STILL/BORN (2017)

Studio:       Vertical Entertainment
Director:    Brandon Christensen
Writer:       Colin Minihan, Brandon Christensen
Producer:  Colin Minihan, Chris Ball, Kurtis David Harder
Stars:     Christie Burke, Jesse Moss, Rebecca Olson, Jenn Griffin, Michael Ironside, Sheila McCarthy

Review Score:

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Summary:

A young mother reeling from post-partum psychosis comes to believe a demon is trying to steal her newborn child.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Mary gives birth to her healthy newborn son Adam, but is heartbroken to discover Adam’s twin Thomas was stillborn.

Mary’s husband Jack moves their new family into a spacious house in a privileged neighborhood. While strolling with Adam, Mary makes friends with her attractive neighbor Rachel, who has an infant of her own.

Mary grows more troubled when Adam refuses to breastfeed. Her concerned suspicions grow when she hears a strange cry that doesn’t belong to Adam over the baby monitor speaker.

Thinking something is wrong with the audio monitor, Mary has Jack purchase a baby monitor with a video camera. Mary is unexpectedly alarmed when she sees a darting figure grab quickly at a crib over the feed, although no one is in Adam’s room.

Mary Skypes with her mother Sheila, who calls after learning that Jack is worried about Mary’s wellbeing. While sharing cigarettes in the park with Rachel, Mary speculates that their similar baby monitors must have their signals crossed.

Mary is upset to learn that Jack plans to leave for a business trip to Pittsburgh to close a big account. Mary also spies Jack having a furtive meeting with Rachel in the driveway.

While changing Adam’s diaper, Jack notices a strange birthmark on the boy’s leg.

While tending to Adam, Mary hears crying coming from Thomas’ crib, which was never taken down, on the opposite side of the room. Mary creeps over and experiences a frightening vision of a bloody mass inside the second crib.

The couple goes to see psychiatrist Dr. Neilson. Neilson asks if Mary is experiencing any hallucinations, but Mary tells him no. The doctor diagnoses her with post-partum depression and prescribes anti-depressant medication. He also tells Mary that losing one child has inspired anxiety that she might lose her second child as well. Neilson recommends that Mary remove all items associated with Thomas from the house, which she does.

Because Mary refuses to hire a nanny or allow her mother to come and help with Adam, Jack installs security cameras in the house to keep an eye on his wife while he is in Pittsburgh. Mary is unhappy about the surveillance.

Mary wakes in the middle of the night and follows noises to the bathroom door, where she hears what sounds like Jack talking quietly on the phone. Mary confronts her husband, although Jack insists he wasn’t talking to anyone and no phone is found.

After Jack leaves Mary to go on his trip, Rachel unintentionally plants seeds of infidelity in Mary’s mind by talking about business trips and monogamy in relation to her husband Richard.

Adam’s nursery window shatters in the middle of the night while Mary is home alone. A nearby neighbor who is also a cop comes to the house and speculates that kids may have been responsible.

Rachel comes over and finds an empty bottle of wine in the cupboard. Mary wonders when anyone could have drank it. Her malaise growing, Mary dumps all of her pumped breast milk down the sink.

Mary watches video footage of the window shattering and seemingly sees the shape of a person approaching Adam’s crib. Mary researches supernatural baby stealing online and is led to the story of Jane Henderson, a mother who claimed that a demon stole her child.

The power goes out in the house. While checking the breaker, Mary becomes locked out of Adam’s room and hears a croaking voice speaking to her child on the other side of his door.

Rachel calms Mary and calls Jack to let him know Mary is okay. Mary overhears Rachel quietly giggling while whispering to Jack.

Mary reviews the photo of Jane Henderson with her child and notices a birthmark identical to Adam’s on that baby’s leg.

Mary goes to see Jane Henderson. Jane plays a demon voice that she recorded and shows Mary a book illustration of Lamashtu, a demon known for menacing mothers and stealing their babies. Jane tells Mary that she will have to make a choice between sacrificing her baby or someone else’s.

Mary continues researching Lamashtu. Mary has a nightmare of eyes staring back at her from the vent above her bed.

Worried after learning that Mary hasn’t been taking Jack’s calls, Sheila Skypes her daughter. Mary briefly sees her mother become Lamashtu when static glitches the video feed.

Thinking back on what Jane did, Mary retrieves the audio-only baby monitor. She then locates a cassette deck and uses it to record herself asking questions of the invisible entity.

Jack returns home. Mary narrowly avoids attacking him after initially assuming Jack was the demon creeping around.

Mary loses two hours to a trance when Jack leaves her alone to take Adam to the park.

In the middle of the night, Mary excitedly wakes Jack, panicking that Adam is missing. Jack runs to the nursery and retrieves Adam, who is revealed to be perfectly safe.

Following the confusion over Adam’s whereabouts, Mary becomes a robotic housewife. Sheila is shocked when Mary screams at Adam for crying while the two women video chat.

Mary becomes locked out of the bathroom while Adam is in the tub and the tub fills with water. Mary runs outside in hysterics, retrieves an ax from a landscaping truck nearby, and uses it to break down the bathroom door. Mary sees Lamashtu crouching over Adam. The demon creeps down the hallway toward Mary before an unseen force suddenly pushes Mary over the banister.

Mary wakes restrained to a hospital bed. Jack plays security camera footage to show Mary that events did not play out like she claimed. In the video, a seemingly entranced Mary locks herself out of the bathroom, calmly axes the door, and stands on a chair to intentionally fall over the railing. Mary insists that the demon altered the footage and that Adam is in danger. Dr. Neilson changes his diagnosis to post-partum psychosis.

