THE EXPLOSIVE REVIEW

Starring: Gary Oldman, Odette Yustman, Ethan Cutkosky, Cam Gigandet, Meagan Good, Jane Alexander, James Remar, Idris Elba, Rhys Coiro, Carla Gugino, Aiden David, Conner David, Eric Flores, Atticus Shaffer, and Rachel Brosnahan.

Directed by: David S. Goyer.

Story:
A malevolent spirit known as a dybbuk refuses to leave the world and instead inhabits the body of Casey Beldon, plaguing her with nightmarish dreams, strange visions, and a ghostly child with big blue eyes. Casey seeks the help of a spiritual advisor, Rabbi Joseph Sendak, to perform an exorcism and rid the entity from her body.

Characters:
*Rabbi Joseph Sendak (Gary Oldman): A spiritual advisor who can perform a Jewish exorcism.
*Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman): The protagonist college girl who is being haunted by the dybbuk entity.
*Romey (Meagan Good): Casey’s best friend who happens to know a lot about voodoo, dreams, and superstition.
*Sofi Kozma (Jane Alexander): An elderly lady who is revealed to be Casey’s grandmother. It turns out that she had a twin brother who died as a result of Nazi experimentation, the brother in question happens to be the ghost/dybbuk who is haunting Casey.
*Matty (Atticus Shaffer): Casey’s neighbor’s son whom she babysits from time to time.

Overall:
I was surprised and pleased to see that “The Unborn”, written and directed by the critically-acclaimed and respected David S. Goyer (just thought I’d point that out to let you all know that this wasn’t directed by some stupid music video director like many movies are these days), is neither a remake or a book adaptation because hey, let’s face it, that is the automatic assumption nowadays. It is in fact a creation of Mr. Goyer, however, it’s not entirely original as it borrows from so many movies that it’s not even funny - “The Exorcist”, “The Omen”, “Rosemary’s Baby”, need I go on?

“The Unborn” is a downright cheesy horror flick with cringing dialogue, Mr. Goyer actually wrote and directed this? That’s hard to believe. Wow. Maybe he watched too many of the crappy horror movies that came out recently before he conjured this up. As with most horror pictures in the now era, it relies on boo and jump scare tactics with the occasional musical cue, no build-up whatsoever. The script tries to be clever and throw in some Nazi genetic experiment as the initial catalyst for all that’s happening, but it doesn’t work. Sorry, but the whole “my baby is possessed” or “my child is a demon” cliche is just that - CLICHE. If you feel you must go and watch “The Unborn”, just be sure to go home and UNwind yourself by watching a horror movie that came out before the year 2000 - You may not like everything you see, but you’ll have a lot better trouble than if you stick with the 2000s where a good horror movie is like a needle in a haystack.

Rating: *1/2

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