UK Film Network

The Unborn
By: Davor Mamuzic

World wide cinemas like to build the terror of the unknown by focusing more on the story and less on the visuals, while North American audiences anticipate extreme gore shots, fast close-ups and in-your-face "quick frights". The Unborn, set in Chicago, stays true to its North American roots and delivers just as expected.

The story jumps all over the place (from evil entity of the unborn child, to Holocaust, Nazi experiments, and a bit of recycling The Exorcist ideas), while "quick frights" quickly erase your short term memory of the bad dialogue which sounds as though it was written by a group of high school students.

The story focuses on Casey, played by Odette Yustman , as she is confronted by an evil spirit and it slowly tries to break her down and take possession of her. The spirit itself gets stronger as the story gets weaker. The spirit's growth in strength is the only growth in the character as it is the only character that actually has a purpose in the storyline, and we are more focused on cheering for the actual evil spirit rather than the protagonist itself.

Other than the creepy next door neighbour's kid (Atticus Shaffer), Odette and Gary Oldman are the only ones that keep the acting real.  Even though it is hard to connect Gary as a Rabbi, he still did a great job doing it.

If you are looking for gore, anticipated closes up and bad dialogue, then this might be up your alley.

2/5

Trailer
IMDB

Released Jan 9th in the North American theatres.