Well made, but ultimately underwhelming horror that never really comes to life, despite some creepy visuals and a handful of cheap shocks.
Comment
02/26/09
The Unborn (2009)
12
%
Tomatometer
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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
both silly and nonsensical
02/04/09
This orgy of crazed effects, cheap scares and jittery suspense never remotely frightens us
01/29/09
Every January, as the "January junk" makes its annoying appearance on the big screen, a lackluster PG-13-rated horror movie is involved. 'The Unborn' is that movie for 2009.
01/17/09
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
Like some Stephen King rewrite of 'The Reader,' this laughable but interesting movie traces its characters' distress to the Holocaust: Never forget, because 'Jumby wants to be born!'
01/16/09
It has a few really interesting ideas in it and a few good, old-fashioned scares (and very little camera shaking).
01/16/09
The film's story is not so much plagued by plot holes as it is constructed out of them, not unlike an especially lacy variety of Swiss cheese.
01/16/09
A cheesy low-rent supernatural thriller that vainly tries to introduce some gravitas by dropping references to the Kabbalah.
01/15/09
Not deep or all that visually imaginative--Goyer never wavers from the usual slow build-up to a sudden fright, and the ending is all fight-and-flight, no shock-and-awe--but certainly unboring.
01/15/09
...a salad of creepshow cliches...
01/15/09
'This is the last time I'll write a movie on a roll of Charmin Ultra,' said Goyer.
01/14/09
Goyer has penned many scripts superior to this one, but he does make sure you're never far away from a big 'Boo!'
01/14/09
Falls very much line with early-year schlock.
01/14/09
The film's raison d'être is a series of shock effects involving creepy kids, dogs with upside-down heads and a CGI-powered geriatric variant on Linda Blair's crab walk.
01/13/09
At last we are making crappy horror films entirely on our own, without having to rip them off from Japan! U-S-A! U-S-A!
01/13/09
This is one film that shouldn't have been birthed. No, in fact, it should have been aborted.
01/13/09
The Unborn is so lame that even a scene where Nazi 'doctors' experiment on twin children by poking a needle in their eyeballs is more laughable than horrendous.
01/12/09
pacing that allows the audience to linger on every failing before being distracted by the subsequent one
01/11/09
A ham-fisted attempt at a Semitic version of The Exorcist that is utterly unoriginal and totally devoid of actual frights.
01/11/09
Latest 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. 
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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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