I Don't Want to Be Born

Plot synopsis:
Lucy (Collins) is working as a dancer in a sleazy strip joint. Her stage act includes a routine with a dwarf named Hercules (George Claydon). One night after the show, she invites Hercules into her dressing-room for a drink. He declines the drink but starts to rub Lucy's neck and shoulders. Lucy feels uncomfortable but tries to pretend nothing is happening, until Hercules makes a sudden lunge for her breasts, causing her to scream out in shock. This alerts the stage manager Tommy (John Steiner), who rushes into the dressing-room and sends Hercules unceremoniously on his way, then proceeds to make love to Lucy. Later as Lucy leaves the club she is confronted by the spurned and humiliated Hercules, who curses her with the words "You will have a baby...a monster! An evil monster conceived inside your womb! As big as I am small and possessed by the devil himself!"
Months pass and Lucy has left her stripping days behind, having moved up in the world via marriage to the wealthy Italian Gino Carlesi (Bates) and now comfortably settled in a grand Kensington townhouse. Lucy goes into hospital to give birth to the baby she is expecting. It proves to be a protracted, dangerous and painful delivery as the baby is a hefty 12-pounder. The newborn infant is handed to Lucy, and seconds later she is sporting a slashed and bleeding cheek. "He scratched me! With his sharp nails!" she exclaims in horror to her obstetrician Dr. Finch (Pleasence), who calmly explains that the baby must have been alarmed at being held too tightly.
Lucy and Gino bring the baby home and are welcomed by their efficient, no-nonsense housekeeper Mrs. Hyde (Hilary Mason). Things get off to a bad start when Mrs. Hyde goes to chuck the baby's chin, only to regret it. "The little devil bit me!" she says as she displays her crushed finger. She takes an instant dislike to the child, and is later rewarded with a dead mouse in her cup of tea. Lucy's attempts at maternal bonding are fraught with problems. She is visited by her friend Mandy (Caroline Munro) and is voicing her concerns when they are interrupted by a series of crashings from upstairs. To their horror, they find the baby in his cot but the nursery practically demolished.
Gino's sister Albana (Atkins), a nun, arrives from her convent in Italy to visit her new nephew. Immediately aware that all is not well, she invites Gino to pray with her for the baby, which results in agonising screams from the nursery. Dr. Finch is consulted, and agrees to carry out a series of tests. Lucy meanwhile finds the burdens of motherhood too much to bear alone, and employs a nurse (Janet Key) to look after the baby. After a near-miss when the nurse's head is pulled underwater while bathing the baby, matters take a deadly turn when she takes him for a walk in the park. Reaching out from his pram, he pushes her with such force that she falls, cracks her head on a lakeside rock, falls unconscious into the water and is drowned.
Lucy pays a visit Tommy at the strip club. She intimates that, given the timing of the birth, there is a chance the baby could be his. "Just ’cause you’ve got some freaky offspring you wanna pin it on me?" he asks. However his curiosity is aroused and he asks to see the "spooky kid". Once at the house he leans over to peer into the baby's cot, only to reel back with a smashed and bloody nose for his trouble. This temporarily pushes the baby up in Lucy's estimation and she gazes lovingly at him, until the face in the cot turns into that of Hercules.
One evening Gino plans a romantic night-in to take Lucy's mind off her woes. At the end of a successful evening, he goes to check on the baby, only to find the nursery empty, the window open and odd noises coming from the garden. Going out to investigate, he looks up into a tree, whereupon a noose is thrust around his neck and he is hauled into the air and hanged. His body is stuffed down a drain. The following day Lucy criss-crosses London in a frenzy trying to find her missing husband. Dr. Finch is summoned and pays an evening call to check on the baby and the distraught Lucy. After administering a powerful sedative to Lucy, he too hears strange noises. He unwisely steps out into the garden, and is decapitated with a spade(while still standing up). The trail of death continues as Lucy stumbles through the house in a groggy haze, pleading for her life to no avail as she is stabbed through the heart with a pair of scissors.
