The Unborn (2008)

Our second ‘Children in Horror’ theme of the night was in the shape of Universal’s THE UNBORN. From the trailer it was clear what we were in for. This was to be our usual run of the mill effects heavy, jump scares-style horror from Hollywood. The only difference this team being that it wasn’t a remake of something from Asia. When the line-up for this year’s Frightfest in Glasgow was initially announced Demented Dave and I were left disappointed that there weren’t any stand out movies that we had been looking forward to. OUTLANDER for me was the one I was perhaps most interested in but definitely bottom of my list was THE UNBORN. Indeed even the organisers had very little to say about it.

The Story follows Casey (Odette Yustman, CLOVERFIELD) , a young woman haunted by a malevolent spirit called a Dybbuk . Casey begins to be haunted by visions and dreams. When she delves deeper into her past she learns that she is now the subject of a family curse that dates back to Nazi Germany and that she was a twin but her brother was never born. The Dybbuk begins to possess those around her and with each and every possession becomes stronger. Casey is then forced to try and shut a doorway from beyond our world with the help of Sendak (Gary Oldman) by the means of an exorcism.

After each of the movies in the line- up we all clapped the movies, even if they weren’t perhaps brilliant. Unsurprisingly THE UNBORN did not get one single person’s applause. Indeed there were boos from my left. Yes, granted they were from Dave but the general mumblings afterwards from the crowd were that THE UNBORN perhaps should have went Unmade. Think along the lines of the ONE MISSED CALL and SHUTTER remakes and you’ll know what to expect. By all means if you enjoyed these movies then THE UNBORN will be for you but if you are a horror fan like ourselves and prefer not to know when each scare is about to happen then you’re gonna hate this. Indeed the only reason I never gave in to leaving and just going to the pub was because of Odette Yustman . No, she wasn’t brilliant in her role (I suppose she didn’t really have much to work with) but the fact she walks about in her pants just really done it for me. Shallow huh?

Yes, it really was that difficult for me to find anything positive to say about this one.

Date: 22/02/2009
Rating: 1/5
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