I am wrapping up the editing of a book: Darwinian Conservatism: A Disputed Question. Look for it soon at Barnes & Noble! Tonight I took a breather and went to see The Unborn, with Odette Yustman and Gary Oldman. Quick judgment: it was a lot better than I expected.
To be sure, it had all the common weaknesses. Except for Oldman (Sirius Black, Commissioner Gordon), the cast was uniformly beautiful. The beginning was way too fast, with no sense of building or foreboding: the evil pops right up. But after the first half hour, the story line got focus, and I was hooked.
The story is set in Chicago in winter, and it makes great use of the bleak landscape around the city (a lot of dormant trees against white snow) and of some fine cityscapes. But its best trick was to base the movie on Jewish mythology. I am surprised that this is not done in more horror films. Asian horror works so well on me precisely because it is alien. Most Western horror relies on Christian mythology, but that mythology is so overused that it creates little resonance. These days vampires are so familiar they are about as scary as a high school marching band.
Jewish mythology has the virtue of being familiar and vaguely alien at the same time. This gives is a resonance that is vital for good horror cinema. To give you an idea of the plot, Yustman's Casey Beldon is being haunted by what she thinks is the ghost of her stillborn twin brother. But it's really a Dybbuk, a restless soul that was once human, but is human no longer. I like that 'ghost turns out to be demon' thing. The acting is passable, the dialogue uneven, but Gary Oldman shines as you would expect. One of the weaknesses in the movie is that his screen presence and story weight are limited. Oh, and the evil spirit looks a lot like Eddie Munster.
Anyway, if you like dabbling in the dark arts behind the spiritual protection of buttered popcorn, it's worth an hour and a half.
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