The Unborn (2004)

Directed by: Bhandit Thongdee | 108 minutes | horror, thriller | Actors: Intira Jaroenpura, Prangthong Changdham, Krunphol Tiansuwan, Aranya Namwong, Woravit Kaewphet

When you hear the combination of water, children, ghosts and shrill violins, what comes to mind? An Asian horror film, of course. Since the international success of ‘Ringu’, which we Westerners know as ‘The Ring’, the horror genre has been hot again. Cinemas are flooded with soulless ‘Ringu clones’ and the video stores can no longer handle the load of Asian ghost films. Between all the uninspired copying violence, the Thai low budget shocker ‘The Unborn’ tries toito attract interested genre freaks. Class or no chance?

In ‘The Unborn’ we get to know the tough Por (Jaroenpora). The young woman curses like a boatman, is not averse to drugs and is quite aggressive. That attitude has brought her few friends. After spending an evening behind the bar of the local nightclub, Por decides to smoke a cigarette outside. Something she shouldn’t have done. In no time, her violent dealer is right in front of her. The man accuses Por of theft and kidnaps her. After an argument that got out of hand, she was severely beaten and left for dead. Por is rescued just in time and ends up in the hospital. It turns out that she is ten weeks pregnant. Our desperate heroine wants an abortion, but she’s slowly giving up that idea. Por has bigger problems on her mind: the hospital is haunted. But why does no one believe her? Does Por really see ghosts or is her drug use so far that she is hallucinating?

After half an hour of watching it becomes clear to you: ‘The Unborn’ does not shy away from any cliché. You come across a girl in a white dress bent over in a white dress à la ‘The Ring’, you see demonic water drops as in ‘Dark Water’ and that dead white kid from ‘The Grudge’ also pops up for a while. So inspirational stuff. Yet director Bhandit Thongdee claims to come up with a film all his own.

The almost magical words ‘Based on a True Story’ adorn the cover of the DVD. At a time when true stories and biopics stand for high ratings and appreciation, ‘The Unborn’ seems to want to hitch a ride on this trend. All nice and nice of course, but how seriously should you take a horror film full of supernatural things? A self-destructive country singer who sings himself to the top and overcome his addiction is still believable, but an addicted woman who sees the most nasty demons in dripping water is just a bit different. What are you left with if you leave out the offending terminology “based on a true story” and judge “The Unborn” on its merits?

Surprisingly, this genre vehicle still delivers a pretty decent horror thriller that is sometimes really shocking and oppressive. The fact that Por is not entirely reliable as a heroine, are the ghosts real or just delusions of an addict?, gives the film a sharp edge. Thongdee regularly misleads you. Leading actress Jaroenpora takes advantage of her character’s unreliability by strongly highlighting Por’s constant desire for mind-altering drugs. The young woman’s shadowy past doesn’t give you the benefit of the doubt either. Who is Por anyway? This plot twist is liked and well executed, but unfortunately Thongdee gives away the denouement way too early. Por’s transformation from narcissistic drug user to committed girlfriend is also far too abrupt. If the tension was held a little longer, ‘The Unborn’ would be a lot more interesting. However, the film never gets boring. Thongdee keeps the momentum going and treats you to some very disturbing and gross scenes. You get to see a horrific abortion and there are some gloomy moments in an operating room. The eerie passages come quite unexpectedly and are quite graphic. It is precisely the unpredictability of the horror scenes that makes the impact of the violence all the greater. However, the well-dosed tension is too little to keep the true horror fan happy. ‘The Unborn’ leans more on the acting and suspense than on filth.

It must be said that the acting of the cast is quite decent. ‘The Unborn’ will never win Oscars or any other prestigious film award, but in terms of acting it is good. Jaroenpora is on a roll as the selfish Poke. Although the heroine is quite annoying to her environment, especially in the first half of the film, the character is still worth following. Supporting actors like Changdham and Tiansuwan do their job properly. The characters, except for Por, remain quite flat. For example, you see characters incarnate such as the angry dealer, the sadistic sister and the involved social worker. These caricatures never want to become real people and that’s a shame. Too bad because Thongdee could have gotten so much more out of her film, so the relationship between Por and her dealer never really becomes clear. The search for Por’s delusions/ghost apparitions has also been worked out too tamely. With a better script, ‘The Unborn’ would have made for a much more haunting story. Now it seems like some plot twists just fell out of the blue. Although the last twist in the plot is very successful. All in all, ‘The Unborn’ is a successful addition to the already overflowing horror genre. However, don’t expect a cult classic or sleeper hit. The film lacks its own identity and a strong storyline. ‘The Unborn’ is a nice rental film, no more, but certainly no less.