The Unborn (2009)

A young woman fights the spirit that is slowly taking possession of her.

Director:

David S. Goyer

Writer:

David S. Goyer

Stars:

Odette Annable, Gary Oldman, Cam Gigandet

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Odette Annable	...	Casey Beldon (as Odette Yustman)
Gary Oldman	...	Rabbi Sendak
Cam Gigandet	...	Mark
Meagan Good	...	Romy
Idris Elba	...	Arthur Wyndham
Jane Alexander	...	Sofi Kozma
Atticus Shaffer	...	Matty Newton
James Remar	...	Gordon Beldon
Carla Gugino	...	Janet Beldon
C.S. Lee	...	Dr. Lester Caldwell
Rhys Coiro	...	Mr. Shields
Michael Sassone	...	Eli Walker
Ethan Cutkosky	...	Barto
Craig J. Harris	...	Rick Hesse (as Craig Harris)
Rachel Brosnahan	...	Lisa

Storyline

While babysitting a boy and his baby brother, Casey Beldon has a dreadful nightmare involving a weird dog and an evil child, and she tells her best friend Romy over the phone. Casey is haunted by this boy, and when she goes to the ophthalmologist, he asks if she has a twin brother or sister. She asks her father and discovers that her mother lost a son that died in the womb. Casey suspects that she is haunted by the spirit of her brother. She finds a letter addressed to a woman called Sofi Kozma and a creepy picture at home that belonged to her mother. She goes with Romy to a retirement home to meet Sofi, a survivor of the experiments during the Holocaust. But Sofi tells Casey that she had never met her mother and later calls Casey to tell her she is in great danger.

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Plot Keywords:

nightmare | twin brother | evil child | holocaust | babysitting | 

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Taglines:

Evil wants to be born now

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [au] Universal [de]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Hebrew

Release Date:

9 January 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Untitled David S. Goyer Project

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$16,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£1,300,543 (UK) (27 February 2009)

Gross:

£3,669,708 (UK) (20 March 2009)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Rogue Pictures, Platinum Dunes, Phantom Four

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min 89 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Rabbi Sendak opens the Hebrew book in his office, he thumbs through it in the wrong direction. Hebrew is written in the opposite direction to English; a real rabbi would have opened the book and read it from right to left.

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Goofs

When Romy hits the boy with her car, she closes the door when she runs to check if he's okay. When she runs to get in her car, the door is open.

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Quotes

Casey Beldon: It's not safe to be around me.

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Crazy Credits

After the credits the letters WORD appears in capitals

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Connections

Features The Invisible Man (1933)

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Soundtracks

"Close To You"
Written by Acklins Khaliyl Dillon, Jamal K Hanna
Performed by Light of Dub Rock All Stars feat: Mela Machinko
Courtesy of Monster Truck Audio Inc.
By Arrangement with Shelly Bay Music

User Reviews

Woeful

Having seen the trailers for 'Unborn' and admiring David S. Goyer's writing talents on films such as 'The Dark Knight' I was kind of looking forward to it. I knew it wouldn't be much more than a typical Hollywood attempt at horror but I thought I'd get at least 90 minutes of entertainment out of it. I was wrong.

The story is terribly contrived and goes through the typical horror story motions from start to finish: childhood trauma - check! Nightmares - check! It also takes so much content from other films its unbelievable. More unbelievable is the fact that it botches these 'homages' every time. The film plods on and on attempting to at least get a jump out of you (which it fails at) until finally you get to the finale. Needless to say, the finale is also terrible. More so because at least the one thing the film does manage to do is contain the odd decent special effect. However, the finale for some reason doesn't contain any of these effects and resorts to actors merely wearing contact lenses.

I'm perhaps being a bit harsh giving the film a 3/10 but given the actors involved and David S. Goyer's obvious writing talent, this film really should have delivered far more.