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Unborn, The
Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 55 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Horror | Suspense/Thriller
Written by: David S. Goyer
Directed by: David S. Goyer
Release Date:
Theatrical: January 9, 2009
Running Time: minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and terror, disturbing images, thematic material and language including some sexual references
Starring Odette Yustman, Gary Oldman, Cam Gigandet, Meagan Good, Carla Gugino, Jane Alexander, Idris Elba, and Rhys Coiro
Casey Bell hated her mother for leaving her as a child. But when inexplicable things start to happen, Casey begins to understand why she left. Plagued by merciless dreams and a tortured ghost that haunts her waking hours, she must turn to the only spiritual advisor, Sendak, who can make it stop. With Sendak's help, Casey uncovers the source of a family curse dating back to Nazi Germany—a creature with the ability to inhabit anyone or anything that is getting stronger with each possession. With the curse unleashed, her only chance at survival is to shut a doorway from beyond our world that has been pried open by someone who was never born. (Universal Pictures)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Clark Collis
Indeed, Goyer has penned many scripts superior to this one (he co-wrote cult gem Dark City), but he does make sure you're never far away from a big "Boo!"
Read Full Review >TV Guide Jason Buchanan
What more could a horror fan ask for than a spook-fest that feels pure in its intentions while taking full advantage of every opportunity to scare us silly?
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
I enjoyed the visual effects used to create some hellish creatures and the amusing nods to "The Exorcist" - cranial rotation, even a spooky staircase. But the movie slips in the last act.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Nick Pinkerton
For as long as it forges ahead without explanations, The Unborn works, in its way, as a series of snap-cut gotchas introducing each new contestant in its pageant of cold-sweat set pieces.
Read Full Review >Variety Peter Debruge
Whereas Japanese horror movies have been criticized for not making sense, The Unborn errs on the opposite extreme, coming off all the more ridiculous for over-explaining itself.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
What "The Exorcist" might look like if Madonna rewrote it, this silly fright flick finds college student Casey (Odette Yustman) haunted by a Kabbalistic demon.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
This material is offensive. The film may end with a straight-faced reassurance that "no actual Torah scrolls were destroyed or damaged in the making of this motion picture," but it's perfectly willing to exploit the Holocaust for cheap, weak thrills.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Glenn Whipp
Mostly, though, the movie is something of a snooze, a gabby PG-13 horror flick whose most shocking image might be the bored look on Gary Oldman's face as he goes through the motions of playing the rabbi in charge of dispatching the film's damnable demon to somewhere over hell's rainbow.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
The film teeters so perilously and routinely at the edge of camp, both with some of its casting choices and some unfortunate dialogue (the repeated warning that "Jumby wants to be born now"), that it's hard to know if Mr. Goyer wants to make us howl with fear or laughter.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
What finally undoes the struggle to maintain suspense is Goyer's dialogue, which is consistently hokey.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
What darkness the movie achieves comes solely from the lighting.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Maybe approaching The Unborn as horror is the wrong approach. Perhaps this should be seen as a comedy. It is quite possibly the most egregiously laughable high-profile supernatural tale since Roman Polanski and Johnny Depp impaled themselves on "The Ninth Gate."
Read Full Review >Film Threat Michael Ferraro
This is the sort of film that fails on every single aspect it aims for.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Calling The Unborn a dull, plodding, exposition-crammed slog through a twilight of barely maintained tedium is like calling "Valkyrie" a yawn. It's too easy.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
The Unborn joins a growing glut of Holocaust- and Nazi-themed material -- "Valkyrie," "Defiance" - that are long on posturing, suppositions, and righteousness, yet short on moral complexity. Nazism and its crimes have lately inspired theme parks more than actual movies. Too many rides on that roller coaster and I feel sick.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.0 (out of 10) based on 55 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Tony A gave it a2:
Just another horrible horror flick with little to like. Avoid!!!
