#376. Horrors,how mindless!

Evil can be passed on through mirrors in The Unborn.
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THE UNBORN
Directed by David S. GoyerEvil can be passed on through mirrors in The Unborn.
Starring Odette Yustman, Gary Oldman, Cam Gigandet, Meagan Good, Idris Elba

LOWER your expectations. Heck, just don’t have any at all. The Unborn promotes itself as a tasteful horror flick, but that’s pretty much the only thing that it succeeds in doing ­— tricking and fooling the viewers to believe that it is. What it really is, as you will soon realise, is anything but...A cockamammy of beliefs, myths, ideologies and cinematic traditions, it desperately tries to find its identity and direction halfway through the movie and expects us to stick with its nonsensical plots while the scriptwriter figures this out.

It is a seat-jolting Japanese horror (Ringu), modern zombie flicks (Resident Evil) and a touch of Hollywood tales of exorcisms (The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby). But paying homage is one thing, executing it is another.There’s plenty of predictable, all-too-familiar scenes to jolt you into mindless screams. That’s right, she’s going to the bathroom, look into the mirror and see something scareeaaahhhh! It feels so cheap, like we’re being cattle-prodded to do so.It is a story about an evil something trapped in limbo wanting to cross over to the real world, twins’ supernatural connections, family secrets and Jewish mysticism beliefs. It questions many things and leaves them there.


In the story, a demon travels through mirrors. A baby looking into his own reflection will be possessed. How did it get there in the first place is none of our business, but it jumps from one person to another with a blink of an eye when it’s stronger.
The evil one, manifesting as a boy with a pair of electric blue eyes, is passed down from Casey Beldon’s (Odette Yustman) family.

His ultimate goal is to have Casey as the new host. So that’s why she’s been having all those nightmares and seeing scary things around the house.

We later understand that Jumby — what the evil spirit calls itself, really wants to be born. But after a long-winded plot development that is lame and pointless, it’s perfectly okay to wish for Jumby to be born already!

What a waste of great talents with Gary Oldman playing the two-dimensional Rabbi Sendak and four-time Academy Award-nominee Jane Alexander Sofi as a woman with a dark past.

With Yustman looking like a cross between Transformers babe Megan Fox and Oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly (Hulk), and her onscreen boyfriend Mark played by younger Brad Pitt look-alike Cam Gigandet (Twilight), seeing the couple sizzle on the big screen is more exciting than the half-baked plot for a story.

Director/writer David Goyer surely knows how to capitalise on his sexy stars — Yustman keeps appearing in scenes with a white tank top and matching white panties, while Gigandet comes on shirtless, showing off a nicely-toned body.

Good eye candy is the only thing noteworthy about this movie.

Source : The New Straits Times