Roger Corman's
The Unborn films are a real staple of the early 90s horror scene. It was always on cable TV, and every video store had 'em. Once the
It's Alive movies ended, these began. The original came out in 1991 and honestly, it plays like an unaired
Thirtysomething Halloween special, which I mean in all the best and the worst ways. Seriously, from the dialogue and performances to the sets and camerawork, you could air it between two random episodes and never spot the shift. It's a pretty honest expose of the same generation's yuppie angst over the ordeal of pregnancy with a fairly obvious but effective horror spin. The disturbing stuff is generally disturbing and well executed given the otherwise fast and cheap vibe of this production (it is a Corman production, after all). The cat scene will go down in history of upsetting horror moments.
It's got a surprisingly strong cast, with
Brooke Adams (who was in an episode of
Thirtysomething this same year, by the way) and
Return Of the Living Dead's
James Karen doing real first rate work.
Kathy Griffin
is perfectly cast as an admittedly pre-enlightened lesbian birth coach
(the cool housewife leaving her speechless by telling her to "suck my
dick" couldn't have been more transparently written by a pair of male
screenwriters threatened by feminism if her husband rode into the office
on a motorcycle to carry her off). And Corman's secret weapon
Matt Roe is the king of sleazy sharks. Oh, also look out for a pre-fame cameo by
Lisa Kudrow. It also has a pretty cool, understated synth soundtrack by
Gary Numan (of "Cars" fame).
On
the other hand, naysayers are right about one thing: it's kinda
boring! It's not just a slow burn, it's spinning its wheels. Whole
five to ten minute segments could have been twenty second montages. And
it's always headed to the most obvious, predictable places. You know what it's leading up to just from the poster, but it doesn't get there until the last fifteen minutes. Full of
surprises, this movie is not. Nice touches yes (I love that Adams keeps taking her mother, who is otherwise a completely superfluous character, everywhere with her in the last act, just to make everything a little more gonzo), and it picks up in the
climax, but the unexpected no. This is a movie that sets up all the pins and then makes you wait and wait and wait for them to drop. Fortunately, it's worth it when they do, and everything was just weird and well done enough in the meantime.
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| 2018 Scream Factory BD. |
(New) Concorde released a fullscreen, barebones DVD of this back in 2001; but I knew it was only a matter of time until a proper edition came along, so I held out. That turned out to be a long wait, but eventually Scream Factory stepped up to the plate, releasing this on blu with an all new 2k remaster. This was our first chance to see the movie
widescreen since it played theatrically (cable TV, VHS, laserdisc and
the DVD were all 1.33), and the quality of its cinematography (by Academy Award winner
Wally Pfister... perhaps you've heard of
The Dark Knight?) is a bit of a revelation, making this feel more like a real movie, and less like an 80s network show. Appropriately, the transfer it gets is properly filmic. Grain abounds, if a little inconsistently. It's not quite a Fidelity In Motion encode or a UHD, but for a standard 1080p BD, I'd give it an A-. And we get a pretty strong DTS-HD stereo track with optional English subtitles.
It also comes with a really good audio commentary by director
Rodman Flender (
Idle Hands,
Leprechaun 2), along with fellow Corman filmmaker
Adam Simon (
Brain Dead),
who mostly acts as a buddy/ moderator on the track, but it turns out he
does have a particular connection to this film. The only other extra
is the trailer, so Scream didn't bill it as a proper "Collector's Edition," but everything we do get is top shelf all the way.
And then we come to 1994's
The Unborn II by
Rick Jacobson, director of
Bloodfist Parts 6 and
8, and starring
LA Law's
Michelle Greene &
Family Ties'
Scott Valentine. This one never went to theaters and is evidently cheaper, but rewards you by also being zanier. In the opening scene, a lady in a
business suit walks up tome kids playing in a playground, pulls out a
gun, and puts two in his face. And it doesn't really let up. Couple
that with the decision to give the titular unborn considerably more screentime while making it look
like one of
The Garbage Pail Kids, and you've really got... something.
And it helps if you've
just watched the original film. No, Brooke Adams and the rest of the
cast are not back, but if you're well versed in
The Unborn, you
can start to suss out that the playground shooter is meant to be Adams'
character: a former mother of one of the babies running around with a
gun on a mission to kill them all, right? She's even the same basic
look and type as Adams. But then you meet Greene's character, who's
also heavily signaling that she could be Adams character returned. This
movie's playing a game with us: are we following the pro- or
an-tagonist from the previous film? It keeps you on your toes as the
stakes stay surprisingly high, at least until the drawn out and
lackluster climax, which is admittedly a let down. But the movie is so
fun up to then, the lame ending isn't enough to spoil it.
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2003 Concorde DVD.
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This
one went direct to video, so it almost certainly was always
intended to be 1.33:1, but they may've also optimistically shot it safe
for 1.85:1. Either way, it was clearly shot on film (I'm guessing
16mm), so it would benefit considerably from a remaster. Especially
since this disc isn't even 1.33; it's more like 1.30:1 rounding up. But
at least
this disc's not interlaced or anything. It's just your basic, un-futzed
with SD transfer. Nothing fancy but nothing screwy, including your
basic stereo
mix in Dolby 2.0 with no subs. The only extra is the trailer (watch them cheat by showing the creature from the end of the first movie), plus a couple of bonus trailers.
It's also worth noting that in 2009,
David S. Goyer wrote and directed a very loose Platinum Dunes remake starring
Gary Oldman and... actually, never mind. I've seen it; it's not worth noting.
Anyway, I'd love to see a label like Arrow issue the real
Unborn I &
II on 4k with even more special features one day. But considering how long it took us just to get the first one on a widescreen disc at all, I'm not holding my breath. So until that day, these discs are the way to go.
The Unborn II DVD is a little hard to find (given its long OOP and still the definitive release of a well known horror flick), but be wary of importing cheaper alternatives. The only one I'm aware of is a French DVD, but it has no English language options, just the French dub. It's a trap. You need the US DVD or, I guess, the laserdisc.
