Jason KingThe Unborn ($2-)
March 1st 2009 10:22
Category: No Category
The Unborn ($2-)
Sometimes the soul of a dead person has been so tainted with evil that it is denied entrance to heaven. It must endlessly wander the borderlands between worlds, desperately searching for a new body to inhabit.
And sometimes it actually succeeds.
Writer/director David Goyer (Blade: Trinity, The Invisible, Batman Begins) gives a terrifying glimpse into the life of the undead in The Unborn, a supernatural thriller that follows a young woman pulled into a world of nightmares when a demonic spirit haunts her and threatens everyone she loves.
Casey Bell (Odette Yustman) hated her mother for leaving her as a child. But when inexplicable things start to happen, Casey begins to understand why she left. Plagued by merciless dreams and a tortured ghost that haunts her waking hours, she must turn to the only spirtual advisor, Sendak (Gary Oldman), who can make it stop.
With Sendak's help, Casey uncovers the source of a family curse dating back to Nazi Germany - a creature with the ability to inhabit anyone or anything that is getting stronger with each possession. With the curse unleashed, her only chance at survival is to shut a doorway from beyond our world that has been pried open by someone who was never born.
The perfect description I found for this film I read in another review - "It Should have been strangled at birth" - this is the worse film I have seen that has been released since the Happening. The plot is so convuluted and borrows (poorly) from many of the past greats of horror. With a plot that throws in the most laughable excorcism imaginable and boy who would like to be Damian from The Omen it just has no originality and drags on senselessly.
The start tries so desperately to set a serious tone but lacks anything to stay in the cinema and want to watch - ok you get to see total hotties Cam Gigandet and Odette Yustman in underwear - big whoop. Scoring an M rating it was obvious this film was going to hold back. For a couple that is meant to be in love and having regular sex surely they should spend more than 5mins together. Perhaps a love scene between these two would have drawn more of a crowd. Also with the M rating I was never expecting to be gored and scared out of my mind. The film does have a couple of gruesome things that I thoroughly enjoyed. Simple and effective with a dog barking with it's head on upside down - it was a small visual suited to The Cell (J LO). I also liked Michael Sassone walking up stairs very Ring style.
But this I think was the problem of the film - they had some great visuals and thought "how can we string this together so we can get them onscreen". "I know" said someone "lets just use what's been done before and not be original at all". This of course will get the visuals on screen but will give absolutely nothing to an audience that wants to be scared. Bryn did warn me when I said the trailer looked bloody brilliant that this could mean the film is totally crap. If only I had listened.
I had read a lot of reviews blaming the writer and script for a crap film but the writer was David Goyer who wrote The Dark Knight & Batman Begins. I couldn't believe this guy could write crap and surely when a director reads a film this bad and continues to film it he or she must be to blame - but then I found out that David Goyer also directed the film. My answer was solved. No one else wanted it so he directed himself. Goyer directed Blade Trinity and a film called The Invisible - never saw them for mean and obvious reasons.
And finally - what on earth is Gary Oldman doing in this film? I consider him one of the greatest actors of his generation and for him to agree to be in this he was eiither a) smoking heaps of drugs when offered the role or b) owes millions of dollars to drug dealers and needed the money or c) I have no bloody idea. There is one scene towards the end where you think he is dead and then in the lame climax of the film when you think the lead may die along comes Gary (Rabbi) reading from sone religious book. I laughed out loud in the cinema and am pretty sure this was not the intention of the scene.
Totally lame and I would not even bother on DVD - the film should have gone straight to an ABC release on a Monday. This is the first film I have serioulsy considered walking out on in ages and for this is worth $2- and only because the kid is cool and the dog looks sweet.
Sometimes the soul of a dead person has been so tainted with evil that it is denied entrance to heaven. It must endlessly wander the borderlands between worlds, desperately searching for a new body to inhabit.
And sometimes it actually succeeds.
Writer/director David Goyer (Blade: Trinity, The Invisible, Batman Begins) gives a terrifying glimpse into the life of the undead in The Unborn, a supernatural thriller that follows a young woman pulled into a world of nightmares when a demonic spirit haunts her and threatens everyone she loves.
Casey Bell (Odette Yustman) hated her mother for leaving her as a child. But when inexplicable things start to happen, Casey begins to understand why she left. Plagued by merciless dreams and a tortured ghost that haunts her waking hours, she must turn to the only spirtual advisor, Sendak (Gary Oldman), who can make it stop.
With Sendak's help, Casey uncovers the source of a family curse dating back to Nazi Germany - a creature with the ability to inhabit anyone or anything that is getting stronger with each possession. With the curse unleashed, her only chance at survival is to shut a doorway from beyond our world that has been pried open by someone who was never born.
