Despite some massive flaws and a disappointing over-reliance on jump scares, The Unborn is comfortably the best entry yet from Platinum Dunes, Michael Bay’s previously remake-happy horror production outfit.
The Unborn (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:10
Fresh:2
Rotten:8
Average Rating:3.5/10
Consensus: David Goyer's Unborn is a tame genre effort with cheap thrills and scares that border on silliness.
Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for intense sequences of violence and terror, disturbing images, thematic material and language including some sexual references.
Runtime: 88 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:27-02-2009
Synopsis:
Sometimes the soul of a dead person has been so tainted with evil that it is denied entrance to heaven. It must endlessly wander the borderlands between worlds, desperately searching for a new body...
Sometimes the soul of a dead person has been so tainted with evil that it is denied entrance to heaven. It must endlessly wander the borderlands between worlds, desperately searching for a new body to inhabit.
And sometimes it actually succeeds.
Writer/director David Goyer (Blade: Trinity, The Invisible, Batman Begins) gives a terrifying glimpse into the life of the undead in The Unborn, a supernatural thriller that follows a young woman pulled into a world of nightmares when a demonic spirit haunts her and threatens everyone she loves.
Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman) 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 (Gary Oldman), 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. --© Rogue Pictures
Starring: Odette Yustman, Gary Oldman, Meagan Good, Idris Elba
Starring: Odette Yustman, Gary Oldman, Meagan Good, Idris Elba, Cam Gigandet, James Remar, Jane Alexander
Director: David Goyer
Director: David Goyer
Screenwriter: David Goyer
Producer: Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller
Composer: Ramin Djawadi
Studio: Rogue Arts
Reviews for The Unborn
Brazen in its borrowings and alternating between cynicism and silliness, this is a creatively barren effort that should have been stopped at conception.
It’s hard to imagine a more ham-fisted attempt at the genre of ‘womb horror’ than this flat-footed supernatural drama with a Jewish twist.
A scary movie so fantastically stupid and crass it made my skull contract and my sinuses harden to the consistency of pipe-cleaners.
Before long, the connective tissue between scares starts to call attention to its own preposterousness.
About the only thing here that will haunt your dreams is the film's final scene, which conveniently portends a sequel.
Laughable horror flick made from an unstable solution of Jewish mysticism, Nazi evil and an otherworldly demon.
The film teeters so perilously and routinely at the edge of camp, both with some of its casting choices and some unfortunate dialogue...that it's hard to know if Mr. Goyer wants to make us howl with fear or laughter.
Latest News for The Unborn
July 06, 2009:
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January 19, 2009:
Though some images are on the terrifying side, this mostly outlandish tale is riddled with homicidal tots, interdenominational exorcists, and attention deficit disorder dybuks who can't make up their mystical minds which body is cool enough to inhabit. ![]()
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January 09, 2009:
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January 08, 2009:
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