Review: Reborn

Director: Julian Richards

Screenplay: Michael Mahin

Year: 2019

Synopsis: A young woman with electrokinetic powers is looking for her mother, who thought she had died during birth. In her obsession with being close to her mother, she wreaks havoc by using her abilities.

In a dark morgue with a pervert embalmer, a baby that was stillborn waits in silence. In a twist of fate, lightning strikes in the building that hosts the morgue, causing a short circuit in the electric lines which is enough to reanimate the body of the baby. The embalmer decides to take it and scenes later we see that he had her contained for 16 years.

Why contained? Because this electric discharge not only gave life back to this girl but also gifted her the ability to control electricity, as a way to compensate her time being dead. At her 16 years, this young woman insists on knowing who her real mother is, which ends up in a violent confrontation with the embalmer and her eventual escape to search for her mother.

By deliberated ironies, her mother is an actress interpreted by Barbara Crampton, known for her participation in “Re-Animator”, so she must know a thing or two about reanimated corpses in a morgue. This actress is in s bad moment of her career, and part of it is caused by the sentiment of guilt she had carried for 16 years after her daughter’s death. Now that she has decided to work on this sentiment, she doesn’t know that she will be reunited with her daughter, which she had no idea had survived that fateful night.

The story written by Michael Mahin in his debut as a screenwriter for a full-length feature and directed by Julian Richards (“Darklands”), moves fast. In parts is too fast and doesn't allow for some to be as developed as they should be and, at least in my case, didn't draw me to its story. The acting helps to direct the story and making it more interesting, particularly that of Kayleigh Gilbert (“Break Night”)as Tess, clearly inspired in the Stephen King character Carrie, wreaking havoc with her electrokinetic abilities. Also, the movie has some good jump scares that from my experience I can say they are very effective.

I found "Reborn" to be an entertaining movie, but it gives the sensation that it could have been much more. It has interesting scenes and good jump scares, but the plot and character development are too superficial. It makes enough merits to make it worth a watch, but I don't think it will get to captivate a large audience.

"Reborn" will be available on September 17, 2019 on video-on-demand in the United States.