HALLOWEEN HORRORFEST 2020: The Unborn (1991)

Since there was no sponsor for today, I turned once again to the Randomizer, and the Randomizer decided to conduct an experiment on me by offering up Rodman Flender’s The Unborn.

If you’re not familiar with this film--or are thinking it’s the more recent 2009 movie starring Odette Yussman/Annabelle--it’s one of the last films to be released theatrically by New Concorde, the studio run by Roger Corman and his daughter Julie which presently specializes in SyFy movies.  It was released to a couple of theaters here in New York City before retreating immediately to video.  I had just started writing for Fangoria at that time, and my editor Michael Gingold lent me a VHS screener for this and The Terror Within II.  I remember watching both, not thinking much of Terror but really digging this film and praising it in an issue of my fanzine at the time, Sticky Carpet Digest.  I had not seen it since, and I was really enthusiastic about revisiting it after almost three decades.

Man, I should have let my memories of this film live on rather than rewatch it.  This. Is. A. Mess.

Virginia (Brooke Adams, who is luuuuurvely...although this viewing I wondered if her loveliness in my eyes comes from the way she seems to be a mash-up of Jessica Harper and Karen Allen) and Brad (Jeff Hayenga) have spent five years trying to have a child with no result.  Desperate, they turn to fertility specialist Dr. Meyerling (James Karen, who will always be the pitchman for Pathmark Supermarkets for me).  Meyerling has a rep for producing healthy and highly intelligent children for his clients.  What he doesn’t advertise is the rashes Virginia will develop on her neck, the psychotic behavior she will experience that may be intensified due to a previous mental breakdown...or the fact that these babies have a habit of, ummmm, self-delivering and acting all around murderous.

This was Rodman Flender’s debut film.  I have a theory about debut films.  I feel that a lot of times that a director’s first film is so scattershot and filled with ideas with little focus because they fear that this will be their only film and they have so much to get out of their heads.  I definitely think this was one of those films because the overall impression I got from this watch is he didn’t know what kind of horror film he wanted to make.  The story wildly swings from body horror to psychological horror to paranoia thriller before it finally settles on a...creature feature? that it becomes unfocused.  Granted, a lot of this is negated by Adams’ performance, which almost anchors the film throughout its crazy twists in tone.  But she’s not that talented an actor that she can ground us when a premature mutant baby stabs her husband in the eye with a knitting needle, nor when it causes a car accident.

This script needed a few more passes.  It’s obvious from the start that Karen’s Meyerling is Up To No Good, but I never get a sense of why; even his final speech revealing the nature of his experiments are vague to the point where it almost sounds like he’s a victim.  The last act takes a turn into tastelessness where Adams returns to the dumpster where her aborted child was thrown away, but I think if it ended with a certain reveal in the scene after that, it would have been better...but Flender has to go on for ten more minutes.  And those ten minutes get sillier and sillier than the previous seventy four minutes could even hint at being.  I imagine Flender was thinking of David Cronenberg when he shot the climatic sequence with Adams shooting up a room full of artificial wombs, but it came off...kinda funny.

I should mention that since it was being made in 1990, I was taken aback by the presence of both Lisa Kudrow and Kathy Griffen--literally seconds from each other--in minor roles.  They didn’t take me out of the moment as much as Karen, although I can understand why Flender, who grew up in New York at around the same time as me and probably saw lots of the same Pathmark commercials featuring a warm, friendly and approachable Karen as I did, cast him in this role.  But even Karen didn’t break my rapport with this film--it’s the way this story rushes all over the place and doesn’t commit to a consistent direction.

I know there are younger horror fans than me, men and women who will eventually take my place as the reviewers and analysts of their generation.  Let my experience with The Unborn be a warning to you....I suspect that mid-20‘s Tom was so enthusiastic about this because it was something kind of different from what I had seen before and did not bother approaching it as an actual, you know, narrative.  I do not recommend this at all.

Our sponsor tomorrow is M. Lopes da Silva, an author whose new book, Hooker, is a story of vigilantism, revenge and hooks--so many, many kinds of hooks--is inspired by grindhouse cinema and VHS horror flick of the 80‘s.  She has chosen for me The Seduction, a 1982 stalker thriller where Morgan Fairchild is, well, stalked!  Since I crushed on Fairchild in the early 80‘s, expect some squidging.  She will be representing Planned Parenthood.

There are Three Sponsorship Slots Left in the Halloween Horrorfest this year.  To claim one, do one of four things:

1) You can become a Domicile of Dread Patreon at any level.  Patreons always get a free slot, as well as advance access to podcasts and other goodies!

2) You can buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi.  Suggested donation is $3

3) You can make a donation to Black Lives Matter.  Suggested donation is $10.  Please forward your receipt to me as proof.

4) You can choose to make a donation to the charity chosen by a sponsor on his/her/their day. Like with the third possibility, please forward me proof of donation.

As with last year, if I end up with more sponsors than there are days in October, I will go into Horrorfest Overtime, which means Halloween goes into November for me--and you!