Asian Horror Reviews: The Unborn Child Thai (2011)

Asian Horror Reviews: The Unborn Child

Thai (2011)

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I find it hard to objectively review this film without getting into any sort of political debate about the subject matter. We are all adults here, so i will put it blatantly "The Unborn Child" has an ongoing anti-abortion message- so much so that it overshadows any other potential the film may have. Director Poj Arnon’s thriller-horror is riddled with thai-propaganda against abortion, and it highlights the countries ongoing illegal abortion practice. The film itself is loosely based off the discovery of over a thousand aborted fetus's that were discovered in a storage locker in thailand recently.

The biggest problem would not be the "subject" of the film- Many cinema fans can appreciate when a film pushes its limits and goes into controversial territory. The true struggle with The Unborn Child is its lack of material otherwise- Seeing a bloody disposed fetus is scary- but a bothersome scare not a two hour horror movie scare. On top of that we have the repetition; scary fetus here, another scary fetus over here; it lacks creativity, and actually angers me as an audience member- Do not force me to look at this shock value imagery, if you have nothing else to offer.

The film does attempt at some points to create sympathetic characters- it revolves around the struggles of a married woman and her husband, a twenty-something and a young high school couple, who share in common the fact they have all gone out and had themselves some illegal abortions. Aside from that their stories vaguely intertwine- i was bit confused by the relationships with each other, it appears they all seem to know one another- Perhaps they met outside the back alley abortion clinic (bad joke).

So it goes on, we also have the reoccurring ominous storage locker! It gets it's big scare early on when the door swings open and all the aborted fetus's tumble out. From then on it just becomes this awkward symbolism that the film returns to when it runs out of other useful things to say.

I am just going to be honest and say, at no point while watching Paj Arnon's The Unborn Child, did i feel anything but discomfort. The film is uncomfortable to watch, and depending on where you stand in regards to the subject matter the film will not sway your opinions either way. If you can muster a level of indifference, i will say that from a cinematic point of view the film is "ok-looking" and the acting is tolerable. I'd even go as far to say that this is one example of when a lot of very talented people work on a very obscure script. There is no amount of talent that could fix this "bad idea". It leaves you wondering if perhaps the thai government was behind this whole scam of a horror flick, hoping that they could get the target audience of Thai-teenagers to properly dispose of their abortions next time. (another bad joke).

**One reoccurring theme i am noticing in Thai film lately is the happy-family montage- i dunno why but they like to wrap everything up with the whole family taking uppers and going for a little car drive.

Review By Brandie Tschauner