Christie Burke plays Mary, a young mother who now has a son named Adam. That's all well and good, but Adam was born with a twin brother named Jonathan, who was stillborn. Mary is obviously seriously affected by this, to the point where she starts thinking that a demonic entity is after her son. Unfortunately, everyone else simply sees Mary in a state of deteriorating mental health, and the only one who could cause harm to her son, as far as they are concerned, is Mary herself. Her husband (Jesse Moss) is sympathetic, to a point, and she also has some support from a good neighbour (Rebecca Olson) and her own mother (Sheila McCarthy). She's also seeing a doctor (Michael Ironside), but her refusal to be completely honest with him doesn't help. As things start to escalate, Mary becomes convinced that the only way to save her son is to make a sacrifice.
It's hard to be overly critical of director Brandon Christensen, who also co-wrote the script with Colin Minihan (still probably best known to genre fans just now as one half of The Vicious Brothers). Making his feature debut, Christensen has certainly picked a subject that contains layered levels of horror. It's something that needs to be handled just right, and both the script and direction allow time for a dark fog of sadness to permeate scenes in between the standard scares. Unfortunately, those standard scares are real mixed bag. The first hour is a slog, with a number of lazy, but admittedly effective, jump scares and some fleeting glimpses of graphic nastiness that some viewers definitely won't appreciate. It also makes for a tough viewing as you wonder whether this is a standard horror movie or a look at the world through the eyes of someone in a state of painful suffering after experiencing the worst loss of their life. That uneasy blend lasts right up until the final scenes, with a coda that feels equally dispiriting because of what it reveals to another main character. Some may argue that a scene between Mary and a mother who previously seemed to share her experience (played by Jenn Griffin) keeps the film rooted in more standard scares. I would have to disagree. It feels like a shared hallucination, mainly because of the way in which nobody else is ever brought in to the proceedings at the right time to offer help.
This is a film that floods the screen with a sense of helplessness, almost as if it dresses up the main character in heavy clothing and forces her to wade into deeper and deeper water. That's a hard thing to watch, at times, but would fit more in a film that wasn't also trying to deliver the required genre goods.
Burke is good in the lead role, managing to show her terror and paranoia without her performance devolving into a mass of wide-eyed hair-pulling and shrieking (as can sometimes happen). Moss does fine in his role, although he's at the mercy of a script that has him having to be kept out of the way while things get worse for his onscreen wife. Ironside is always good to see, and his small role here is uncharacteristically non-threatening, and Olson and McCarthy both do solid work.
Still/Born is good. It walks a fine line between being considerate to the central issue that spurs on the horror and being in completely bad taste, and I think I would recommend avoiding it if you are one of the many women who have experienced the loss that Mary goes through (or at least give yourself ample time to prepare for your viewing), but it just does enough to keep itself in the right. Only just.
6/10
You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.
I also value anyone who reads this blog from other countries, I just don't have the time or space to list links for every different territory. Apologies.
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