Born
Obviously this didn't look great, but I took it on as a bit of a jokey entry into Shocktober due to Alison Brie's presence in the lead role. It wasn't a fun experience though. I've been watching a lot of indie festival submissions the past month, not necessarily a benchmark of consistent technical and acting prowess. I can say assuredly that this film would not make it into the festival. It has moments of technical competence that does not extend to anything dealing with special effects which just look terrible. And the acting here, including Alison Brie, is really inept.
The story is a variation on the demon spawn tale, most recently seen by me in Rosemary's Baby. On the day of her mother's funeral (and apparently also dia de los muertos), she is raped by her deceased demon brother and becomes pregnant despite being a virgin. At this point she battles with demonic possession that leads to bloody acts and blah blah blah. The film feels way too long and nothing in the story is particularly notable.
I do want to take a moment on pet peeve...body doubles. And this isn't just a result of wanting to see Annie's Boobs. In the two scenes where you are meant to be seeing Alison Brie's character's breasts, the fact that it is a body double demands an editing selection that alternates between head shot (establishing it "really" is her) and a torso shot. I think this makes for worse cinematography generally (compare to the scene in Teeth with Jess Weixler...if that scene was edited like Born it would have made that shot much less compelling. You see, breasts aren't as expressive as someone's face, so any time you spend just focused in on them is time you aren't getting any useful emotion out of the scene. Additionally, cutting to the shot of a naked torso minus a head has a heavier indication of objectification...it smells more of desperation to get T&A in the film. Of course, this film doesn't rely entirely on Brie's body double on this, three other actresses get naked (clearly not in body double form) in the film and the final third seems to happen with twin demon blondes standing fully naked in the background. There's just an icky feeling about the nudity here. But going beyond the effect of the body double on the film itself, it doesn't inspire much confidence in the actor/actress either. I reckon if you aren't willing to do nudity, don't take a part that has nudity involved (or convince them the film doesn't actually need nudity in the part).
1/5