RAY says THE UNBORN should have stayed that way!
You may remember a little horror film from the seventies called THE EXORCIST. I guarantee you that writer/director David S. Goyer does ... his new film The UNBORN is its dead on arrival twin. The beautiful Odette Yustman stars as Casey, a thoughtful and popular girl who lost her mother to suicide years earlier. One night while babysitting, Casey is hit in the head with a mirror by a strange neighbor kid. Suddenly, Casey begins to see strange visions of a demonic child among other things. Through bizarre plot convolutions, Casey is convinced that this is the spirit of her twin brother who died along side her in the womb. So she enlists the help of a Rabbi (Gary Oldman) to help perform an exorcism. The film looks like any one of the glossy horror films that have been tossed out of Hollywood lately, full of "dramatic" panning shots and muted cinematography. Unfortunately, aside from a few interesting shots, the horror element is diffused with the pretty photography. But that is the least of the problems with this movie. Most troubling is Goyer's insistence on aping THE EXORCIST throughout the screenplay. Structurally, the story hits almost the same notes at the same time. Like The Exorcist, the heroine is led by the horror to a priest (in this case, a Rabbi) about midway through the film. Following that is a protracted ceremonial exorcism. We are even treated to what can only be called an exact duplicate of the spider-walk on the stairs sequence from Exorcist, this time involving an old man rather than Linda Blair. It is so offensively blatant that William Peter Blatty should receive a co-screenwriting credit, although I imagine he would rather die twice than have that ever happen to his legacy. Besides the obvious rip-offs, Goyer's script barely makes any sense at all. This film is an assemblage of shock scares in search of plot glue to connect them together. Literally, something jumps out at you or suddenly appears every one or two minutes, without developing any sense of pace. Additionally, Goyer expects us to believe that this young girl is able to piece together this ridiculous storyline from old clips found in her basement and two reels of soundless movie footage; she must have an I.Q. of 242 is any of this makes any sense. Yustman is decent as the lovely and confused heroine, projecting just enough intelligence to make her character sympathetic and believable. Even better is Meagan Good as Casey's best friend Romy. Unlike most people cast in films like this, Good injects her character with nice touches of humor and warmth. But what on Earth is Gary Oldman doing in this film?? Have the profits from DRACULA finally run out? While he is okay in the role, it is completely beneath him. Oldman is turning into the white Samuel L. Jackson right before our eyes, taking any role put in front of him with the same level of enthusiasm every time. Ultimately, THE UNBORN is just like every other horror film made since 2002's THE RING: pretty pictures, convoluted and ridiculous plotting, shock scare tactics, and an overbearing soundtrack. It is a shallow and pointless hodge-podge of classic scenes from better horror films and empty nonsense. The UNBORN is stillborn.