GAMES: GameSpot | GameFAQs MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

58 Adam Resurrected
64 Appaloosa
69 Ashes of Time Redux
68 August Evening
54 Battle in Seattle
75 Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
70 Black Balloon, The
55 Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
51 Breakfast with Scot
xx Cargo 200
45 Chandni Chowk to China
63 Changeling
64 Che
55 Cherry Blossoms
84 Christmas Tale, A
92 Class, The
38 Dark Streets
58 Defiance
xx Donkey Punch
xx Dostana
62 Duchess, The
46 Dukes, The
63 Eden
xx Extreme Movie
69 Fear(s) of the Dark
26 Filth and Wisdom
28 Fireproof
80 Frost/Nixon
43 Gardens of the Night
73 Girl Cut in Two, A
39 Good
54 Good Dick
30 Guitar, The
84 Happy-Go-Lucky
31 Hounddog
21 House of the Sleeping Beauties
50 How About You
70 Hunger
72 I Served the King of England
70 I.O.U.S. A
40 Igor
79 I've Loved You So Long
64 JCVD
65 Just Another Love Story
xx Killshot
29 Lake City
57 Last Chance Harvey
82 Let the Right One In
31 Let Them Chirp Awhile
xx Local Color
89 Man on Wire
70 Moscow, Belgium
36 My Name Is Bruce
28 Nobel Son
43 Not Easily Broken
64 Nothing But the Truth
xx Of Time and the City
40 Other End of the Line, The
34 Otto; or Up with Dead People
75 Pool, The
78 Pray the Devil Back to Hell
xx Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
82 Rachel Getting Married
58 Reader, The
56 Religulous
32 Repo! The Genetic Opera
53 RocknRolla
64 Scott Walker: 30 Century Man
79 Secret of the Grain, The
81 Silent Light
86 Slumdog Millionaire
57 Special
80 Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
67 Synecdoche, New York
82 Tell No One
68 Theater of War
67 Timecrimes
83 Trouble the Water
43 Tru Loved
83 U2 3D
89 Waltz with Bashir
59 We Are Wizards
79 Wendy and Lucy
71 What Doesn't Kill You
55 What Just Happened?
61 Where God Left His Shoes
40 While She Was Out
81 Wrestler, The
48 Yonkers Joe

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Unborn, The
Rogue Pictures

Unborn, The reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 30 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
5.0 out of 10
based on 16 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 50 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and terror, disturbing images, thematic material and language including some sexual references

Starring Odette Yustman, Gary Oldman, Cam Gigandet, Meagan Good, Carla Gugino, Jane Alexander, Idris Elba, and Rhys Coiro

Casey Bell hated her mother for leaving her as a child. But when inexplicable things start to happen, Casey begins to understand why she left. Plagued by merciless dreams and a tortured ghost that haunts her waking hours, she must turn to the only spiritual advisor, Sendak, who can make it stop. With Sendak's help, Casey uncovers the source of a family curse dating back to Nazi Germany—a creature with the ability to inhabit anyone or anything that is getting stronger with each possession. With the curse unleashed, her only chance at survival is to shut a doorway from beyond our world that has been pried open by someone who was never born. (Universal Pictures)


GENRE(S): Horror  |  Suspense/Thriller  
WRITTEN BY: David S. Goyer  
DIRECTED BY: David S. Goyer  
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: January 9, 2009 
RUNNING TIME: minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

67
Entertainment Weekly Clark Collis
Indeed, Goyer has penned many scripts superior to this one (he co-wrote cult gem Dark City), but he does make sure you're never far away from a big "Boo!"
Read Full Review
63
TV Guide Jason Buchanan
What more could a horror fan ask for than a spook-fest that feels pure in its intentions while taking full advantage of every opportunity to scare us silly?
Read Full Review
63
New York Post Kyle Smith
I enjoyed the visual effects used to create some hellish creatures and the amusing nods to "The Exorcist" - cranial rotation, even a spooky staircase. But the movie slips in the last act.
Read Full Review
50
Village Voice Nick Pinkerton
For as long as it forges ahead without explanations, The Unborn works, in its way, as a series of snap-cut gotchas introducing each new contestant in its pageant of cold-sweat set pieces.
Read Full Review
40
Variety Peter Debruge
Whereas Japanese horror movies have been criticized for not making sense, The Unborn errs on the opposite extreme, coming off all the more ridiculous for over-explaining itself.
Read Full Review
40
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
What "The Exorcist" might look like if Madonna rewrote it, this silly fright flick finds college student Casey (Odette Yustman) haunted by a Kabbalistic demon.
Read Full Review
38
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
This material is offensive. The film may end with a straight-faced reassurance that "no actual Torah scrolls were destroyed or damaged in the making of this motion picture," but it's perfectly willing to exploit the Holocaust for cheap, weak thrills.
Read Full Review
38
USA Today Claudia Puig
A laughably bad horror flick.
Read Full Review
30
Los Angeles Times Glenn Whipp
Mostly, though, the movie is something of a snooze, a gabby PG-13 horror flick whose most shocking image might be the bored look on Gary Oldman's face as he goes through the motions of playing the rabbi in charge of dispatching the film's damnable demon to somewhere over hell's rainbow.
Read Full Review
30
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
The film teeters so perilously and routinely at the edge of camp, both with some of its casting choices and some unfortunate dialogue (the repeated warning that "Jumby wants to be born now"), that it's hard to know if Mr. Goyer wants to make us howl with fear or laughter.
Read Full Review
30
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
What finally undoes the struggle to maintain suspense is Goyer's dialogue, which is consistently hokey.
Read Full Review
25
The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
What darkness the movie achieves comes solely from the lighting.
Read Full Review
25
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Maybe approaching The Unborn as horror is the wrong approach. Perhaps this should be seen as a comedy. It is quite possibly the most egregiously laughable high-profile supernatural tale since Roman Polanski and Johnny Depp impaled themselves on "The Ninth Gate."
Read Full Review
20
Film Threat Michael Ferraro
This is the sort of film that fails on every single aspect it aims for.
Read Full Review
20
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Calling The Unborn a dull, plodding, exposition-crammed slog through a twilight of barely maintained tedium is like calling "Valkyrie" a yawn. It's too easy.
Read Full Review
12
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
The Unborn joins a growing glut of Holocaust- and Nazi-themed material -- "Valkyrie," "Defiance" - that are long on posturing, suppositions, and righteousness, yet short on moral complexity. Nazism and its crimes have lately inspired theme parks more than actual movies. Too many rides on that roller coaster and I feel sick.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 5.0 (out of 10) based on 50 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

King tut gave it a1:
I would like to note that i went to This movie with low expections and was very dissipointed. this movie seams to be a direct ripoff of the grudges scare tactics. essentially this is the most generic of generic horror flicks. I sincerely hope that michel bay does better on friday the 13 his next horror outing.

Jordan R. gave it a2:
With an unbelievable (yes, granted, it is a horror film) and painfully redundant plot, and a main actress that was clearly cast through the audition of a nude shower scene and the will to parade around in underwear, the Unborn misses the desired irony of an audience scrambling to leave out of thrilling fear and instead herds them out with profound boredom and predictability. It's saving grace, or perhaps that which will save it from deeper layers of movie hell are the various horrific creatures which do thrill, however any remotely redeeming part is already revealed in the exceptional trailer.

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: MLB | Spore | iPhone 3G | Paris Hilton | Antivirus Software | GPS | Recipes | Shwayze | NFL

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use