2008 was a dismal year for horror films. And, unfortunately, the genre isn’t off to a promising start in 2009 with the release of The Unborn.  This movie serves as an excellent example of why scary movies aren’t scary anymore. Sarcastic shout outs and hysterical laughter were the predominant audience responses to the film’s so-called frightening  scenes at the screening I attended. So I didn’t get what I paid for, but at least The Unborn provided me with a few good belly laughs.

Teenager Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman) is having a bad dream. While jogging in the park, she encounters an eerie looking boy (Ethan Cutkosky), a dog wearing a mask, and buried in the dirt, a fetus in a jar. Things progress quickly, because Casey starts seeing and hearing things, too. One night as she babysits her neighbor’s children, she hears the boy Matty (Atticus Shaffer) whisper, “Jumby wants to be born now.”

The creepy little boy of her dream randomly pops up wherever Casey goes -- on the street, at the dance club, as a reflection in her mirror. Not only does she see strange things, but now her eyes have become discolored. The ophthalmologist tells her this discoloration results from a genetic condition associated with twins. Could she have a twin? Casey confronts her father (James Remar) and learns she did indeed have a twin brother who died in her mother’s womb. Her twin’s death drove her depressed mother (Carla Cugino) to commit suicide.

Casey is convinced she’s being haunted. At this point, the film goes from bad to worse as Casey investigates her mother’s past for clues to her dilemma. She uncovers more than she bargained for -- and more than I could swallow without groaning out loud -- including an unknown grandmother (Jane Alexander), Nazi concentration camp experiments, Jewish mysticism, malevolent spirits known as Dybbuks, and possession. Does anything here sound familiar?  It should. Familiar, and given its treatment, also screamingly funny. Director/writer David S. Goyer obviously looked for material from other, better films to fashion his movie.

Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with borrowing from other films. It’s hard to come up with new, original ideas to scare people, so filmmakers recycle successful conventions. And right now many of them are still enthralled by the Asian New Wave style that first surfaced in the U.S. with the 2001 American remake of Japan’s, The Ring. As a result, we get the bug-eyed, pale-faced scary kid; the grossly contorted people; and creepy film footage in addition to all the other tried and true storylines and devices you come to expect -- exorcisms, mental illness, evil spirits, mirrors as portals to the other side (Mirrors), and so forth. So if a filmmaker wants to use well-tread storylines and established scare tactics, then he should use them well.  That doesn’t happen here. Goyer piles the clichés one on top of another without any logic, reason, or creative interpretation. In the end, all we get is a nonsensical, sloppy mess.

My biggest disappointment with The Unborn involves its waste of Gary Oldman’s considerable talents. Oldman, who portrays Rabbi Sendak, is one of the most versatile and gifted actors working today. Fortunately, Oldman's little onscreen time is mercifully brief. And, because he can do no wrong, he delivers an intelligent and sincere performance in this silly, trite, and convoluted film.

(Released by Rogue Pictures and rated "PG-13" for intense sequences of violence and terror, disturbing images, thematic material and language including some secual references.)

Review also posted at www.moviebuffs.com.