Movie Info
Movie Name: The Unborn
Studio: Rogue Pictures
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): January 9, 2009
MPAA Rating: PG-13
This will stop strangers from looking in the medicine cabinet
Something is wrong with Casey Beldon (Odetta Annable). She’s suffering from nightmares and visions of a child. When she’s attacked by a child she is babysitting, Casey learns that something in her family’s past has returned to haunt them. The spirit child is coming for Casey and Casey must break the link before it is too late.
Written and directed by David S. Goyer, The Unborn is a supernatural horror thriller. The film was relatively low budget and did well at the box office despite poor reviews.
The Unborn was one of those rather generic looking PG-13 horror movies that was released with throngs of other horror movies with the same feel. The Unborn was as it seemed…a dull and even surprisingly dense film.
He’s really good at Twister
The movie simply could be about a girl haunted by a child spirit, but instead, it is a strange story about World War II, Jewish spirits called dybbuks, and possession. It seems like it overcomplicates a story that doesn’t need to be complicated. As a result, the horror story isn’t scary (besides some jumps) or compelling.
Gary Oldman is wasted in this film. He shows up too late in the story and his character isn’t that interesting. Odette Annable seems fine as the lead, but like Oldman, the story kind of lets her down. The Middle actor Atticus Shaffer plays another child kind of possessed by the dybbuk (I guess), and Veteran actor James Remar plays Annable’s father. The movie also has appearances by Jane Alexander, Idris Elba, and Rachel Brosnahan.
Who is a good humanoid dog boy?
The movie does have a scary looking kid thing going for it, but a dog wearing a human mask kind of steals the show as strange and creepy imagery. The movie does a lot to provide jump scares for the viewers and that is at least something to watch it for (though the jumps are rather predictable in their placement).
The Unborn isn’t a very good film but there are also worse films. Scary kids always have a step-up on my “horror hierarchy”, but even The Unborn doesn’t manage to utilize the dead kid fears as well as it could have. It of course ends with the most obvious reveal and asks the viewer to be surprised…something The Unborn does throughout its runtime.
