There are those movies that come out in theaters that you just either completely forget about or are released during a busy week, and it almost becomes impossible to see a film you really wanted to see. If it I wasn’t looking into what new movies were coming out on DVD and Blu-Ray, I would have completely forgot about this little film. Well, new on Blu-Ray comes The Unborn, a horror movie directed by the writer/director David S. Goyer. Sure you all should know him as the writer of the highly popular Batman Begins and The Dark Knight films but did you know he also wrote and directed some pretty awful movies? No? Well how about the titles of these pretty bad films: Kick Boxer 2: The Road Back, Nick Fury: The Agent of SHIELD and Blade: Trinity (the third one). Sure, not all of his movies are hits; and as you can tell not all of them are misses. That’s the beauty of working in the film industry; dropping expectations and being totally surprised on how well a film might turn out. So is The Unborn one of those misses or is it one of those hits? Well read on to find out.
Story:
Casey Beldon is your average high school girl who starts experiencing strange things after she encounters an unknown little boy in her dreams. She begins to see and experience unusual things that grow more intense each day. She sets out to find out what is happening to her, and discover the identity of the little boy and how is this all connected.
Characters:
We have our main character Casey played by an almost unknown actress Odette Yustman. This very attractive young actress does an incredible job playing Casey, molding the character into her own entity, allowing us to feel like we know Casy as she tumbles down the rabbit hole in search of answers. Her friend Romy is played by Meagan Good, a young actress you might have seen in films such as D.E.B.S or Saw V. I don’t think there could have been anyone else they could have chosen to play Casey’s BFF. Both actresses play off each others characters perfectly,and viewers will continually convince themselves that this is a real friendship. I had a little trouble accepting Cam Gigandet as her boyfriend, though. When you first are introduced to him, he seems like a big douche. As the movie rolls on he quickly becomes a likeable character and viewers soon see him as the loving boyfriend he should be. The last actor I wish to go over is Rabbi Sendak, played by the very talented Gary Oldman. I felt his presence in the movie should have been greater. Having such a talented actor in such a small part seems almost like a waste. That said, if Oldman is in a movie for 5 minutes or an hour and a half he is always a nice treat to have.
Impressions:
Right off the hop the movie presents a heavy tone. Nowhere is this film does the director let the viewer relax or have a chance to laugh at a comedic character to help lift your hearts. It’s not as intense as some horror movies out there where they bombard you with grotesque imagery (which depending on the film is called for). The only intention of the director is to make you feel squirmy. The mystery behind what’s happening tends to fall flat and is frankly, boring. It tries to play with the viewer’s mind, allowing viewers to think they just might be dumb enough not to put together the pieces; but viewers will have no problem piecing together the mystery. The only clever piece of writing was subconsciously telling the viewer not to question why this is all happening. People who will ask “why is this happening?’ will just have to suspend their disbelief. There are a lot of strange unexplained things that happen; it’s just standard fare for these types of horror movies. But would it be difficult to make some of these strange occurrences to be relevant? Out of all the strange loop holes and pointless hauntings( which some are very cool), the idea of having the main character visit a Rabbit was a very refreshing addition.
Even with the great actors, this movie fails because of it’s lack of detail in the script and some fairly large loop-holes. Should you watch it? It’s a rental, but nothing more. You win some, you lose some. Better luck next time Mr. Goyer.
