Horror Movies

Monday, March 23, 2009

#2. The Unborn [2009]

" Evil will do anything to live "

Directed by : David S. Goyer Written by : David S. Goyer Music by : Ramin Djawadi Cinematography : James Hawkinson USA[87m] Release Date : March 26,2009 [M'sia] January 09, 2009 [USA] Starring : Odette Yustman, Gary Oldman, Cam Gigandet, Meagan Good, Jane Alexander, James Remar, Idris Elba, Rhys Coiro, Carla Gugino

The Unborn is a 2009 supernatural horror-thriller film written and directed by David S. Goyer. The film stars Gary Oldman as a spiritual advisor to a young girl (Odette Yustman) who is tormented by a dybbuk. The dybbuk seeks to use her death as a gateway to physical existence. The film is produced by Michael Bay and Platinum Dunes. It was released in American theaters on January 9, 2009, by Rogue Pictures.

Synopsis
The Unborn is a supernatural thriller that draws upon the legend of a dybbuk, a malevolent spirit that refuses to leave the human world and inhabits the body of a person. Protagonist Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman) is plagued by merciless dreams, visions of strange looking dogs, and an evil child with bright blue eyes. The movie starts with Casey jogging, when suddenly, there is a blue glove on the trail. She picks it up and turns around to see a boy, with a blue glove missing from his left hand. After Casey blinks, the boy turns into a dog with a mask on. The dog walks into the forest, with Casey after it.

Casey finds the mask on the ground, with the string buried in the dirt. She digs it up, and finds a glass jar with an unborn baby inside it. Suddenly, the unborn baby opens its eyes. The next scene cuts to Casey baby-sitting Matty, her neighbor's son. He is upstairs, supposedly taking a nap. Casey is downstairs talking on the phone to her best friend Romey (Meagan Good). Suddenly, there is a voice that says "Jumby wants to be born now," on the baby monitor used for Matty's baby sister. After yelling, "Matty, are you awake?" Casey goes upstairs to check on them. Matty was standing over the baby's crib, holding a mirror to the baby's face. After being hit with the mirror, Casey's eyes begin to change color (see Tetragametic chimerism and Heterochromia) and she learns she had a twin brother who died in the womb. Casey begins to suspect that the spirit haunting her is the soul of her dead twin, being possessed by a dybbuk, wanting to be born so it can transfer to the world of the living. Casey meets a woman named Sofi, who is revealed to be her grandmother.

Sofi explains that she had a twin brother who was killed in Nazi experiments in Auschwitz when they were both just children (presumably having been experimented on by Josef Mengele, as Sofi describes him as looking like an angel and Mengele was often referred to as the Angel of Death). The boy was brought back to life by a dybbuk who intended to use his body as a portal into the world of the living. Sofi killed her twin to stop the dybbuk, and now it haunts her family for revenge. Sofi refers Casey to Rabbi Sendak (Gary Oldman), who can perform a Jewish exorcism to remove the dybbuk. The exorcism is performed, but things go awry as the dybbuk tries to stop Rabbi Sendak from completing the ritual. Several people are wounded and others are killed. The exorcism is finally completed, and the dybbuk is drawn back from the human world. Casey's boyfriend is severely wounded and later dies with Casey by his side. Casey mourns him and she soon finds out that she is pregnant by him, with twins.

To date, David S. Goyer has been known more as a screenwriter than a director, having found success penning the three Blade movies, the two latest Batman movies and the cult favorite Dark City. His attempts at directing, however, have been far less acclaimed: the third Blade film paled in comparison to the first two, and The Invisible came off as shallow, dreary melodrama. The Unborn is Goyer's third crack at directing horror, and while it might not be the proverbial "charm," it's at least his best genre directorial effort yet.

The Unborn received an overwhelmingly negative reaction from critics. Based on 96 reviews collected from notable publications, the film garnered a "Rotten" rating of 13% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Many Internet users have commented on the exploitation of Yustman's physical attributes on promotional materials for the film. The film was also poorly received by moviegoers; as of March 16, 2009, it holds a 4.6/10 rating at the Internet Movie Database, based on votes from film fans. Despite the film's unanimously negative reception, it has performed well at the box office, with its current worldwide gross standing at $62,070,410.

Official Website : http://www.theunbornmovie.net

#1. After Dark Horror Fest [2009]

After Dark Horrorfest [a.k.a. "8 Films to Die For"] is an annual horror film festival featuring eight independent horror movies, sometimes with "secret" bonus films, all distributed by After Dark Films in the USA. The first HorrorFest was held in 2006. After Dark's HorrorFest for 2008 was scheduled for January 9th through January 15th 2009.

8 Films To Die For
1. The Brøken
A young woman is surprised to see what looks like herself, drive by one day. She follows the woman, which sets off a chain of events which leads her into a haunting, nightmare reality.

2. Faithless (aka Slaughter)
A young woman returns to her family farm in the hope of escaping an abusive situation. Unfortunately, this safe place ends up being much more abusive than her previous one.

3. Perkins' 14
Robert Perkins brainwashes 14 people, in order to create an army that will defend him from his parents' killers.

4. Butterfly Effect: Revelation
A young man with the power of time-travel attempts to solve the mystery of his girlfriend's death. In doing this, however, he frees a vindictive serial killer.

5. From Within
The residents of a small town in the USA begin to die off, supposedly of suicides.

6. Autopsy
A young woman attempts to find her injured boyfriend in a bizarre hospital.

7. Dying Breed
Zoology student Nina and her friends go into the Tasmanian Forest in search of the Tasmanian Tiger. What they discover, however, is a cannibalistic clan who are the descendants of a famous escaped serial killer known as The Pieman.

8. Voices
Overnight, brutal murders become everyday occurrences as friends turn on friends, brothers turn on sisters, and husbands turn on wives. Originally released in Korea as 'Du saram yi-da' ("2 people"), based on the best selling Korean comic book series of the same name.

After Dark Films will produce and distribute both Faithless and Perkins' 14, making these the first films that the company has produced and then released as part of the 8 Films to Die For.