Jack leaves Mary a tablet so she can access the security camera feeds from the hospital and ensure the house is safe. Some time later, Mary sees Rachel come to the house and start straddling Jack on the couch. Meanwhile, the demon takes Adam from his nursery.

Mary tears out her IV and runs home, but no one is there. Mary goes next door where Rachel is hosting a Halloween costume party and confronts Rachel over Jack’s whereabouts. Rachel tells Mary that Jack took Adam to the airport to pick up Mary’s mother.

When Mary alleges that Rachel is having an affair with Jack, Rachel pulls Mary inside for a private conversation. Mary grabs a large knife and threatens to stab Rachel. After Mary suddenly collapses, Rachel goes to get help from her husband.

Once Rachel is gone, Mary retrieves the knife, locks the doors, and finds Rachel’s baby. Partygoers watch in horror from outside as Mary prepares to murder the child.

Rachel hurriedly calls Jack and puts him on speakerphone through the window. Jack tells Mary everyone is safe and they are on their way. During his plea for Mary to not harm anyone, Jack’s voice distorts into demonic static. Mary quickly raises the knife again. The neighbor who is a cop shoots Mary through the window. Jack arrives with Adam and finds Mary dead.

While packing up the house some time later, Jack finds the tape recordings Mary made. Jack hears Mary ask why the demon wants Adam. Jack hears a demonic voice answer, “because your other son tasted so sweet.”

Jack hears something creeping in the house and rushes upstairs to check on Adam. Jack cautiously approaches the crib with closed eyes. Jack opens his eyes to look inside.

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Review:

For Mary, the joy of her infant son Adam’s birth is overshadowed by the devastating stillborn death of Adam’s twin brother Thomas.  Mary’s concerned husband Jack relocates them to a spacious new home in secluded suburbia while Mary makes fast friends with their neighbor Rachel.  But fresh faces, new surroundings, and even post-partum medication can’t spin Mary’s motherhood mindset off its deepening descent into depression.

Putting Mary further on edge is a curious croak heard through the baby monitor in the middle of the night.  Vaulting Mary over that edge is the sudden sight of a furtive figure darting toward Adam’s crib, only to find Adam untouched in his room.  Yet what sends Mary’s mind plummeting is a haunting hallucination of horror inside the empty crib intended for Thomas.

Mary’s husband and mother assume the pressures of parenthood are taking their toll.  Mary’s psychiatrist assures her that the stress of losing one son has her overly worried about the other.  Mary however, thinks something sinister is out to snatch Adam, even if no one is willing to believe her.

Already unsettled by the house’s hollow hallways after Jack leaves for a trip, Mary becomes certain she and Adam are not alone.  Conspiratorial whispers and seemingly paranormal activity continue consuming Mary with paranoia.  The key to unlocking this mystery lies with another disturbed mother who confirms Mary’s worst fears.  Otherworldly evil wants her baby.  And it won’t stop until another child is eaten.

You might thumb through the above and think, “Still/Born” sounds familiar.  Indeed, you’d be right.

An unreliable narrator immersed in “is she or isn’t she crazy?” hysterics.  A doubting husband adding ‘absentee’ as an adjective at an inopportune time.  A model-quality mistress planting seeds of suspected infidelity.  A convenient character who provides ninth inning exposition the first act couldn’t cover.  Whether it is anxiety associated with a baby who might drown in rising bathwater or tiptoeing toward a shadow for an “it’s only me!” tension pop, “Still/Born” stuffs itself exclusively with elements you’ve seen numerous times before.

Yet the movie commands that every one of those clichés be put to good use.  “Still/Born” may not be innovative, but it is entertaining.  Tiptop production design for a low-budget indie and a camera confident in how it captures creepiness deliver a straight shot of cinematic suspense.  When everything is said and done, “Still/Born” taps into maternal panic in the form of supernatural thrills with haunted house horror and psychological scares.

Originality ends up as less of an enemy than the movie’s clunkily cobbled editing.  “Still/Born” trips into a first half hour that leaves Road Runner clouds in the wake of how fast Mary ties on a new BFF or Jack rockets into a relationship with the temptress next door.  However those point As raced to their point Bs, it must be depicted in scenes set offscreen or dropped on the cutting room floor.  Audiences are left to draw obvious conclusions for themselves, since minorly important minutes appear to be stripped here and there.

There’s also a burden of unnecessarily shuffled parallel plotlines.  For instance, follow the sequencing below:

• A: Adam’s nursery window shatters.

• B: Mary and Rachel share a conversation and Mary handles a personal chore.

• A: Mary thinks to examine footage of the window incident, which leads to uncovering a connection to another woman in a similar situation.

• B: Mary experiences more paranormal activity before having one more curious encounter with Rachel.

• A: Mary takes another look at the other woman’s photo, and finally makes a move to go see her.

The sensible thing to do here is to mount Mary’s asides on their own arc, then tackle the other woman discoveries in event order.  Instead, the story sees Mary pausing and returning twice to pick up where she left off.  Narrative necessities don’t demand intertwining threads, yet “Still/Born” insists on complicating its simplicity.  It’s as though someone took final cut out of the oven early and shrugged, “good enough for government work.”

“Still/Born’s” choppiness doesn’t nag overmuch because a brisk 84-minute runtime keeps rhythm rolling.  Mattering more in this case are the ends not the means.  Even when the path isn’t pretty, the destination delivers dread.  And what the movie has going for it in the traditional terror department is more intriguing than mulling what it misses in invention.

Dismiss how “been there, done that” it feels on the surface.  “Still/Born” is ferociously frightful where it counts, making for a movie worth a late night watch, particularly if imprinting nightmarish visions on the inside of your eyelids is on the bedtime agenda.

Review Score:  70

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