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By thejoelmeister (www.GoneWithTheTwins.com)
Borrowing liberally from Rosemary's Baby (and mimicking some of the strategies of Child's Play), The Unborn still retains its own unique sense of horror, steeped in paranoia and genetic conspiracies. While many of its scare tactics end up producing the opposite effect after an intriguing build, the film manages a consistent atmosphere of dread throughout, and most of its jarring visuals succeed in their horror film intentions. Plus, don't miss early roles from Lisa Kudrow as a receptionist and Kathy Griffin as a Lamaze instructor.
After years of unsuccessful attempts at getting pregnant, Virginia Marshall (Brooke Adams) and her husband Brad (Jeff Hayenga) turn to the highly reputable Dr. Meyerling (James Karen). With the revolutionary new techniques developed by the skillful doctor, Virginia finally becomes pregnant, but she quickly finds her dream becoming a nightmare as she succumbs to delusions, paranoia, and the realization that there is something unnatural about her baby...
Apparently, just like in Rosemary's Baby, a mother's love knows no boundaries - even when the child is a bloodthirsty homicidal mutant superbaby. The comparisons don't stop with Virginia's change of heart toward her killer kid, however, as loving husband Brad is involved with the creepy Human Genome Project advocate Dr. Meyerling - exactly like John Cassavetes' Guy, who participated in a devilish cult. Aside from very obvious, similar themes, even the subplots - such as a fellow patient who catches on to the doctor's genetic experimentations and winds up comatose before she can talk it over with Virginia - mirrors Polanski's superior film.
The eeriness of an alien creature growing inside of the unsuspecting heroin is occasionally genuine, and further amplified by her frequent isolation, nightmares and familial estrangement. Her history of depression, breakdowns, a revolting rash, and disquieting music (periodically replaced with jazzier, badly out-of-place rock beats) also aid in the film's horror, but unfortunately too much of it is unintentionally hilarious. A particularly grizzly moment in which one of Meyerling's victims stabs her own pregnant belly with a butcher knife, along with several other choice bits of foreshadowing, is all out the window once the glistening plastic baby is finally revealed. The terror of the setup and the creepiness of the characters succumb to chuckles. It's hard not to laugh at such a pathetic prop.
Famous schlock movie producer Roger Corman said that he intended for The Unborn to be "Rosemary's Baby meets Cronenberg's The Fly." He was also playing off of the success of Child's Play and It's Alive - sadly all of the films used for inspiration were infinitely more affecting, although The Unborn did spawn a very obscure sequel.
- The Massie Twins
By Jeffrey Leach (Omaha, NE USA)
Good old Roger Corman is at it again with 1991's "The Unborn." In case you have been living under a rock for the last thirty or forty years, Roger is one of the chaps responsible for a large percentage of the low budget schlock that lines the shelves at your local video store. He's fallen on hard times in the last decade or so, especially since the arrival of DVD has given any schlep with a video camera and a dream access to the straight to video market Corman once controlled with an iron fist, but many of his films from the 1970s and 1980s are memorable if often indigestible experiences. Roger supposedly never made a film that lost money, probably because he never hesitated to churn out a ripoff of the latest Hollywood hit or genre craze. The public loves racing car films? Give 'em "Grand Theft Auto" and "Eat My Dust." Depression era mobsters raking in big bucks at the box office? Here's "Big Bad Mama." And so it goes, film after film that cashes in on the latest smashes made at a quarter of the budget (if even that). At least we can credit Corman with giving Ron Howard his first directing gig.
"The Unborn" is a later Corman production that manages to be quite entertaining despite its low budget. It's the story of a successful young couple, Virginia (Brooke Adams) and her husband Brad Marshall (Jeff Hayenga), who decide to seek the help of fertility specialist Dr. Richard Meyerling (James Karen) for obvious reasons. The idea of a little rug rat running around is too much to pass up for Virginia, who is willing to do whatever it takes to bear a child--even if that means suspending her career as a successful writer of children's books. Meyerling tells the couple to put out of their minds any problems they encountered at other clinics; his methods are nearly a hundred percent successful. Even the most difficult of cases walk away with a loving tot nestled in their arms at the end of nine months. Sounds great, doesn't it? Well, we all know if something sounds to good to be true it probably is, and such is the case with Richard Meyerling and his clinic. It turns out that the good doctor gives the word "quack" a new level of meaning. Sure, his methods result in the birth of a child, but who wants a kid that is the product of gene splicing? Or a kid that is part of a plot to replace humans with a master race? That kooky Meyerling!
Of course, Virginia doesn't know anything about this stuff when she agrees to Meyerling's schemes. All she knows is that the procedure works and she'll soon be a proud mother. Then a series of increasingly bizarre incidents start to take their toll. Virginia experiences enormous mood swings, mood swings far beyond what a normal pregnant woman should experience. Meyerling takes it all in stride, however, and assures our gal that nothing is amiss. He even gives her some tapes to listen to that should soothe her troubled soul. Problem is, these tapes appear to have subliminal messages on them of a decidedly disturbing nature. Since Brad went out of town on business (how convenient), Virginia has no one to turn to when her mental state deteriorates even further. She begins to suspect, obviously, that something is wrong with the baby. Then she suspects that something is downright sinister with the baby. And she's right--we know this because it's a Corman film and because we see what happens to a couple of Meyerling's other patients. Yuck! But at least everything ends with a sigh of relief as Virginia Marshall goes on a mission to destroy Meyerling's infernal schemes and thus make the world safe from the master race. Or does it? Whichever the result, you go, girl!
