The Lamashtu was an invasive deity from ancient Mesopotamina who disrupted childbirth, stealing newborn children from their mothers. The goddess was the bloodsucker daughter of the Sky God Anu. Obviously, she needed a lot of company in the vast spaces of the sky, and she preferred her company to be young.

"Still/Born" approaches this mythological topic more from a clinical psychological perspective than as a mythical archetype. After Mary and Jack lose one of their babies, who is a stillborn, Mary comes to believe that her healthy baby Adam is also in danger of being gobbled up by the the voracious Lamashtu.

The main problem with the film is that it avoids examination of the mythical question and manipulates the viewer with the question of whether Mary is suffering from what the generic psychiatrist in the film calls "postpartum psychosis," or the loss of the woman's ability to discern reality after childbirth.

The flimsy plot did not deliver many chills, and the lead character Mary was helpless and pathetic in confronting the challenge of Lamashtu. The reason why successful horror films like "The Exorcist" work is that characters put up a battle against the paranormal and unseen forces of evil. In the case of "Still/Born," Mary is the quintessential victim.

Sadly, there were too many plot holes, such as the inexplicable escape of Mary from the psych ward and the puzzling ending that explains nothing about the true nature of Lamashtu. Overall, this was a direct-to-viewer film that added nothing new to the horror genre.

STILL/BORN is another example of the gloomy, predictable, tired feeling of most modern horror films, which are generic beyond belief like this one. The protagonist is a young mother, suffering from mental problems after one of her twins is still born. She soon becomes convinced that a supernatural spirit (the usual CGI spook) is after the surviving baby, but is she losing her mind? The real question is, who cares? With unappealing, underwritten characters, trite jump scares, an overlong running time and dearth of interesting incident, STILL/BORN is a good example of everything that's wrong with the modern horror flick.

This movie is awkward for so many reasons; teh female lead was annoying and her acting ability was severely limited, the story took a long time to get going, and the reasoning behind the events were half-baked at best and sophomoric at worst, and the lack of any serious scares really makes you wonder if the people responsible were actually setting out to make a horror film, or if they were making a drama and got caught up? It was just such an uneven mess in every possible regard, and I kept asking myself, what made this movie R-rated? Was it the excessive violence, of which there was none? Was it the nudity, of which there was none? Was it the graphic depictions of blood and gore, or which there were none? The salty language, which was tame compared to most cable networks? Nope. The sole reason this movie warranted an R-rating was for a 2 second scene where the mother looks into teh crib of her dead baby and sees a bloody mass of red blood soup with a fetus crawling around. You would have to pause the scene to really make out any details, but other than that, this movie is as teenage as it comes. It was written for and by teens, it seems, as there is nothing mature or even clever about it.

It could have been a Rosemary's Baby clone, and it would have fared better. Hell, if it was a Rumpelstiltskin film, it probably would have been tolerable. But there is no rhyme or reason to the events of this film other than, "Something wants my baby!". Please save your money, time and energy and skip this travesty of cinema. Don't make the same mistake I did.