Unlike the "old horror is good: new horror is bad" audience I'm a person willing to accept any horror for what it is. I love old horror movies like Halloween, Phantasm and The Shining and I like new horror films such as Saw, Altered and even The Strangers but...The Unborn gives modern horror a really bad reputation. It's a pity you can't see a drop of influence from any horror classic in The Unborn where opportunities for influence are replaced with painful (yet laughable) clichés making The Unborn one of the worst films I have ever seen.
It is evident the "Guide to Horror Cliché's" manual played a huge part in the making of this movie. Sometimes a Horror can get away with unoriginality or being typical – by today's horror film standards clichés are heavily frowned upon and The Unborn is swimming in them. These are the types of clichés you have seen thousands and thousands of times before to the extent where they become painful – typical jumps scenes, the old "You think I'm crazy don't you?", ludicrously happy flashbacks, the flamboyant and bubbly best friend, useless priests, the paranormal discoveries, possessions, the "taking action" montage scene; the list is never ending and these clichés stand out so much you can't help but laugh in hysterics at them. I have never seen a movie pack itself up with so many cliché's; this is 2009 and by now the Horror genre knows better than to repeat such things; sadly, The Unborn isn't aware of this.
The use of advertisement and modern teenage culture doesn't help either; this will make the film date terribly. Internet chatting, text message gossiping, webcam, i-Pods etc – see this is all fine but not when advertising technology is done through film as in-your-face as The Unborn does it, it becomes irritatingly painful – you could watch an i-Pod commercial on television and then this movie and not know the difference. Looking at how rapidly technology changes and how much of an impact it has on youth culture these days the movie is going to date at the same pace and that will make it even funnier than it already is – then again, who will be watching this movie in ten years? All this advertisement incorporated into the film promotes the overall sleazy money-grabbing atmosphere of the movie. Just look at the poster if you don't believe me when I say this movie was made to grab our consumerist attention.
Knowing the movie's sole purpose was money all characterization, acting, story etc are thrown out the window (though it's cute when the movie tries to create a climatic ending). In the magical land of horror characters are never meant to immediately confess to believing in spirits – in horror movies, ghosts, ghoulies and goblins exist but characters are meant to live in naivety and ignore that – I laughed out loud when a character said "You know I believe in ghosts" – this is nitpicking, but it adds to the overall idiocy of the movie. Although, there are some cool ideas here and there (the dogs) for a split second but they never amount to anything and if they do its pure cheese. The movie isn't even self-aware, it's like listening to an unintelligent 13 year old blabber on – it isn't logical, it isn't self-admitting cheese – it's just stupid and it doesn't even know it.
Oh, and this movie being a horror film and all I should mention that nothing is scary; I'd say this is a comedy more than anything else.
If this movie was slightly logical with some serious atmosphere and tone and a decent script, acting, characters, direction and execution it could have been a nifty little horror...but the final result is none of those. The Unborn is one of the worst films of 2009 and one of the worst films I have ever seen period – it is everything that is wrong with modern (and definitely horror) cinema. Just see for yourself and you will understand the mountains of bad reviews and criticism.
It is evident the "Guide to Horror Cliché's" manual played a huge part in the making of this movie. Sometimes a Horror can get away with unoriginality or being typical – by today's horror film standards clichés are heavily frowned upon and The Unborn is swimming in them. These are the types of clichés you have seen thousands and thousands of times before to the extent where they become painful – typical jumps scenes, the old "You think I'm crazy don't you?", ludicrously happy flashbacks, the flamboyant and bubbly best friend, useless priests, the paranormal discoveries, possessions, the "taking action" montage scene; the list is never ending and these clichés stand out so much you can't help but laugh in hysterics at them. I have never seen a movie pack itself up with so many cliché's; this is 2009 and by now the Horror genre knows better than to repeat such things; sadly, The Unborn isn't aware of this.
The use of advertisement and modern teenage culture doesn't help either; this will make the film date terribly. Internet chatting, text message gossiping, webcam, i-Pods etc – see this is all fine but not when advertising technology is done through film as in-your-face as The Unborn does it, it becomes irritatingly painful – you could watch an i-Pod commercial on television and then this movie and not know the difference. Looking at how rapidly technology changes and how much of an impact it has on youth culture these days the movie is going to date at the same pace and that will make it even funnier than it already is – then again, who will be watching this movie in ten years? All this advertisement incorporated into the film promotes the overall sleazy money-grabbing atmosphere of the movie. Just look at the poster if you don't believe me when I say this movie was made to grab our consumerist attention.
Knowing the movie's sole purpose was money all characterization, acting, story etc are thrown out the window (though it's cute when the movie tries to create a climatic ending). In the magical land of horror characters are never meant to immediately confess to believing in spirits – in horror movies, ghosts, ghoulies and goblins exist but characters are meant to live in naivety and ignore that – I laughed out loud when a character said "You know I believe in ghosts" – this is nitpicking, but it adds to the overall idiocy of the movie. Although, there are some cool ideas here and there (the dogs) for a split second but they never amount to anything and if they do its pure cheese. The movie isn't even self-aware, it's like listening to an unintelligent 13 year old blabber on – it isn't logical, it isn't self-admitting cheese – it's just stupid and it doesn't even know it.
Oh, and this movie being a horror film and all I should mention that nothing is scary; I'd say this is a comedy more than anything else.
If this movie was slightly logical with some serious atmosphere and tone and a decent script, acting, characters, direction and execution it could have been a nifty little horror...but the final result is none of those. The Unborn is one of the worst films of 2009 and one of the worst films I have ever seen period – it is everything that is wrong with modern (and definitely horror) cinema. Just see for yourself and you will understand the mountains of bad reviews and criticism.