Finally galvanised into action, Albana decides that she must perform an exorcism on the baby. Brandishing a crucifix at him and incanting in Latin, she bravely persists as the room shakes and the baby tears at her vestments. Meanwhile, at the strip club Hercules is on stage, and begins to stagger around in pain. Albana finally touches the crucifix to the baby's head, and his demons are cast out at the same time as Hercules falls over dead in front of a stunned audience.

Tags: paranormal, revenge

Review:
Joan Collins (?!) plays a woman (good show) who's given birth to an "evil" child, who spends the film apparently viciously assaulting people whilst those of the religious faith find it all terribly intriguing.
The scenes of the aforementioned child attacking people are usually quite laughable, usually comprising of somebody leaning close to it, recoiling in horror clutching their cheek and moaning "It bit me!", followed by a shot of a not particularly frightening little child looking frankly bewildered at the fact that he's in a film.
And then there's Pleasence with "I thought today was going to be normal routine, I didn't think I'd be discussing mysticism with an Italian nun." And then there's the laughably bad bits, including the rather shaky ground surrounding the "Midgets are evil" thing, the most unconvincing birth scene ever, in which Joan looks more as though she's being orally pleasured than having a child, and the gratuitous stripper scenes peppered about every so often which don't serve to do anything much at all ("Am I boring you?") In fact, various scenes of steamy romance and general sauciness seem to be chucked in just to give the film a higher rating - that's the only reason I can think of for a rather touching courting scene between Joan and blank-faced husband Ralph Bates (nice accent, Ralph) being followed up by the two of them having sweaty, fumbling sex whilst the melodious seedy music that we've been subjected to throughout the entire duration reaches a new low.
Good things about this picture:Joan Collins at the height of her sexiness (confusingly playing a stripper who only disrobes in the dressing room, not on stage).Caroline Munro, ditto (here 'amusingly' dubbed by Liz Fraser).Ralph Bates as an Italian (says "Scusi" a lot).Eileen Atkins, ditto ("He is possessed by a Day-ville").Donald Pleasance ('Nuff said).The appearance of Floella Benjamin as a nurse who helps deliver the possessed tyke.Interesting music score by 'Dr.Who/Steptoe and Son' man Ron Grainer (Hawaiian guitars, synths and assorted percussion!).John Steiner as a grinning Cocker-nee club owner who manages to bed both Joan and Caroline whilst exhibiting a mouthful of the most off-putting fangs this side of Austin Powers.Lots of lovely shots of London landmarks with Capris and Minis whizzing round 'em.'Shocking' flash-cuts of a scary dwarf in a crib.Mr. Pleasance charming Eileen by demonstrating his bedside manner.A complete lack of any 'subtext' whatsoever.Bad thing: It only last 90 minutes..
Joan Collins is an ex-stripper who is cursed by a horny dwalf (little people are in league with the devil presumably) and goes on to have a baby with her Italian husband.
Unless seeing Joan Collins groped by a dwalf is high on your must-see list then this film offers nothing other than a headache and a laugh at some totally inept scripting and a nun with all the Italian authenticity of the Mario brothers..
I DON'T WANT TO BE BORN (USA: The Devil Within Her) Aspect ratio: 1.85:1Sound format: MonoA nightclub stripper (Joan Collins) is cursed by a dwarf (George Claydon) whose attentions she spurned, and she later gives birth to a murderous baby possessed by a demonic spirit.Clearly inspired by the contemporary vogue for satanic shockers, this slapdash concoction - memorably dismissed by UK journalist Nigel Burrell as a 'crapulous farrago'!
Here, his contempt for the material is obvious in the weak storyline, feeble horror scenes and lackluster staging, and his concessions to the exploitation marketplace (strippers at work, a gory decapitation, etc.) are shoehorned into proceedings with reckless abandon.Quite apart from its ridiculous premise (unlike the mutant creature in Larry Cohen's similarly-styled IT'S ALIVE, sweet little babies simply aren't frightening, no matter how much filmmakers try to make them seem otherwise!), the movie is further stymied by indifferent performances and half-baked characterizations: Collins runs the gamut from A to B and back again, Donald Pleasence provides little more than marquee value as Collins' doctor, and Ralph Bates (playing the heroine's husband) is a blank slate throughout.