Wojciech M gave it a9:
I'm really astound by the negative reception of this movie. I found it one of the most solid and meaningful horror pictures of the decade. Yes, you've heard me - meaningful. It's one of the few movies that shows the actual folklore vision of the world. Not the standard western, judeo-christian civilization, XX/XXI century view, but the actual beliefs of our ancestors, who had their good reasons to be afraid of the darkness. "Dybuk" is a important part of lore and almost nothing in the movie contradicts that lore. There were things behind the veil of reality that people believed, that made Nazis pale in comparison. They were murderers, soulless sadists and monsters, yes, but yet - they were mundane. The one thing that bugged me about "The Unborn" was the exorcism scene. It felt like someone imposed on the director to make an action scene... Apart from that, there's not a single thing about the whole movie that would contradict the folklore or the beliefs of the spiritualists. It's so strange, that movies based on a bit more exotic folklore - like Japanese for instance - are far more acclaimed than the movie based on Jewish lore.
Lauren s gave it a1:
DId you know that most of the time, the titles alone either make the movie appear to be "Good" or "Horrible." Well, the Unborn, no surpise, is not the biggest bomb of all time, but i think a Razzie should be in favor of this poorly recieved, awful downright stupid movie. Wny? Well, i don't know, horror movies, some of them today, are so meaningless it seems, {i love Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd} and this is like a sequel to the Exorcist. Only, this time, it wasn't scary in the effects, and people just got bored watching it. For one thing, having a dead "baby" brother haunt you, is so unrealistic, and if it's horror, isn't it suppose to scare us? It's more likely to scare us to NOT see these low budget sleepers, with that said, don't waste your time.
Em T gave it an8:
LOVED IT!! Scared me senseless and that is exactly what it is meant to do. If you love a good horror and something to jump into the person's lap next to you in the theater, this is perfect!
Chad S gave it a1:
The title is misleading. "The Unborn" plays like a Mel Brooks parody of William Friedkin's "The Exorcist". It's not some revenge film about a fetus with an axe to grind as the title suggests. So be prepared. Akin to Bryan Singer's "The X-Men", the filmmaker uses Auschwitz as the setting for an inappropriate, and downright bizarre foray into science fiction. So be prepared for the portrayal of Josef Mengele's experiments on children, while a concentration camp survivor tells the origin story of Casey's demon. Talk about your dialectical quagmires, in the same film where the heroine is haunted, but finds the time to look hot in her underwear while being haunted, there are dead Jewish children on slabs in the morgue. A Dybbuk reanimates the holocaust survivor's twin brother, as if this gathering of twins slated for death didn't already have enough on their plates: dye in the eyes, vivisection, castration, and now, a murderous Hebrew spirit named Jambi. "The Unborn" is offensive in this respect: for Casey's grandmother Sofi(Jane Alexander), the surviving twin, her testimony about the war discloses an entity native to her heritage as haunting her more than the Germans. The Auschwitz experience becomes somewhat trivialized, made idiosyncratic by this alternate history. Juxtaposed against the paranormal, Mengele, and the Nazis, are almost beside the point. Casey(Odette Yustman), by all appearances, is a gentile at the outset of "The Unborn", but during the course of the film, she gets in touch with her past, while the past literally touches her. She's touched by a dybbuk.
Ryan P gave it a0:
I didn't care about the brunette or the token black character. I don't even remember if I caught their names. The dialogue set the movie up for 15 year old boys. The brunettes father was in the first part of the movie and then mysteriously disappeared. The movie has some Yiddish folklore and customs that were handled horribly. A Yiddish woman recited the modei ani in english for some reason. A rabbi is not wearing his kippah in synagogue. There was a Hebrew/Arabic/elvish? book, though the book was designed to read left to right, even though semetic languages are read right to left. Why Gary Oldman!?! Why?! you are Commissioner Gordon! Bad movie. Epic Fail!
King tut gave it a1:
I would like to note that i went to This movie with low expections and was very dissipointed. this movie seams to be a direct ripoff of the grudges scare tactics. essentially this is the most generic of generic horror flicks. I sincerely hope that michel bay does better on friday the 13 his next horror outing.
