A hot brunette with a GREAT ASS (Yustman) and a best girl friend (Good) that “dudes” her all the time sees her life sink to crapola depths when some “twin fetish” ghost begins to haunt her silly whilst aiming for old fashioned “possession”.

This is Platinum Dunes first non remake genre film. Hey, it’s a step forward. Keep going that way guys for the love of original horror! Sadly that doesn’t mean it’s a badass effort. Even though the TRAILERS for THE UNBORN rocked me, I stormed into the theatre with my guards up and my finger on the trigger. January release, PG 13 and the fact that I have yet to LOVE a film that David Goyer has directed prompted that reaction. So as I sat in my seat and the thing began, I was stunned to see myself getting swiftly reeled in like a sedated kid dragged in the Neverland Ranch stables. So was it all that it could be?

Let’s get this out of the way off the bat! The camera simply LOVED Odette Yustman and I couldn’t take my eyeballs off her for a micro-second… talk about photogenic… nuts! Nuts I tell ya! Moreover, Goyer put out a visually arresting show that was all about eerie mood (got shades of Nightmare on Elm Street here); fly areal shots, a brilliant milking of the snowy/overcast exteriors and slick cinematography. What a good looking film! If it was a dame, I’d f*ck it backwards! And was that Gary Oldman cashing in a check I saw? You bet it was! All good, the chap brought classy class to the whole. The initial premise cranked my dial as well. The idea of somebody being possessed by their unborn twin was a groovy one! Alas, the movie didn’t slam the breaks while it was ahead in terms of the WHY behind the lunacy and that was the start of its downfall.

As its story evolved THE UNBORN became a flick that settled for the obvious and tried too hard to be “something grand”, instead of running with the GOLD it had in its back pocket. At about the halfway mark, it relentlessly tossed in plot devices from THE EXORCIST, FALLEN and your common J HORROR opus while throwing so much mumbo-jumbo my way that I overdosed on it. Sure it bombed me with bits of dialogue here and there to “explain” the ever changing rules of the movie but I didn’t buy them. The turn of events didn’t feel organic and true to its narrative. Think more “Now what do we do? Huh… lets just go for the clichés yo!” Result? Down the road, I became detached and didn’t really care anymore as to how all of this was going to end.

And what was up with the occasional inane jabber and the shoddy characterization? Some of the lines here were embarrassing and the side characters were rarely more than blatant/paper thin “victims”. And I gota get this off my knife; the whole “best friend” (played by Meagan Good) believes, then doesn’t believe, then believes etc. shtick got old real fast. In fact, it got on my freaking nerves BIG TIME! The fact that she kept calling our heroine “dude” pissed me off too, but that’s another story. Buy me a drink or three and we’ll talk. Finally, I won’t lie to ya; the off-screen kills had me groaning. I mean what’s the point of a slay if you’re going to cut away so damn early? Takes away from the impact.

So all in all THE UNBORN was a polished film, with a groovy start up idea that gradually clunked out. This is the kind of horror film that my mom would love till the cows come home to become burgers. If you HAVE TO see it because you’re that guy or girl, I say see it on DVD on a Sunday afternoon while getting some well earned oral loving. I have nothing else clever or pathetically lame to say so I’ll say JACK SQUAT!

What do you think? Take a wild guess! Exactly! Light blood here and there, some quick flashes of somewhat disturbing imagery and… well… NATHING!

Odette Yustman (Casey) looked so hot it should be a crime. Her acting chops were also in full gear thus being on the ball throughout except when crappy dialogue would drag her down. Loved her! Gary Oldman (Rabbi Sendak) owns me, you and my ex girlfriends – the dude is entrancing onscreen, even when tackling stuff that is beneath him – like this role. Meagan Good (Romy) was credible when her shitty lines or her “duding” a girl non stop wouldn’t make her look meh. Cam Gigandet (Mark) came in, said his lines, took off his shirt and said more lines, not much of a part. Dude did fine with what he was given I guess.

Seeing Odette Yustman in her tidy whities was the equivalent of dying and going to bootie heaven. The ladies get Gigandet shirtless.

I was really impressed by Goyer’s eye on this one. His use of swooping areal shots, powerful slow motion, in focus/out of focus tricks, what not… fully did it for me. Suspense wise, he was on when he gave it a shot, but alas the flick went BOO SCARE heavy too soon.

The score was adequate. Nothing more or less. No complaints!

THE UNBORN had a swell early premise, looked slick, had bleak mood to spare, Gary Oldman punching in and a captivating lead in Odette Yustman. The latter brought mucho talent, good looks and a yummy derriere in the ring and I dug that the most!. If the film had went further with its violence, had ducked the obvious and had kept it simple instead of going buck nuts with occult bullshit and every genre cliche in the book, maybe it could’ve been something. As-is, it was a semi harmless yet totally disposable time killer – that’s it – that’s all.

Odette Juliette Yustman was born on May 10 1985 in California and her first role was Rosa in Kindergarten Cop.

The flick was shot in Illinois, USA.

David Goyer also wrote the UNBORN script.

VISIT THE UNBORN WEBSITE HERE