REBORN (2018)

 

(Director: Julian Richards. Screenwriter: Michael Mahin.)

Review

A stillborn child comes back to life in the morgue via a strange burst of electricity and is adopted by a morgue attendant (Ken Stern, played by Chaz Bono) who keeps her as his prisoner “sister.” Sixteen years later, that child, Tess (Kayleigh Gilbert) electrokinetically flips out on her female corpse-photographing captor and seeks out her birth mother.

Meanwhile, Lena O’Neill (Barbara Crampton, JAKOB'S WIFE, 2021), a middle-aged, Los Angeles actress in a career dry spell, has been having nightmares about her stillborn, sixteen-years-prior daughter. Lena tries tracking down where her daughter’s burial plot. Eventually Tess, now a murderer, and Lena meet and bond─with more tragic results. Also caught up in this craziness is the no-nonsense Detective Marc Fox (Michael Paré, BLOODRAYNE, 2005) and Lena's therapist, Dory Ryder (Rae Dawn Chong, TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE, 1990).

REBORN, with its tight screenplay and editing, relatively upbeat tone, largely stellar cast, effective cinematography and sets, is a solid B-movie that does what it sets out to do: entertain, with familiar-genre elements, a refreshing and character-centric twist, and creative death scenes.

This solid, brisk-paced, and modest B-flick is not earth-shattering, but it’s worth watching, especially if you’re a fan of its leads.