy first appeared!!).
Most of the scenes were just to daft to be scary and as I say the story line didn't 'fit together' properly for me.
The only question I have really, is why Gary why? After a great performance in the Dark Knight, this is certainly a come down.Would I recommend it - definitely not.
The storyline: It had potential but didn't deliver.
Special effects: Terrible
Acting: Very 'wooden' seriously doubt if any Oscars will be won here
The only plus is that it did only last for 84mins.
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Production Year: 2005 - Horror - Director: Eli Roth - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Shane Daly, Lenka Vlasakova, Eythor Gudjonsson, Jan Vlasak
Advantages: Good choices of locations, conveys a chilly and eerie atmosphere, aptly chosen female lead. Disadvantages: Casey's somewhat annoying nightmare sequences. Bland soundtrack.
terrestrial_alchemist 06.07.2009 ·
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