Hilary Mason - the blind lady in DON'T LOOK NOW (1973) - plays the wary housekeeper, and Eileen Atkins is Bates' sister, a nun who performs the commercially-dictated climactic exorcism.
How can you not love Joan Collins as the new mom of a baby boy possessed by the demonic spirit of a dancing dwarf?
A really bad basic idea, for starters, handling about Joan Collins giving birth to an (unusually big) baby possessed by evil and controlled by a dwarf Collins once spurned.
It's funny how Joan Collins has obtained a certain amount of respectability after having starred in MANY terrible films, such as The Bitch, Empire of the Ants and I Don't Want to Be Born.
Also, the film is relatively bloodless until the last 15 minutes which throws in a couple of nice gory murders--but it's too little too late.All that's left about this movie is some very good acting and a VERY cute-looking baby.
The script is abysmal with a vigilante nun and sundry other characters screaming " He's tha DEV-ILL " at every opportunity , some really crap acting with Ralph Bates playing an Italian with a Yiddish accent , and some dire directing with a dwarf lying in a pram .
Poor old Ralph Bates looks miserable in this movie and it's not hard to see why, it really stinks.Joan Collins plays a stripper and proves she dances as well as she acts.
Correctly deciding that she isn't cut out for being a stripper she leaves to marry her Italian lover played with a comedy accent by long-suffering Ralph.Before she goes though she gets cursed by a dwarf who she spurns.
It's almost worth it to hear Ralph Bates trying to be Italian though, it really is the worst accent I've ever heard in a movie.Dreadful from start to finish and with a supporting cast that are just ludicrous thrown in for good measure.
But then it's back to the ludicrous action with a demented dwarf, a cute but killer baby, sexy Joan Collins, Donald Pleasance maintaining his dignity, sexy but dubbed Caroline Munro, Ralph Bates with a pidgeon Italian accent, and best of all, Eileen Atkins intoning for the ages, "Your beh-bee az been pozessed by dee day-ville." This film should be a prescription for clinical depression.
Collins, a former stripper, tells her stripper friend Caroline Munro (who sadly does not strip in this film), how a midget whose sexual advances she spurned cursed her to have a monster baby.
With this crazy plot, a cast that also includes Donald Pleasence as Collins' doctor and John Steiner as a strip club owner, and a director who made a couple of smashing Hammer films, I really wanted to like this film.
Starring Joan Collins, Ralph Bates, Donald Pleasence and Eileen Atkins.
Sex, scandal, strippers and more mix in this unintentionally funny horror flick that's an absolute must for people who treasure bad genre movies.This one is in the vein of "Rosemary's Baby" and "It's Alive".
Collins does a remarkably sincere job, and is well supported by Ralph Bates, as her husband Gino, Donald Pleasence, as Dr. Finch, Caroline Munro as her sister Mandy, Eileen Atkins, as her sister-in-law Albana, Hilary Mason, as the grumpy Mrs. Hyde, John Steiner, as sleazy Tommy Morris, and George Claydon, as malevolent dwarf Hercules.
As Lucy,Joan Collins, is giving birth at the beginning of the movie to her son Nicholas Dr. Finch, Donald Pleasence, who is handling the delivery turns to one of the nurses and says in astonishment " He doesn't want to be born!".
Pretty good Exorcist/Rosemary's Baby clone with a much better cast then you would expect in a movie like this.I don't know if it was supposed to be some kind of in-joke by those making the movie or that she just couldn't pronounce the words correctly but it was really hilarious to hear Eileen Atkins, Sister Albana, who was Lucie's sister-in-law as well as the heroine in the film pronounce the words devil and baby sounding like davel and bibbie..
Story is about a woman named Lucy Carlesi (Joan Collins) who has a difficult birth to a boy and even Dr. Finch (Donald Pleasence) exclaims that "This baby doesn't want to be born".
Gino's sister is a nun named Sister Albana (Eileen Atkins) and she has a suspicion that her nephew is possessed by the devil but she keeps it quiet until its too late.This film was directed by Peter Sasdy who directed some pretty good Hammer films and made an impact as a reliable television director as well.
Sexy Caroline Munro is in the film and serves no purpose what so ever and Donald Pleasence has a very easy role where he mumbles things about everything being okay and in one scene he appears to flirt with Sister Albana!
