Opening

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21% The Hangover Part III May 23
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85% We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks May 24
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—— Alyce Kills May 24

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36% Peeples $2.2M
8% The Big Wedding $1.2M

Coming Soon

—— After Earth May 31
—— Now You See Me May 31
100% The Kings of Summer May 31
90% The East May 31

The Unborn (2009)

tomatometer

11

Average Rating: 3.2/10
Reviews Counted: 115
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 102

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

26

Average Rating: 3.7/10
Critic Reviews: 19
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 14

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

audience

39

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

My Rating

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,

Mystery & Suspense, Horror

David S. Goyer

Jul 7, 2009

$42.6M

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All Critics (115) | Top Critics (19) | Fresh (14) | Rotten (104) | 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
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

David S Goyer's non-kosher riff on 'The Exorcist' is stillborn,

February 27, 2009 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop 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
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop 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)
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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

January 9, 2009 Full Review Source: USA Today
USA Today
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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

January 9, 2009 Full Review Source: ReelViews
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I kept hoping Oldman would revert to his Sid & Nancy punk persona and kick the little freak in the yarbles like some pain-deserving Springsteen fan, but no such luck.

February 15, 2013 Full Review Source: Georgia Straight

Unoriginal, unbelievable, utterly unwatchable.

September 29, 2012 Full Review Source: TheShiznit.co.uk
TheShiznit.co.uk

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
7M Pictures

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

March 18, 2010 Full Review Source: MovieCrypt.com
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

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
Groucho Reviews

Should have been aborted.

August 1, 2009 Full Review Source: Moviedex
Moviedex

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
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

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
CinemaBlend.com

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

July 4, 2009 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews
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
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
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
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
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
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
Heart 106.2

Audience Reviews for The Unborn

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 other scary going ons, you would think at very least you would abstain from sex with your boyfriend! Apparently not...
There is a few scares and some yucky scenes, but it is pretty lame and tame stuff. Also, I don't know if it was the TV transmission or what, but the end scene seemed sped up, which made me feel like I was watching a video game instead of a movie!
If you just want some dumb entertainment or a laugh, this is okay, but there is definitely much better horror films out there.
December 14, 2008
romy861

Super Reviewer

It was really bad - scary in some scenes. But Cam Gigadet gave this a full star.
June 24, 2011
murphmann93
Bethany Murphy

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • La semilla del mal (ES)
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