I DON'T WANT TO BE BORN T-SHIRT Joan Collins Faces a Nursery Nightmare in a Peculiarly British Slice of Seventies Horror A newborn child with impossible strength, a frightened mother haunted by an old curse and a nun increasingly convinced that something unholy has entered the family home: I Don’t Want to Be Born approaches the demonic-child cycle with all the lurid confidence of British horror in the mid-1970s. Released in 1975 and directed by Peter Sasdy, the film combines supernatural terror, domestic melodrama and exploitation cinema into a story that remains difficult to confuse with anything else. Joan Collins stars as Lucy Carlesi, a former nightclub dancer whose apparently healthy baby quickly begins behaving in disturbing and inexplicable ways. The child possesses unusual strength, reacts violently to those around him and appears capable of causing events far beyond the abilities of an ordinary infant. Lucy gradually connects these incidents to Hercules, a dwarf performer whose advances she rejected during her nightclub career. Before leaving her life, he placed a curse upon her firstborn child. "It’s evil... It’s horrific... It’s conceived by the devil!" The supporting cast gives the film a particularly recognisable British horror pedigree. Ralph Bates plays Lucy’s Italian husband, Gino, while Donald Pleasence appears as Dr Finch, the family physician attempting to find a rational explanation for the child’s condition. Eileen Atkins plays Gino’s sister Albana, a nun whose religious convictions lead her towards an interpretation that medicine cannot accommodate. Caroline Munro also appears as Lucy’s friend and former colleague, Mandy. Peter Sasdy had already established himself as an important director within British gothic cinema. His earlier work included Hammer’s Taste the Blood of Dracula, Countess Dracula and Hands of the Ripper. Those films displayed his interest in psychological disturbance, repression and characters trapped between respectable surroundings and violent impulses. I Don’t Want to Be Born transfers those concerns from Victorian gothic settings to contemporary London, replacing ancestral castles with modern flats, hospitals and suburban interiors. The film arrived during a period when cinema audiences had developed a considerable appetite for stories involving corrupted childhood and demonic possession. Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist and The Omen helped establish pregnancy, parenthood and childhood innocence as potent sources of horror. Sasdy’s film occupies the more eccentric end of that tradition. Its combination of religious imagery, family tension, medical uncertainty and sensational violence creates an atmosphere closer to British exploitation cinema than polished Hollywood supernatural horror. It has circulated under several titles, contributing to the film’s slightly elusive reputation. American audiences encountered it as The Devil Within Her, while Sharon’s Baby was also used in some territories despite the central child being named Nicholas. These alternate titles were typical of international exploitation distribution, where films were frequently renamed to emphasise whichever element seemed most marketable to local audiences. Much of the film’s appeal now lies in its collision of tones. Domestic scenes sit beside religious horror, moments of camp excess accompany genuine unease, and a highly committed cast treats increasingly extraordinary events with complete seriousness. Joan Collins gives Lucy a mixture of glamour, exhaustion and growing desperation, while Atkins supplies the story with its strongest sense of spiritual conviction. Pleasence, characteristically composed, provides a rational counterweight until rational explanations become increasingly difficult to sustain. I Don’t Want to Be Born remains a memorable example of the point at which traditional British horror met the harsher, stranger exploitation culture of the 1970s. It is excessive, unsettling and unmistakably of its era: a demonic-baby nightmare carried by an unusually distinguished cast and a director steeped in the final years of British gothic cinema. 💬 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs) What other titles was I Don’t Want to Be Born released under? The film was released in the United States as The Devil Within Her and has also circulated under the title Sharon’s Baby. Alternative titles were common for internationally distributed horror and exploitation films during the 1970s. Was I Don’t Want to Be Born a Hammer Horror film? No. Although director Peter Sasdy and actor Ralph Bates were strongly associated with Hammer Films, I Don’t Want to Be Born was not a Hammer production. Its cast, atmosphere and supernatural subject nevertheless give it clear connections to the British gothic tradition. Where was I Don’t Want to Be Born filmed? The production was filmed in and around London. Its recognisably British locations and contemporary interiors distinguish it from the period settings associated with many earlier Hammer and Amicus horror films.
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