Opening 12 Mar 2009
Directed by:
David S. Goyer
Writing credits:
David S. Goyer
Principal actors:
Odette Yustman, Gary Oldman, Meagan Good, Cam Gigandet, Idris Elba
David S. Goyer (The Invisible, Blade: Trinity) wrote and directed this horror film starring Odette Yustman (Cloverfield, Transformers) and with Gary Oldman (The Dark Night, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) and Meagan Good (The Love Guru, Friday) in supporting roles.
Casey Beldon (Yustman) is plagued by distressing nightmares and spooky, inexplicable phenomena, leading the young woman to believe she's heading in the same direction as her mentally disturbed, deceased mother. Searching through pictures and newspaper cuttings, Casey discovers that she is a twin whose brother died in uterus, and that the maternal grandmother she had never known – Sofi Kozma (Jane Alexander) – is actually alive and living close by. A visit to the elderly lady begins to unravel a story that began back in Nazi Germany, when horrific experiments were carried out on twins. Sofi's twin brother died during one of the experiments and later come back to life possessed by a Dibbuk (demon). Recognising the truth, Sofi killed him again and, since then, the demon has been trying to return to earth through later generations of twins. Casey's unborn twin brother had not been strong enough to contain the monster, so he had died in uterus. Now the Dibbuk is after Casey. She turns to Rabbi Sendak (Oldman) for help.
The idea of an unborn twin seeking to join his or her sibling on earth is an interesting one. Unfortunately, however, the idea was not really explored to its full potential and The Unborn quickly resolved into a Rosemary's Baby-type horror movie, with some gory monsters thrown in. The acting and production were decent, but the story soon became quite predictable, including the inevitable question mark ending. The Unborn may well be enjoyed by fans of scary, horror movies, but I doubt if it will become a classic. (Osanna Vaughn)