The Devil Within Her (1975)* (out of 4)Lucy (Joan Collins) and her husband Gino (Ralph Bates) welcome a new baby boy but right from the start they can tell there's something not quite right with him.
Their doctor (Donald Pleasence) isn't sure what's the cause of his super strength and violent outbursts but before long Lucy fears it might have something to do with the dwarf that put a curse on her.THE DEVIL WITHIN HER was the AIP title given to this film, which was originally made as I DON'T WANT TO BE BORN.
Making the mother believe that the baby is possessed by the devil, which a dwarf she used to work with - had cursed this evil spawn onto her.This newborn has the strength of a thousand man, although looking at it; it probably doesn't know that.
Combination "Rosemary's Baby"/"The Exorcist"/"It's Alive" rubbish from the UK, released there as "I Don't Want To Be Born", is an absolutely ridiculous occult thriller without one single redeeming attribute (apart from the camp factor, as well as a devilish dwarf who pops up dressed like a court jester).
Since the film utilizes the services of several Hammer veterans (Sasdy, Joan Collins, Ralph Bates, Caroline Munro), it can be mistaken for one of their productions; genre regulars Donald Pleasence and John Steiner (in a rare appearance in a non-Italian film) are also featured but the acting honors are stolen from 'newcomer' Eileen Atkins (as the exorcising nun!).
The seedy atmosphere of British night-life is well-captured as Collins – playing an ex-stripper who marries Italian businessman Bates(!) – is cursed when she rejects the sexual advances of the dwarf who performs with her in the cabaret shows!!; frankly, it was quite disappointing to find that it was his evil spirit that possessed Collins' child as opposed to Satan (or one of his minions)...especially since the sinful dwarf is still alive at the time!
It was a nice surprise to see Donald Pleasance as the Doctor.This could actually be re-done and made quiet scary given a good director and better actors.It's definitely worth a late night watch on cable.There was a lot of nudity (including Joan Collins) and bad wigs throughout.
Sure enough, nine months after her marriage to Italian businessman Gino Carlesi (Ralph Bates), Lucy becomes the frightened mother of a 12lb terror called Nicholas, who proceeds to menace those around him.Let's be honest, if the man delivering your baby is creepy horror legend Donald Pleasance, something sinister is bound to happen, and it sure does for Mr & Mrs Carlesi: their new arrival wrecks his nursery, bumps off his nurse, and then sets his wicked sights on parents and doctor.
And, yes, this British cross between The Exorcist and It's Alive is as hilariously bad as it sounds, director Peter Sasdy bringing us one uproariously daft moment after another, making it a delight for fans of bad movies.Here's a quick rundown of some of the treats in store for viewers of this trash:Play School's Floella Benjamin as a nurse in the hilarious opening scene in which it looks like Collins is having an orgasm, not a baby.Bates' terrible Italian accent, which incredibly, is still better than that of Eileen Atkins, who plays his sister, Sister Albana ("Lucy believes that baby is possessed by the day-vil").Some lousy parallel parking by Gino and strip club manager Tommy (John Steiner).The attempted drowning of the nurse in the bath and her eventual demise in a lake.The wide eyed gurgling baby transforming into the evil dwarf before Lucy's very eyes (poor George Claydon wearing a yellow baby-grow and grinning maniacally).Grumpy housekeeper Mrs. Hyde (Hilary Mason) finding a dead mouse in her cup of tea.The baby snickering like cartoon dog Muttley before dropping a noose around Gino's neck (hey, the kid can tie knots as well-not bad for a newborn).Tommy getting a bunch of fives in the face from the baby.Nicky lopping off Donald Pleasance's head with a spade.And as if that wasn't enough to keep you entertained, we also get a considerable amount of T&A to help pass the time, with brief flashes of boobs and butt from Joan (who also sports sexy underwear), Hammer babe Caroline Munro in a basque, stockings and suspenders, and full frontal from a stripper auditioning for sleazebag Tommy.7/10.
