Jumby Wants to be Born

The Unborn



Horror flicks have been rather cliché of late, with most utilising the same old tried and tested ideas. The Unborn however, focuses on a lesser-known entity called the dybbuk. A dybbuk, according to Jewish folklore, is a malicious possessing spirit, believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person who wanders around the borderline of heaven and earth. They are so tainted with evil, that they are not allowed to enter heaven. So, they are on a never-ending search for a body to possess. The more they possess, the mightier they become.

The story centers around Casey Beldon, played by Odette Yustman (yes, that Cloverfield girl), who is a seemingly normal teenager who suddenly experiences hallucinations and eerie occurrences, many of which are rather disturbing. She is also repeatedly visited by a child who keeps whispering “Jumby wants to be born”. The first mention was enough to give you chills to the bone, and the phrase keeps appearing to her in various ways, be it spoken or written form. While her boyfriend Mark (Cam Gigandet, recently seen in Twilight) and best friend Romy (Meagan Good) are trying to snap her out of it, it is clear that there is more to these occurrences than meets the eye.

Upon doing some research and also through meeting up with a holocaust survivor, Casey later finds out that she had a twin brother who died while in the womb. She then is led to believe that the dybbuk is the spirit of her unborn twin who seeks to possess her, and also finds out that their family fell victim to a sadist Nazi experiment while they were prisoners in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the holocaust. Casey discovers that a way to defeat the dybbuk is to perform a risky exorcism in accordance to some old manuscripts in Hebrew. So, she seeks the assistance of Rabbi Sendak (Gary Oldman), who is able to read the manuscript.

It should be noted that the sight of the Barto, the dybbuk-possessed child is rather disturbing, and is capable of scaring the bejeebers out of you. Credit should be given to Ethan Cutkosky for being able to instill fear at such a young age. Director David S. Goyer takes every opportunity to creep you out with distressing imagery, although the movie consists of mainly ‘shock frights’. There are many clichéd scenes too, and you’ll find yourself stressed out knowing that something is BOUND to happen during that particular scene. And despite all the shocking imagery and creepy CGi, actress Odette Yustman gets through every scene looking undeniably gorgeous and deserves half-a-star for doing so alone.

While seasoned horror fans might find The Unborn not up to their standards, it should still be a watchable flick for the casual fan of the genre, and the over-reliance on ‘shock-factor’ means the faint-hearted (which includes me) should steer clear of this.

3 out of 5 Stars