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The Unborn (2009)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 3.2/10
Reviews Counted: 113
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 100

David Goyer's Unborn is a tame genre effort with cheap thrills and scares that border on silliness.

Average Rating: 3.7/10
Critic Reviews: 16
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 13

David Goyer's Unborn is a tame genre effort with cheap thrills and scares that border on silliness.

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Average Rating: 2.7/5
User Ratings: 810,160

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Movie Info

Blade II and Batman Begins scribe David S. Goyer writes and directs this supernatural thriller about a 19-year-old girl (Odette Yustman) haunted by a "dybbuk" (a malevolent wandering soul of Jewish folklore) that was once a young boy ruthlessly slaughtered in Auschwitz. Casey Beldon (Yustman) was just a young girl when her mother vanished out of her life. And though Casey has never forgiven her mother for abandoning their family, she begins to understand why when a tortured ghost begins stalking

PG-13, 1 hr. 28 min.

Mystery & Suspense, Horror

Directed By: David S. Goyer

Written By: David S. Goyer

In Theaters: Jan 9, 2009 Wide

On DVD: Jul 7, 2009

Box Office:$42.6M

Rogue Pictures

The Unborn Trailer & Photos

More Photos (8)

Cast

Odette Yustman
Casey Beldon
Gary Oldman
Rabbi Sendak
Cam Gigandet
Mark Hardigan
Meagan Good
Romy Marshall
James Remar
Gordon Beldon
Jane Alexander
Sofi Kozma
Idris Elba
Father Arthur Wyndham
Atticus Shaffer
Matty Newton
Michael Sassone
Eli Walker
Ethan Cutkosky
Barto
Rhys Coiro
Mr. Shields
Carla Gugino
Janet Beldon
C.S. Lee
Gene Fojtik

Critic Reviews for The Unborn

All Critics (113) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (14) | Rotten (102) | DVD (8)

[An] exuberantly creepy mash-up of Jewish folklore, J-horror atmospherics, and demonic possession boilerplate.

January 5, 2010 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Cliff Doerksen

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

Goyer has penned many scripts superior to this one, but he does make sure you're never far away from a big 'Boo!'

January 14, 2009 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly

| Comment

Clark Collis

Entertainment Weekly

Top Critic

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.

January 9, 2009 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune

| Comment (1)

Michael Phillips

Chicago Tribune

Top Critic

A laughably bad horror flick involving demonic possession, concentration camps and torturous genetic experiments.

January 9, 2009 Full Review Source: USA Today

| Comment

Claudia Puig

USA Today

Top Critic

This is where many a horror movie falls and never again rises: too much exposition.

January 9, 2009 Full Review Source: ReelViews

| Comment

James Berardinelli

ReelViews

Top Critic

The movie's not very good, but there are ideas, good and bad, in its execution that are worth mulling over.

January 9, 2009 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel

| Comment

Roger Moore

Orlando Sentinel

Top Critic

While David S. Goyer is a fine writer and a powerhouse name in Hollywood, his directing efforts fall flat.

September 21, 2010 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures

| Comment

Kevin Carr

7M Pictures

Smoking-hot heroine. Clever paranormal premise. Painfully clueless conclusion.

March 18, 2010 Full Review Source: MovieCrypt.com

| Comment

Kevin A. Ranson

MovieCrypt.com

The Unborn is packed full of grisly images and effects, but its apparent attempts to be some kind of Jewish take on The Exorcist fail miserably.

August 17, 2009 Full Review Source: Filmstar Magazine

| Comment

Anne Wollenberg

Filmstar Magazine Source: Filmstar Magazine

The best that can be said for Goyer's latest is that it's competent. How competent is a matter of debate, as is the degree to which Goyer is self-aware about the film's camp value. [Blu-ray]

August 12, 2009 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews

| Comment

Peter Canavese

Groucho Reviews Source: Groucho Reviews

Should have been aborted.

August 1, 2009 Full Review Source: Cut Print Review

| Comment

Anders Wotzke

Cut Print Review

What The Unborn represents manages to be a thousand times more disturbing than anything Goyer captured with his pen or camera

July 28, 2009 Full Review Source: Bangitout.com

| Comment

Jordan Hiller

Bangitout.com

[Blu-Ray]Truth be told, The Unborn isn't horrible. It just isn't very good either. The stork wore black. File this one under stillborn.

July 15, 2009 Full Review Source: Dread Central

| Comment

Steve "Uncle Creepy" Barton

Dread Central

There is a senseless scare every 5-7 minutes. Now, after one or two you start to get the giggles but after the third or fourth false scare you begin to Laugh Out Loud.

July 15, 2009 Full Review Source: CinemaBlend.com

| Comment

Brian Holcomb

CinemaBlend.com

...boasts few attributes designed to initially capture the viewer's interest...

July 4, 2009 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews

| Comment

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

The Unborn is like a scary movie sentence without the necessary linking verbs. It's all genre gears and no motivational motor.

July 1, 2009 Full Review Source: PopMatters

| Comment

Bill Gibron

PopMatters

The Unborn is a story that should have remained untold and will be forgotten by the end of the weekend.

June 10, 2009 Full Review Source: BET.com

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Clay Cane

BET.com

'Tis the season of the Hollywood dumps -- which is too bad because I had harbored some small hope for this latest horror offering from David S. Goyer.

April 23, 2009 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix

| Comment

Tom Meek

Boston Phoenix

Full of cheap thrills that mostly consist of people popping up out of nowhere and dialogue comprised largely of theological gobbledygook.

March 13, 2009 Full Review Source: Critic's Notebook

| Comment

Robert Levin

Critic's Notebook

Some 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.

March 6, 2009 Full Review Source: The Australian

| Comment

David Stratton

The Australian

After a few initial decent scares, the corny dialogue, poor casting and cringe-worthy acting drag this movie into it's own hell. Utter rubbish.

March 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Heart 106.2

| Comment

Simon Thompson

Heart 106.2

Cue a creepy toddler, various demonically possessed adults and a Jewish exorcism conducted by Gary Oldman. He's a vastly better actor than the film deserves, but he can't make the script seem even slightly better than it is.

March 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Times [UK]

| Comment

Edward Porter

Times [UK]

This foolish film hitches an easy ride from the Holocaust.

March 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Observer [UK]

| Comment

Philip French

Observer [UK]

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Unborn

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Yep, this one is pretty much a mess. I caught it on TV, so as I didn't pay any money to see it, I am probably inclined to be a little more generous than it deserves.A plot you could see coming a mile off. I mean, seriously, if you had a creepy ass kid telling you some devil child wants "to be born now", and multiple

December 14, 2008

Nicki Marie

Super Reviewer

It was really bad - scary in some scenes. But Cam Gigadet gave this a full star.

June 24, 2011

Bethany Murphy

Super Reviewer

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