The perfect description I found for this film I read in another review - "It Should have been strangled at birth" - this is the worse film I have seen that has been released since the Happening. The plot is so convuluted and borrows (poorly) from many of the past greats of horror. With a plot that throws in the most laughable excorcism imaginable and boy who would like to be Damian from The Omen it just has no originality and drags on senselessly.
The start tries so desperately to set a serious tone but lacks anything to stay in the cinema and want to watch - ok you get to see total hotties Cam Gigandet and Odette Yustman in underwear - big whoop. Scoring an M rating it was obvious this film was going to hold back. For a couple that is meant to be in love and having regular sex surely they should spend more than 5mins together. Perhaps a love scene between these two would have drawn more of a crowd. Also with the M rating I was never expecting to be gored and scared out of my mind. The film does have a couple of gruesome things that I thoroughly enjoyed. Simple and effective with a dog barking with it's head on upside down - it was a small visual suited to The Cell (J LO). I also liked Michael Sassone walking up stairs very Ring style.
But this I think was the problem of the film - they had some great visuals and thought "how can we string this together so we can get them onscreen". "I know" said someone "lets just use what's been done before and not be original at all". This of course will get the visuals on screen but will give absolutely nothing to an audience that wants to be scared. Bryn did warn me when I said the trailer looked bloody brilliant that this could mean the film is totally crap. If only I had listened.
I had read a lot of reviews blaming the writer and script for a crap film but the writer was David Goyer who wrote The Dark Knight & Batman Begins. I couldn't believe this guy could write crap and surely when a director reads a film this bad and continues to film it he or she must be to blame - but then I found out that David Goyer also directed the film. My answer was solved. No one else wanted it so he directed himself. Goyer directed Blade Trinity and a film called The Invisible - never saw them for mean and obvious reasons.
And finally - what on earth is Gary Oldman doing in this film? I consider him one of the greatest actors of his generation and for him to agree to be in this he was eiither a) smoking heaps of drugs when offered the role or b) owes millions of dollars to drug dealers and needed the money or c) I have no bloody idea. There is one scene towards the end where you think he is dead and then in the lame climax of the film when you think the lead may die along comes Gary (Rabbi) reading from sone religious book. I laughed out loud in the cinema and am pretty sure this was not the intention of the scene.
Totally lame and I would not even bother on DVD - the film should have gone straight to an ABC release on a Monday. This is the first film I have serioulsy considered walking out on in ages and for this is worth $2- and only because the kid is cool and the dog looks sweet.
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Comment by Bryn
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Cibby - don't encourage him haha
Sammy - thanks - it was so shit, I watched it with Elmo and Cremer. Good to see him - we sat in La Prem and ended up talking about his holiday as the cinema was empty.
Comment by Jason King
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Thanks for comment!
Comment by David O'Connell
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Screen Fanatic
It's so disappointing when an excellent screenwriter flops behind the camera, but I guess they should stick to what they know best!
I reviewed Goyer's film The Invisible a few months back and can attest to the fact that it's quite ordinary as well. Like Bryn and everyone else though I was excited by the trailer for The Unborn, it looked like it had great potential. I guess we've had our hopes unrealistically raised again! Damn.
Comment by Jason King
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I completely agree with sticking to you know best but he hit gold with the Batman writing and if he keeps going at directing I can seriously see Goyer eventually hitting gold. He just needs to either write something spectacular and then create it spectacularly or find something written amazing and direct it so.
Can u link The Invisible so everyone can have a look - I would be keen to see it to see where he is constantly going wrong with his direction.
As for the trailer Bryn actually warned me it could mean the film would be crap but I said something along the lines of "I will maintain faith and believe it will be great" - I have learnt my lesson and will trust Bryn a lot more.
But serioulsy trailers can shit me to tears, they can be the best advertisement for a piece of crap. Onbe of my closest friends actually used to laugh at me because I have been known to cry in trailers. For some reason the Melanie Griffith trailer for Shining Through comes to mind - for some reason every time I saw it I was moved to tears. Pity about the film.
R&J and Titanic trailer also seem to bring forth tears for their amazing ability to remind me of pure genius in film making.
Thanks for your comment and support as always.
Comment by Cinemadime.
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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i could be wrong, or not understand the collaborative process in screenwriting fully, but thats what ive read
he was a co-writer on Jumper which was adapted from a novel, and i thought as a film Jumper leaned heavily on the brilliance of the overall concept with the actual script being a little saggy in places (ie: the characters played by less talented actors tended to woodeness easily)
i offer this hypothesis: perhaps Goyer is a writer that works better in a team where he is not principally responsible for constructing dialogue?
im not an expert, maybe Cibbuano or Bryn or David O'Connell will know more about it . . . or perhaps even you my dear Jason?
Comment by Jason King
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Jumper could have been brilliant but agreed it relied on concept too much.
Perhaps he does work better in a team when his stupidity can be reigned in but regardless of it all - the film Unborn is shit
Comment by Bryn
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