I saw something that took control of my attention and spread through my brain like a disease. The horror thriller Birth/Rebirth is the feature film debut from director and co-screenwriter Laura Moss, and after watching this debut, I'm excited (and nervous) to see what she brings next.
Birth/Rebirth started at Sundance in 2023 and had a limited release in September of last year. But limited releases are frustrating since they're not accessible for movie lovers outside big cities. Thank goodness this film was released on Hulu May 17, because that's how I watched it.
When a nurse working in a hospital (Judy Reyes, Smile, 2022) finds out her 6-year-old daughter contracts meningitis, she crosses paths with a gruff pathologist from the morgue (Marin Ireland, Eileen, 2023) to try tracking down her daughter's missing body. This determined nurse eventually finds her daughter, but not exactly in the healthiest condition. Birth/Rebirth is a confidently dark and oddly calm horror film about the dangerous side of grief paired with the regenerative medicinal power of stem cells.
This film is also rich with the physical and psychological terrors of motherhood on a gruesome display I haven't seen with such morbid believability since the 1986 masterpiece Aliens. The horror films Alien (1979) and Rosemary's Baby (1968) are also in the same thematic family. And even though the 2021 Hulu release False Positive is not a great success, it also explores some themes similar to Birth/Rebirth.
Oxygen masks, internal organs, and bloody hospital gloves make Birth/Rebirth feel like a modern mix of Frankenstein (1931 and 1994) and Flatliners (1990), pushing the boundaries of life and death into unknown spooky territory. The sense of unease and mounting crisis is under such a measured control throughout this film. It doesn't have any jump scares or moments of gory violence (no one is murdered or stabbed), but its long-suffering story development will slowly push viewers backward into their seats in a hopeless attempt to feel a sense of comfort and safety.
A pathologist from Stanford university was hired to work as a medical advisor on this film, which partly helps Birth/Rebirth feel so realistic. It doesn't have a visual style that is over the top like you would see in a Tim Burton film (Alice in Wonderland, 2010) or a Wes Anderson film (Asteroid City, 2023), and that helps keep the strange ideas and nefarious performances more grounded in the real world.
The prosthetic special effects and make-up look grisly and flawless, but the themes of this one will make viewers think twice about childbirth and what a mother must sacrifice. The lengths this main character goes through to protect her daughter can easily strike a chord with some viewers as multiple states pass laws governing the rules of women's bodies and their babies.
Please watch this film. It will shock you and make you think.
