Leofwine_draca A ridiculous, flawed possession film dealing with a demonic baby who happily kills anyone around him. The main inspiration here comes from two films; THE EXORCIST and ROSEMARY'S BABY. Instead of slowly building an atmosphere of subtle suspense and terror, though, I DON'T WANT TO BE BORN opts for exploitation and cheap, shoddy, tepid thrills which aren't really worth the film they're imprinted upon. The material is stretched out over the ninety minutes running time, there are long shots of people walking around for no reason to make it last longer. Perhaps it if was shorter it would have been better but at this length it's tiring.With a good cast this film deserved to be better than it was, but director Peter Sasdy, who has done well in the past, just doesn't pull it off. The characters are all two dimensional, we don't feel anything for any of them. Ralph Bates has an Italian accent, but it keeps on slipping back to British in just one of the film's many flaws. Joan Collins adds some heavyweight power to the film but she isn't enough to make it any good. Donald Pleasance doesn't really have much to do while Caroline Munro is simply thrown in for some cheap glamour.In some ways the film is distasteful, too - the dwarf being the evil one behind it all (dwarves being a standard ploy to draw in the crowds. THE MUTATIONS, made in 1974, at least treated them sensibly). The box proclaims "Great horror with a high death rate." And four people get killed. Can we say hyperbole? For a much better killer baby film check out Larry Cohen's IT'S ALIVE. We do get to see a lot of the '70s though, meaning this film is badly dated, which can be a plus or a minus depending on whether you like that sort of thing. Also the sheer badness adds a sense of awe to things but any way you look at it, this film was dead on arrival.

rdoyle29 Joan Collins and Ralph Bates (playing Italian ... with a thick accent) have a monstrously big baby that misbehaves violently ... biting Collins in the face when they are still in the hospital, throwing stuff around his nursery, etc. 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. The devil may also be involved somehow ... I don't know. 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. For a while I did, as I let the sleazy craziness wash over me and studiously ignored the shoddy awfulness of the whole thing. Sadly, I could not continue turning a blind eye to just how bloody awful this is. When the baby apparently jumps into a tree, ties a rope into a noose and hangs Bates to death ... no, just ... no. Hilary Mason, the blind sister from "Don't Look Now" is also present ... so much potential wasted.

Seb 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. It's really bizarre, I think it's supposed to be erotic but it looks like she is having some kind of slow-motion embolism. 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. She promptly has a baby that has unusual powers. Oooer, spooky - you'd imagine they might give it demonic powers or something but no, it has sharp nails.Time and time again we see actors stagger back from its cot screaming "it scratched me, with its sharp nails" - cue closeup to harmless baby without sharp finger nails.This atrocious plot goes nowhere and throughout it all there's a soundtrack of a baby crying, for goodness sake. What were they thinking of? It's impossible to watch this movie without getting a blinding headache. 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. A final special mention to Caroline Monroe who plays her friend, her acting is so bad that I genuinely thought at first that her wild overacting and astonishingly funny dubbing was part of the plot and that she'd been possessed or something. You can see why they had to rename it about 50 times, I pity the person who was tricked into seeing this film twice.

lost-in-limbo An ex-stripper who has now settled down with her husband gives birth to an uncontrollable, monster of a baby that's growing bigger and stronger everyday. This puts a lot stress on the mother and father, as strange occurrences and violent actions are caused by this baby. 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. Most times it looks clueless, but that's just ploy to surprise it's victims with it's amazing abilities! Your probably bemused in what I've written so far, but that's how you're going to feel when watching this quite silly, out-of-control baby horror flick. But that's the best way to take this rib-tickling, exploitation mess. The serious temperament that's laid out doesn't do the aimless structure much favours and makes it even more unintentionally funny. As you won't be on the edge of the seat for this one, but you'll be cracking up at how poor it is, or maybe you'll be out like a light in your cosy chair. It can go either way. For me I found it poor, but kind of entertaining in certain purple patches. Although, it can be quite drawn out and you can call the disappointing ending rather anti-climatic.The odd mixture found in this English horror is easily influenced by such films in the period like "Rosemary's Baby" and "It's Alive!". The groovy 70s holds a psychedelic awe here, especially with its snazzy and quite jerky music score. The pizazz of the bold score is just relentless! The empty story is simply a gallery of routine nasty shocks and not much else eventuates in this dismal vassal. Even the careless direction twaddles along with many shabby touches and the dour looking background of London paints an sordid product. But still in patches in delivered one or two eerily, hasty scenes involving a graphic decapitation and trippy dream sequence. There's also some scenes involving women being in the buff, because of the main character's ex-occupation. But more often you'll be waiting for something different to happen and the constant flashes of the dwarf's face on the baby when it's chucking a hissy fit and knocking off the unexpected victims it's just far from menacing. Ha.. Ha! Now that's more like it. Well that's what any sane person would do because you'll be struggling not to find this whole concept to be simply droll. This violent, tantrum wielding baby just strikes the fear in the hearts of people… that's if you can't stand cute looking babies, or (oh no, how terrifying) parenthood.The performances by a decent looking cast are pretty much middling stuff. It's suspiciously campy with many awkward and REALLY repetitive lines of dialogues. No one entirely looks that comfortable with the farcical material. There's a special guest appearance by Donald Pleasence who gives a collected performance as Dr. Finch. An over-the-top Joan Collins does her best (yep, she tries real hard) in the emotionally, wayward lead role of Lucy Carlesi. Ralph Bates is dead as wood as the husband Gino Carlesi. Eileen Atkins plays the concerned Sister Albana. Caroline Munro has a small part as Lucy's friend. John Steiner is fitting as the sleazy ex-boss / boyfriend and Hilary Mason as the disgruntled housekeeper.Horribly poor and it's lulls about in spots, but there are certain aspects within the film that makes it watchable.