Cuba Gooding, Jr.) Or Leaving
Las Vegas nominee Elisabeth Shue, for that matter. It’s the latter who
stars in this straight-to-video thriller from writer-director Isaac Webb, a moody
little indie-minded movie in the vein of Rosemary’s
Baby and The Others, with a pinch
of Repulsion thrown in for good
measure.

Using post-partum depression as its leaping off point (Shue
apparently got the script before Brooke Shields could), First Born trades in issues of slippery slope sanity that Hollywood
productions would revel in, turning the amp up to 11. In his narrative feature freshman
effort, though, Webb, while definitely aiming for goosing shock, doesn’t feel
the need to explicitly set up these jolts, or always play out their immediate consequences
to the most logical conclusion. The result is a movie of not insignificant atmosphere,
but one that also feels like a bit of an intellectual casserole, with leftover
ideas emptied from the refrigerator of Webb’s mind in willy-nilly fashion.

Shue stars as well-to-do housewife and former dancer Laura,
who has the quintessentially perfect life. Upon discovering that she’s
pregnant, Laura soon after moves to the suburbs with her husband Steven (Steven
Mackintosh). His long hours and emotional disengagement feed her burgeoning
sense of isolation, physically paralleled by their spacious but sparsely
decorated, secluded country home. When their baby is born, it quickly becomes
apparent that being a mother is more challenging than Laura first imagined, as
she gradually begins a downward slide into despair.

All sorts of strange crud starts happening, and Laura naturally
questions her own sanity. From a mouse-infested basement with a mysterious
diary found in its walls to a peculiar new nanny (Kathleen Chalfant) that Steven
insists on employing to assist his increasingly erratic wife, the red herrings
and head feints come at a fast and furious clip. Even if a fairly film-savvy audience member is able to mostly sort these out rather quickly, and thus “call” the film’s ending long before First Born crosses the finish line, there’s some low-fi pleasure to be taken from a film that invests more in its characters than its CGI budget, particularly if one is partial to and missing Shue (yes, pun intended). Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, First Born comes with an English language Dolby digital 5.1 audio track, and optional Spanish subtitles. C+ (Movie) C- (Disc)