The Unborn
by Rodman Flender
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Angelina Estrada, Elizabeth Harnett, Janice Kent, Jonathan Emerson, Wendy KamenoffDirector: Rodman Flender
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 83 minutes
Published: 2001-08-01
DVD Release Date: 2001-08-28
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: New Concorde
Product features:
- Directed by: Rodman Flender
- Written by: Michael Ferris, John D. Brancato
- Cast: Brooke Adams ("Invasion of the Body Snatchers"), Jeff Hayenga ("Memron"), James Karen ("Poltergeist")
- Year: 1991
Movie Reviews of The Unborn
Movie Review: Creepy, sleazy, cheesy fun!
Summary: 4 Stars
Good old Roger Corman is at it again with 1991's "The Unborn." In case you have been living under a rock for the last thirty or forty years, Roger is one of the chaps responsible for a large percentage of the low budget schlock that lines the shelves at your local video store. He's fallen on hard times in the last decade or so, especially since the arrival of DVD has given any schlep with a video camera and a dream access to the straight to video market Corman once controlled with an iron fist, but many of his films from the 1970s and 1980s are memorable if often indigestible experiences. Roger supposedly never made a film that lost money, probably because he never hesitated to churn out a ripoff of the latest Hollywood hit or genre craze. The public loves racing car films? Give 'em "Grand Theft Auto" and "Eat My Dust." Depression era mobsters raking in big bucks at the box office? Here's "Big Bad Mama." And so it goes, film after film that cashes in on the latest smashes made at a quarter of the budget (if even that). At least we can credit Corman with giving Ron Howard his first directing gig.
"The Unborn" is a later Corman production that manages to be quite entertaining despite its low budget. It's the story of a successful young couple, Virginia (Brooke Adams) and her husband Brad Marshall (Jeff Hayenga), who decide to seek the help of fertility specialist Dr. Richard Meyerling (James Karen) for obvious reasons. The idea of a little rug rat running around is too much to pass up for Virginia, who is willing to do whatever it takes to bear a child--even if that means suspending her career as a successful writer of children's books. Meyerling tells the couple to put out of their minds any problems they encountered at other clinics; his methods are nearly a hundred percent successful. Even the most difficult of cases walk away with a loving tot nestled in their arms at the end of nine months. Sounds great, doesn't it? Well, we all know if something sounds to good to be true it probably is, and such is the case with Richard Meyerling and his clinic. It turns out that the good doctor gives the word "quack" a new level of meaning. Sure, his methods result in the birth of a child, but who wants a kid that is the product of gene splicing? Or a kid that is part of a plot to replace humans with a master race? That kooky Meyerling!
Of course, Virginia doesn't know anything about this stuff when she agrees to Meyerling's schemes. All she knows is that the procedure works and she'll soon be a proud mother. Then a series of increasingly bizarre incidents start to take their toll. Virginia experiences enormous mood swings, mood swings far beyond what a normal pregnant woman should experience. Meyerling takes it all in stride, however, and assures our gal that nothing is amiss. He even gives her some tapes to listen to that should soothe her troubled soul. Problem is, these tapes appear to have subliminal messages on them of a decidedly disturbing nature. Since Brad went out of town on business (how convenient), Virginia has no one to turn to when her mental state deteriorates even further. She begins to suspect, obviously, that something is wrong with the baby. Then she suspects that something is downright sinister with the baby. And she's right--we know this because it's a Corman film and because we see what happens to a couple of Meyerling's other patients. Yuck! But at least everything ends with a sigh of relief as Virginia Marshall goes on a mission to destroy Meyerling's infernal schemes and thus make the world safe from the master race. Or does it? Whichever the result, you go, girl!
You simply must offer praise to a film that casts Brooke Adams as a mentally unbalanced mother to be, Lisa Kudrow as Meyerling's brunette secretary, and comedienne Kathy Griffin as a cloying, new age natural birth instructor with Sapphic tendencies named Connie Chicago. Especially when said movie has Griffin's character bludgeoned to death with a hammer. That scene alone adds a star to the overall review because, after all, who among us wouldn't like to see this loudmouth on the wrong end of a blunt instrument? Now that I think about it, every television program and film made from here on out should have a scene where Kathy Griffin meets her maker in a particularly heinous manner. Anyway, I liked "The Unborn" even without Griffin's gooey demise. Brooke Adams does a great job portraying a woman dealing with forces she doesn't understand, veteran character actor James Karen is sufficiently creepy as the insane Meyerling, and the movie is jam packed with stomach churning gore. A spike through the forehead, superfetuses in jars, a nasty scene with a butcher's knife, and assorted other grotesqueries make "The Unborn" required viewing for sleaze lovers.
Seeing as how this is a Corman comedy classic, you just know the DVD will contain a bunch of trailers for other must see low budget cheese. Previews for "The Nest," "Humanoids From the Deep," "The Terror Within," along with cast and crew biographies, round out the viewing experience. Another interesting factoid concerning "The Unborn": Gary Numan scored the film! He did a good job making the film sound very atmospheric in a creepy way. I definitely recommend this one for horror fans if for no other reason than that we just don't get to see many killer baby films nowadays.
Summary of The Unborn
A couple who cannot have children joins an in vitro fertilization program. While she is with child, she finds strange occurrences happening within her body. The horror surrounding the child comes to light when the parents find that their child has been part of a mad experiment. Format: Color, DVD, NTSC Language: English Subtitles: English Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.) Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Number of discs: 1 Rated: R (Restricted) Studio: New Concorde DVD Release Date: August 28, 2001 Run Time: 83 minutesSimilar DVD Movies
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