I DON’T WANT TO BE BORN (MONSTER/ THE DEVIL INSIDE HER)
UK, 1975, 95 minutes, Colour.
Joan Collins, Eileen Atkins, Ralph Bates, Donald Pleasence, Caroline Munro, John Steiner, George Claydon.
Directed by Peter Sasdy.
In the aftermath of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, there were a number of imitation films coming from Italy (House of Exorcism…). However, here is an English version, released the same year as The Omen.
The film was critically lambasted and has more than a touch of the ludicrous. Joan Collins, looking very glamorous, is a former stripper, married to an Italian, who has a difficult birth, a rather large child that she fears is cursed by a malevolent dwarf who worked with her at the strip club or is possibly the son of the manager of the club. Ralph Bates is her Italian husband. Even more unusual is Eileen Atkins as Bates’s sister, an Italian nun with a distinct pronunciation. However, she is the one who brings the drama to a close, actually praying an exorcism. Donald Pleasence is the doctor, John Steiner the manager of the club, Caroline Munro a friend who is a stripper, George Claydon the dwarf.
The film has overtones of Devil possession but is played for drama at first (not particularly convincing) and then for touches of horror, especially in nightmare sequences. The baby is aggressive, does seem to be possessed of something or other, is responsible for quite a number of deaths as well as attacks.
The film was directed by Peter Sasdy, a television director who made a number of horror films in the 70s including Taste the Blood of Dracula, Countess Dracula, Nothing but the Night.
1.The influence of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist? The B-budget imitations? This film in that tradition?
2.The title, the reference to the baby? The alternate title, Monster?
3.The authentic London settings, the scenes of the streets, buildings, realism? The club? The parks? The homes? The contrast with the suggestions of horror – and the style of the nightmare sequences? The atmospheric score (by Ron Grainer)?
4.The opening, the difficult birth, Lucy, Gino? Doctor Finch and his assisting? The nurse? Their reassuring Gino? Yet the scratch on the nurse, the suggestion of some violence?
5.Lucy and Gino, their marriage? Lucy and the flashbacks to her beginning, working in the club, dancing, stripping? Her relationship with Hercules, her memory of his advances, resisting them, his cursing her and her child? Her relationship with Tommy, especially at the party before the wedding? The confidences to Mandy?
6.Sister Albana, her arrival, her relationship with her brother? Friendship with Lucy? Helping with the baby?
7.The baby, the attacks, Lucy and her imagination? The babysitter and her face in the water? The nurse and her being pushed into the river? Mrs Hyde, the mouse, the horror?
8.Doctor Finch, the explanations, looking after Lucy? His being in the house, his death?
9.Gino, love for Lucy, his disappearance?
10.Lucy, trying to cope, going to see Tommy? Avoiding Hercules? Discussions with Mandy? Mrs Hyde? Her fears for the baby? Her nightmares and their violence?
11.Sister Albana, her religious background, the attempt at the baptism but the baby crying? Her looking after the baby? Her getting the book of prayer, the cross, praying the exorcism rite? Success?
12.Satisfying ingredients – or too ludicrous to be taken seriously?
