The Unborn
As far as January horror films go, this one from writer-director David S. Goyer (“Batman Begins,” the “Blade” trilogy) is one of the more intriguing ones to come out in the start-of-the-year “dumping grounds,” although Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes label continues to traffic in mediocrity in the genre (here’s hoping for the best with their “Friday the 13th” remake in February).
Of course, without someone of Goyer’s stature writing and directing this story, which seriously borrows from every classic horror film known to man with creepy kids, from “Rosemary’s Baby” to “The Omen” to “The Exorcist” and everything else in between, it would be complete cheese. As it stands, it’s kind of unsettling (there are some pretty good scares in this one) with a healthy dose of genre cliches. Gotta love it, especially when seen with friends in an empty movie theatre, that way you can make your own commentary. (Note, that last part only is acceptable in an empty theatre. Try it in a full one, and you don’t know what’ll happen- just ask the guy who was shot last year for talking during a movie. No joke.)
“Cloverfield” actress Odette Yustman stars as Casey, a young woman whose life is informed by tragedy, starting with the suicide and psychological break of her mother when Casey was young. But she’s got a loving father, best friend (Meagan Good), and boyfriend (Cam Gigandet) around her. But that support group feels useless when she begins having intense dreams about a young boy out to hurt her, and a local neighbor boy she’s babysitting- in a completely random act- is found holding a mirror in front of his younger sibling’s face one night; when Casey confronts the boy, he attacks her with the mirror. A few days later, the baby is dead, which is the beginning of further psychological danger for Casey, who’s about to learn some disturbing secrets about her life and the supernatural.
To his credit, Goyer- whose last directorial effort was the underrated ghost story “The Invisible”- understands the timing of a good scare, and finds some original and unexpected ways of furthering what it fundamentally a reheated batch of cliches. His pedigree as a genre filmmaker (including script work on “Dark City” and the forthcoming “X-Men Origins: Magneto”) is also capable of allowing him to get great actors (including Gary Oldman- who gets the top acting honors as a Rabbi familiar with the occult- and Carla Gugino in a brief role as Casey’s mother) to dress up things beyond what a lesser name would be able to do with this type of film (see “The Haunting of Molly Hartley”…in theory; I’m not advocating that ANYONE watch that stinkburger). Still, horror very rarely is capable of breaking out into greatness nowadays, and the same traps that get other genre entries stuck also stick it to “The Unborn,” including the utter predictability of what I call the “gratuitous sequel setup.” Now the trick is…can you figure out the “twist” at the end, if you can even call it that anymore? This is one prospect I hope never makes it out of the womb of Hollywood’s passion for money and bankrupt imagination.