You simply must offer praise to a film that casts Brooke Adams as a mentally unbalanced mother to be, Lisa Kudrow as Meyerling's brunette secretary, and comedienne Kathy Griffin as a cloying, new age natural birth instructor with Sapphic tendencies named Connie Chicago. Especially when said movie has Griffin's character bludgeoned to death with a hammer. That scene alone adds a star to the overall review because, after all, who among us wouldn't like to see this loudmouth on the wrong end of a blunt instrument? Now that I think about it, every television program and film made from here on out should have a scene where Kathy Griffin meets her maker in a particularly heinous manner. Anyway, I liked "The Unborn" even without Griffin's gooey demise. Brooke Adams does a great job portraying a woman dealing with forces she doesn't understand, veteran character actor James Karen is sufficiently creepy as the insane Meyerling, and the movie is jam packed with stomach churning gore. A spike through the forehead, superfetuses in jars, a nasty scene with a butcher's knife, and assorted other grotesqueries make "The Unborn" required viewing for sleaze lovers.
Seeing as how this is a Corman comedy classic, you just know the DVD will contain a bunch of trailers for other must see low budget cheese. Previews for "The Nest," "Humanoids From the Deep," "The Terror Within," along with cast and crew biographies, round out the viewing experience. Another interesting factoid concerning "The Unborn": Gary Numan scored the film! He did a good job making the film sound very atmospheric in a creepy way. I definitely recommend this one for horror fans if for no other reason than that we just don't get to see many killer baby films nowadays.
By Sandi Strehlau (Seattle, WA USA)
I WANT MY 96 MINUTES BACK!!!! REALLY LAME HORROR FLICK!!
I don't know what it is about the quality of horror in the early 90s...but this is a good example of how it can go terribly wrong. If this film had been made in 1981 or 1971..or heck, even 1961 it could have had a good kitch factor...instead it's an overly stylized attempt at what a good 80's Slasher actually is.
The one star rating is for the casting of Lisa Kudrow (I think she's super cute as a brunette!)...and Comedian Kathy Griffin as a Lesbian Co-Mother-To-Be!!
The remainder of the movie gets a BIG ZERO!!!
By Peter Shelley (Marrickville, New South Wales Australia)
Director Rodman Flender film doesn�t have the resonance of great horror. At times it barely rises above an exploitation title, being hindered by gross out effects and the developing ridiculousness of the screenplay by Henry Dominic. The narrative reads as Rosemary�s Baby redux with a dash of David Cronenberg and The Boys from Brazil.
After a forboding prologue where a pregnant woman is made to suffer because she drips blood onto her kitchen floor as she eats raw meat, we meet Brooke Adams who has been referred to the in-vitro centre where James Karen is a specialist. Of course, any doctor played by James Karen is automatically suspicious, and soon Adams becomes paranoid about the child she is carrying. Dominic has the sense to make Adams not the only pregnant woman, and also gives her access to a couple who have a child from the prodecure, which allows for her to have alternate opinions, though the points scored off the lesbian couple seem mean, though Adams� husband is conveniently out of town when things start going wrong. Luckily Flender delivers the best scene in the film for the climax, when Adams follows the sound of a baby crying and supplies a shock payoff. However after this highpoint, we plummet.
We get a grossout mage of the fetus moving a digit in the same shape as Adams� drawing, a laugh from the use of a Baby on Board sign, the low gag of a saccharine TV presenter turning shrewish off-camera, and the most disappointing setpiece when Brooks is being interviewed live and has an hysterical turn - for this Flender goes camp with the crew screaming for a re-run. The prologue deprives us of a shock, but later we get a second one even if in a ludicrous context involving a baby POV and the father�s reaction. There is also an early gratuitous and long sex scene, a low impact Alien-like set, and the ending is too obviously left open for the sequel.
Adams� cracked beauty and individual voice add something to her role, and when she cries amongst stuffed baby toys she manages to convey a moment of pathos, even if she isn�t as skilled, lyrical or vulnerable as a Mia Farrow. Also note this is another early role for Lisa Kudrow in her long black hair period.
By
I recently underwent surgery. The hostpital's movie channel showed "The Unborn," and I figured "what the hell, I'm not going anywhere. Might as well watch it" (and the intravenous machines I'm hooked up to won't allow me to reach the TV.) Well this was the scariest thing I've ever seen. My heart raced at such a pitch that my plasma drips exploded. What a movie. Brooke Adams was wonderful; better than Mia in Rosenberg's Baby. If you like your horror "on the rocks," THE UNBORN is for you.
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