David Goyer talks about his next directorial effort ‘The Unborn’.
Dark Knight scribe David Goyer has spoken about his next directorial project ‘The Unborn’.
Goyer spoke at length to reporters about the “old-school horror movie” based on an apparition the likes of the dybbuk (from Jewish folklore). According to Goyer, the story has themes reminiscent of his second directing effort, 2007’s The Invisible, in that Unborn also surrounds a wandering spirit; but this time it’s one that’s far more malevolent, and which tries to inhabit a body in order to be reborn.
Goyer also revealed that beyond proper creepiness and scares, he intends to explain very little of the spirit, similarly to how the Joker was presented in ‘Dark Knight’.
“It’s one of the things that I think help makes things scary,” Goyer said of being coy with the ghost’s origins. “We actually don’t know where it really came from. The first thing it inhabits is a young child but it kind of hops bodies throughout the movie. If we’re fortunate enough to do a sequel I would delve back even further because we don’t say were it really originated from.”
Goyer went on to say, “I never go into full-on Salvador Dalí land, but there’s something about how this young girl’s perceptions get subtly altered, and sometimes she’s not sure whether what she’s seeing is really happening or not. I don’t always spell it out – things occur in the waking world that would seem to defy the normal conventions of reality, including some of the images that she has in her dreams that show up in reality on earth. I find the idea of identity – of something else taking over your body – very scary.”
For the plot, Goyer explains that “an ancient and terrifying legend is made real for a world-weary woman, Casey, who must find a way to repel a spirit before it takes over her body, forcing her to wander the netherworld in its place.”
Casey will be played by Odette Yustman of Cloverfield fame. Joining her is Dark Knight alumn Gary Oldman, who plays an advising Rabbi, along with Carla Gugino.
The Unborn is slated for a 2009 release.