The Unborn (3/10)

Whether it’s the confidence brought over from The Dark Knight’s success or because David S Goyer wants to create his own vision, he has made himself comfortable in the director’s chair on the set of The Unborn, for which he wrote as well – but this time in a solo effort.

So without the help of other writers, Goyer seems to be a little lost, both in writing and in direction. And the beauty of Odette Yustman couldn’t help save this unoriginal movie from becoming another typical Hollywood horror flick.

A big question mark surfaced when the exorcism was performed because Yustman wasn’t being possessed yet. If she was, then the demon spirit would have won since that’s his goal. So why exorcise Yustman in the first place?

Either Goyer has confused himself with his own writing or the reason just didn’t come through enough for the audience.

Goyer also looked like he was going for that Japanese horror-movie feel, like so many other imitators before him. And so far not many have done it right.

Even after Goyer has done his research, he only managed to include the dybbuk from Jewish mythology and the perverse experimentations performed on Jewish twins in World War II by the Nazis as a background story.

Everything else has zero originality as Goyer recycled ideas used in other recent horror movies. His execution however left a lot to be desired as the scares and frights landed with a big resounding thud. Haven’t we seen enough mirrors usage in horror movies? There’s even one called Mirrors recently which was much better.

And Goyer decided to throw in bugs and other creepy crawlies at some point but really now, what’s the point or the significance of it all? It’s old and served no purpose to the storyline.

And Cam Gigandet, playing the supposedly supportive boyfriend, somehow disappeared throughout the middle of the movie with no good excuse.

In the end it boils down to one question and one question alone, how did the writer who co-wrote The Dark Knight think that this was a good idea for a horror movie? The Joker must still be pulling a prank on him.