Saturday, January 10, 2009

THE UNBORN, the new horror movie, has been getting numerous reviews, most of which pan it thoroughly. But it appears to have a couple of themes of minor interest (dybbuk, exorcism in Hebrew), so I note the review in the Chicago Tribune:
MOVIE REVIEW 'The Unborn' ★1/2
'The Unborn' stars Odette Yustman, Gary Oldman
Rating: 11/2 stars (poor-fair)


By Michael Phillips | Tribune critic
January 10, 2009

Filmed in Chicago but universal in its lameness, writer-director David S. Goyer's horror thriller "The Unborn" is the story of a dybbuk (a spirit searching for a human host to possess) who makes trouble for the skinny North Shore college student played by Odette Yustman, who's always out jogging when she should be considering a sandwich. The movie climaxes with a Hebrew exorcism, conducted by Gary Oldman's Rabbi Sendak. If this had been a Lutheran exorcism, the victim would've been pelted with passive-aggression and a hot dish. A Unitarian exorcism? Counseling and mint tea.

[...]
Perhaps the theme most consistently mentioned in the reviews I read (I got through many, but not all of them) was how often Ms. Yustman appears in her undies or less. But the relentless use of clichés and the Holocaust-exploitation came up frequently as well.

Be that as it may, I have more on the dybbuk myth here.