Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘The Unborn’

Written by Scott Edwards

I am a huge fan of superstitions. I grew up trying to avoid every crack in the sidewalk for fear that it would break my mother’s back. I would not shave when on a long hit streak when I played baseball and I would never talk about anything that was going good for me at the time, because that would jinx it and I would be back to square one. But these are just a few of the superstitions out there and there are so many more and even though they may not be as well known, they are nonetheless there and if one person believes it, it has the power to come true for anyone.

Casey Beldon is having strange dreams that she cannot explain, but with the help of her good friend Romy, she can slightly start to understand what they might mean. While babysitting, Casey gets the update on her dreams when she hears one of the kids wandering around upstairs. Arriving in the baby’s room, she sees young Matty holding a mirror over his little sister and when Casey tries to intervene, she gets hit in the eye with it. Thinking little about what has just happened, Casey is in for a world of change and it is not only noticeable to her, but to her friends as well. 

When one of Casey’s eyes starts to change color and she is seeing strange things head on, she knows that there is something wrong. Getting her eyes checked, she finds out that she may have a sibling that she has not known about. When questioning her father about it, she finds out that she had a brother in the womb, but he never survived, but the more disturbing fact to her is that his nickname was Jumby and that is the name that little Matty has been yelling at her for the past couple days. Still determined to learn more about what is happening to her, Casey is able to locate an elderly woman who might actually have some answers.

Sofi Kozma is loving life in her retirement home until Casey comes to ask her questions. After throwing the young girl out on her first visit, Sofi invites Casey back for a long conversation. Being a survivor of the holocaust with her twin brother, Sofi knows of something darker that has been plaguing the world that nobody every questions; The Dybbuk, an evil spirit that preys on mainly on twins as they get older. While Sofi lost her brother to the beast at a young age, she knows that it can get powerful enough to take over an adult as well. Knowing that something strange is happening to her, Casey takes the old woman’s words to heart, but she is the only one and finding a priest or rabbi that can help her release this demon may be more difficult than expected. 

One of the things that I focus on when watching a movie is the story. You can have a cast of unknowns running around on the screen and if the story is good, the movie will also turn out to be good. But when the story takes twists and turns and does not stay consistent, you have an issue. While the cast of the movie was great, and the effects were good with a dead little boy that will terrorize your dreams every single time he appears on the screen, it is not enough to make up for a weak storyline.  It seems like they were trying to do too much in this movie by covering so many different legends and superstitions, if they would have just picked one and stayed with it throughout, this might have gone down as one of the best horror movies to ever grace the silver screen. Sometimes when it comes to making a horror movie, less can be better, especially if you are trying to get a point across. Stay Scared.

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