So Bad It's Good Rating:
Odette Yustman (Cloverfield) stars as Casey, a perky young college student who looks good wearing scant clothing--which is just the type of heroine that makers of crappy horror films love, because she’s supposedly smart and empowered, while remaining a hot enough babe to keep the male viewers from falling asleep. Casey has been suffering from some bizarre visions and dreams lately--all with the same basic message: Jumby wants to be born. Which shows that she’s either been marked by the forces of evil, or had some really bad clams at the local seafood palace. My money’s on the forces of evil. Yes, it’s one of those flicks….
When she visits an old woman whom her deceased mother knew, the old lady informs
Casey that she’s being haunted by a dybbuk, which is a mystical entity that’s
the soul of a dead person who has been denied access to heaven. And so it stalks
the shadowy world that’s between the living and the dead as it waits for a new
body to inhabit…and it wants Casey’s body!!! Having seen Casey strutting around
in nothing but her underwear, I’d want her body too, but not for the same
reasons that the dybbuk does. But enough about my perverted fantasies, thank you
very much.
Ms. Yustman, who has a great screen presence, actually does the most she can with this insipid script,
which was written and directed by David S. Goyer, who co-wrote Batman Begins and
The Dark Knight. I must admit that, being a huge fan of BB and TDK, Mr. Goyer
was the sole reason I watched this flick in the first place, and boy was it a major let
down. One example of the Unborn silliness: the dybbuk stalks Casey by possessing the
bodies of whomever it comes into contact with--but if it could do this, then why
bother chasing after Casey at all? Or why not just possess Casey outright?
The Unborn deserves some
credit for at least trying to create an original villain.
But it’s essentially another stupid demonic possession movie, with plenty of
annoying fake scare scenes (if everything Casey sees is just a vision, then why should the viewer
take it seriously?), along with disgusting scenes with bugs and other creepy crawlies
that stalk Casey. The feeling here seems to be that if you can’t scare the
audience (and The Unborn is about as scary as a box filled with kittens), you
might as well settle for grossing them out. If you really need to
see a demonic possession flick, you can do better than the Unborn.
--SF
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