First Born

When the dancer Laura (Elizabeth Shue) feels sick after a presentation, she finds that she is pregnant. Her husband and successful executive Steven (Steven Mackintosh) decides to buy a huge house in the suburb to raise their baby daughter Jessica in an adequate environment. Laura changes her lifestyle, feels nervous alone with the rats in the house and accidentally kills their dog with poison. Later Steven hires Mrs. Kasperian (Kathleen Chalfant) to help Laura in the housework and with the baby, but Laura believes the old woman wishes to harm Jessica using witchcraft. Laura has a breakdown, and when she recovers, her mother moves to her house to help her with the baby. During the night, Laura decides to get rid off a doll she found in the house changing their lives forever.

"First Born" is a weird and disturbing movie, and talking to some friends of mine I noted that this is the type of film extremely unpleasant for women. The beautiful Elizabeth Shue is thinner and has a good performance, but her character is not well developed, therefore it is not possible to know whether she is a mother with postpartum psychosis or simply a mad woman. I liked this film, but I do not dare to recommend it especially for potential mothers. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Filha das Sombras" ("Daughter of the Darkness")

Elisabeth Shue plays a dancer whose career is suddenly put hold when she becomes pregnant and upon delivery of the baby via cesarean section, things take a turn to a somewhat dark and often disorienting turn.

Shue's performance in First Born is fabulous and the ending was a twist that was somewhat expected, but still a bit of a shock. The camera is following Laura throughout the movie. we see only her perspective of how things play out which by the end, leaves you with many unanswered questions.

Overall, a very good film.

Reading the other comments, I certainly see why people say this movie is lame. It does drag on with seemingly no point and just when you think something big will happen... it doesn't. But you are able to tell that this movie was made like this on purpose. All though may not have been the best idea it has a real life feel to it. Its shown through the perspective of "Shue" the whole movie, a lot of unanswered questions and confusion left at the end is because she never had them answered.... and honestly all of the questions are answered if you pay close enough attention there is just no "WHY" but you can figure the "HOW" out. Her hallucinations and the way her mind goes downhill is believable and the way things weren't always what they seemed, which disappoints the movie fan in you, really portrays something that could happen in the real world. This movie is good because it gives you that eerie feeling of real life where as if it was laced with a bunch of special effects and corny situations made strictly for fear and not the story line, it would have been much worse in my opinion.

This must be one of Shue's worst yet, While watching the film I was intrigued by the sheer mystery of the film.

I had no idea or could have guessed what the outcome would be...

And then a truly awful ending which ruined what originally had me gripped.

I only voted four because of my original impression of the film(before Isaw the end) Avoid at all costs!!!!!

Story outline - A dancer (shue) finds she is pregnant, her husband , an up and coming businessman moves them out to a big house to raise their child away from the city, While battling her own depression the lonely house starts to eat away at her , causing a large amount of paranoia, or is it?

First Born is the exploration of the inner world of a woman suffering a postpartum psychosis. This "Yellow Wallpaper" story is definitely not a Lifetime Network sort of film--it's much darker and scarier. It's downright creepy in a very subtle and artful way. After all the gore and explosions of today's thriller genre it's refreshing to see something so subdued and inward while maintaining a such a high level of suspense and desperation.

Elizabeth Shue is a dancer (and yes, she really looks like a dancer) who is stuck in a huge, spacious and mostly empty house in the suburbs while her rich, emotionally disengaged husband works in the city and comes home late at night, leaving her alone during the days with her newborn. Already a bit obsessive-compulsive, she begins to crack up in a serious way. What follows is rendered with impeccable attention to detail and maximum emotional impact. It is a psychological study but at the same time beautifully rendered visually. "First Born" has no didactic ax to grind, no social message, no deus ex machina in the form of social workers or therapists; it's just a fun scary story for intelligent moviegoers.