Yet here it is - screaming in your face, full of bad accents and horrible sex scenes, so earnest that it makes you want to believe that you can't help but hold it tight and tell it that yes, everything will be OK.Directed by Peter Sasdy, who also brought us Taste the Blood of Dracula, the Ingrid Pitt starring Countess Dracula, Hands of the Ripper, Welcome to Blood City and, of course, The Lonely Lady, this is probably the only film you'll ever witness where Joan Collins and a little person engage in occult warfare.Lucy (the lovely Ms. Collins) is a dancer and not the kind that does modern or ballet.
As big as I am small and possessed by the devil himself!"If you didn't say, "Holy William Peter Blatty, I am all in," after the above paragraph, you have no soul and no sense of what makes a horrible movie worth watching.Months pass and Lucy has given up the exotic dancing lifestyle, settling down with wealthy Gino (Ralph Bates, The Horror of Frankenstein and Lust for a Vampire), who has set her up in a fancy townhouse.
Tell that to housekeeper Mrs. Hyde (Hilary Mason, Don't Look Now and Dolls) when the baby almost bites off her finger!The baby just won't get along with anyone, a fact that Lucy relates to her galpal Mandy (Caroline Munro, livening up the proceedings) and Gino's sister Albana (Eileen Atkins, a British stage star who deserves way better), a nun.
A popular (or at least ubiquitous) title on home video, The Devil Within Her (also known as I Don't Want to Be Born and, less commonly, Sharon's Baby) stars Joan Collins as Lucy, a new mother who soon discovers that her sprog isnot normal.
Considering the film was directed by Peter Sasdy (also responsible for superior Hammer chiller Hands of the Ripper, as well as sci-fi classic Doomwatch), this should be a better film than it actually is, but with Collins headlining and Ralph Bates, Caroline Munro, and Donald Pleasence co-starring, horror fans will still want to scope it out.
It kicks off with Lucy (Joan Collins) sweating and rolling her eyes as she gives birth to a baby that, as Donald Pleasance mumbles in his usual coasting fashion, doesn't want to be born.
Add endless travelogue footage of London shopping streets, a little gratuitous T&A in the strip club, Caroline Munro, plenty of absent-minded mumbling from Donald Pleasance and ***ARGUABLY A SPOILER*** a shot of Ralph Bates with green make-up and rolled-back eyes wearing a nun's habit and you have a film every bit as compelling as, say, Tower of Evil.
Joan Collins, a nun, a dwarf, and a very angry baby....
Joan Collins (as Lucy) is an erotic dancer who rebuffs the advances of her dwarf co-star and is cursed to have the Devil's baby.
There's a lot scratched faces, a lot of shrieking music that promises more scares than the movie delivers, a lot of bad car parking by Ralph Bates, a nun played by the great Elieen Atkins, and a poorly utilized Donald Pleasence.
Lying uncomfortably between barely watchable and so-bad-it's-good comes The Monster aka I Don't Want To Be Born aka The Devil Within Her. A British rip-off of Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist and many others.
This has a good cast with (a still looking good at 42) Joan Collins, Ralph Bates, Donald Pleasance and horror-eye-candy stalwart Caroline Munro.
Collins plays an ex-stripper, now married to Italian Ralph Bates and the film starts with Collins going through a difficult child birth, or so we're meant to think.
Anyway Ralph Bates' nun sister arrives, sporting silly accent and working at an animal testing laboratory (!), and thinks Collins' suspicions of possession is probably right.
"I Don't Want to Be Born" (aka "The Devil Within Her"), clearly shows the influence of "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist", although the film to which it bears the greatest resemblance, in terms of its story, is "The Omen".
The said dwarf is employed by the nightclub to prance around on stage while the girls are performing, although it is never explained why the club owner assumed that this bizarre diversion would increase the erotic allure of their performances.Although the film contains some well-known British actors of the period, including Donald Pleasence, Eileen Atkins, Caroline Munro and Ralph Bates, none of them bring much conviction to their roles.
I don't want to born opens in a hospital delivery room where mum to be Lucy Carlesi (Joan Collins) is giving birth.
Add Ginos sister, a nun from Italy sister Albana (Eileen Atkins), extremely worried babysitters, Dr Finch constantly trying to explain the baby's problems through medical reasoning, bizarre deaths, an exorcism and we have the mid 70's horror I don't want to be born!