The script tries hard to delve into the folklore of a dybbuk, and as it mixes this in with experiments on twins in concentration camps during WW2, the story becomes too convoluted for its own good.
Comment
02/27/09
The Unborn (2009)
12
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:103
Fresh:12
Rotten:91
Average Rating:3.2/10
Consensus: David Goyer's Unborn is a tame genre effort with cheap thrills and scares that border on silliness.
Australian Theatrical Release:
Feb 26, 2009 Wide
US Box Office: $42,638,165
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... [More]
Starring: Odette Yustman, Gary Oldman, Meagan Good, Idris Elba
Director: David Goyer
Reviews for The Unborn
Top CriticOdette Yustman, indeed all the cast, deserve a better fate than to be sucked into this misguided attempt at horror
02/23/09
Top CriticDespite some gruesome special effects, the telling of this story is so prosaic and predictable that genuine thrills are in very short supply.
02/27/09
Top CriticSome of the ideas here may seem original, if questionable, but the treatment -- by writer-director David Goyer -- is strictly conventional, with the shock moments obviously inserted at regular intervals, usually while the heroine is in her underwear.
03/06/09
Top CriticThe Unborn is one of those movies evidently conceived by digging a Dungeons & Dragons Fiend Folio out of storage to find, resurrect, and rebrand some long-forgotten bugaboo.
01/06/09
The Unborn is a baby-sitter horror flick (it's for and about them) with classic creep-out elements that unite in a surprisingly engrossing story.
01/09/09
Stillborn.
01/09/09
Well, there are some effective scares here, and you'll laugh at yourself afterward just for jumping and squealing like a little girl. But other images and pieces of dialogue are just as hilarious -- and that probably wasn't their intention.
01/07/09
has the psychological weight and perversity of a mildly racy episode of Touched by an Angel
01/08/09
Gary Oldman steals what there is to take from his few scenes, but a nonsensical B-movie like "The Unborn" is beneath is skills as an actor.
01/16/09
Possession tale is low on blood, but high on scares.
01/09/09
Somewhere Sigmund Freud is trying to figure out how he can come back from the dead just so he can analyze The Unborn! ...Crazy fun.
01/09/09
The Unborn is a mishmash of half-formed ideas more asinine and exploitative than frightening. At least the title is accurate; this junk is stillborn all the way.
01/08/09
Unsatisfying, hokey and never that scary (unless you’re the type who jumps at every loud noise or sudden appearance in this sort of movie), The Unborn outstays even its brief lifespan.
03/03/09
Something arresting happens with The Unborn, attired in its generic, hand-me-down title. It actually scares you.
01/07/09
If the films released during the traditional January dumping ground are going to be this bad, we should employ the nation's best scientists to rearrange Earth's orbit so the year begins in February.
01/08/09
Filmed in Chicago but universal in its lameness...The Unborn is the story of a dybbuk who makes trouble for the skinny North Shore college girl played by Odette Yustman, who's always out jogging when she should be considering a sandwich.
01/09/09
The year is only a week old and already the cinema gods have bestowed upon us a candidate for most awesome catchword of the year: Jumby!
01/08/09
This supernatural horror is nonsense on toast.
02/27/09
Top CriticClick to read the article
02/27/09
Top CriticLatest News for The Unborn
July 06, 2009:
RT on DVD: Knowing, Push, The Unborn Unleashed
It's a genre lover's feast this week on DVD, but don't say we didn't warn you about those pesky rotten Tomatometers. First up? Alex Proyas's latest science fiction thriller,... More...
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. 
More...
January 09, 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.
More...
January 08, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Say "I Don't" To Bride Wars
This week at the movies, we've got a bridal battle (Bride Wars, starring Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson); a cranky car enthusiast (Gran Torino, directed by and starring Clint... More...
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