Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

The Unborn is one of those horror movies that came and went with little fanfare, but is still worth a viewing today if you never caught it the first time around back in 2009.Our star, here, is Odette Yustman, who I can never see without mentioning that she looks a lot like Jessica Alba. This comparison is fitting, because the tone of The Unborn is similar to that of Alba's 2008 horror flick, The Eye. She seems to share Jessica's spotty acting skills as well, because at some points during the movie she was just not convincing. Does that ruin the movie? No. Gorgeous looks truly can make up for a few acting blips.As for the movie itself, it starts of with a very frightening sequence. It's a little weird that most of the more frightening sequences are near the beginning. The Unborn excels at disturbing images, and I wish that it would have relied more on those types of scares than the silly jump moments and loud noises that are the rule in most modern horror movies. There is a bit of a mystery for the heroine to unravel in the movie, but this brings about another unfortunate similarity to The Eye. Once she really gets into the particulars of the plot, things start to seem a little silly. That's my main quibble with The Unborn. It tries hard to provide a background and explanation for the events that happen, but it only serves to make it harder to take the movie seriously. The Unborn is ahead of the curve compared to a lot of the horror movies that came out in 2009. Some parts of it manage to be somewhat scary, and that's enough to forgive its faults in my opinion.

After watching this for the second time (first time was a couple of years ago so I've forgotten most of the details), I finally get around to reviewing this excellent film. Why do I start by saying excellent without any exposition or preparation? Because I'm disappointed and frustrated with the IMDb rating community. At the time I'm writing this, The Unborn is rated 4.8, proving once again that a true Horror fan can never trust raters and reviewers, only themselves.Not unlike this review, The Unborn also lacks an exposition, throwing the viewer into the hardships of the story from the first second. We are not presented with the cliché corny stories of a visit to a graveyard, an after hours game with a Ouija board or a new house where take-your-pick-what-bad-things happened. Instead, the nightmares and haunting are already there. The beginning reminded me of Saving Private Ryan, where the death and carnage of war descend upon the viewers from the first moment, although here in The Unborn the first scenes are much less intense, allowing the story to build up slowly enough to create suspense and on edge sensations, yet not too slow to be boring.The idea behind the haunting story is original and beautifully innovative, traits sadly absent from most of today's haunting stories. In addition, we are finally presented with an exorcism ordeal which isn't fundamentally Christian, but Jewish! As a Jew, I might be slightly biased here, but seriously, hasn't anyone else been aching for exorcism films which go slightly beyond the regular "the power of Christ compels you" ceremony? I would also love to see exorcisms involving Muslim mysticism, or Hindu or Pagan, anything that would attempt to renew the all too familiar frame story of the classic The Exorcist. It's been long enough, Hollywood!Also, I found the connection to the Holocaust, Dr. Mengele and his twins research to be right on the spot. The writers have succeeded in using these references without making them cheap, and the focus on the Occult studies by the Nazis was a great addition to the overall eerie and frightening feeling throughout the film.As for the phantoms / demons / ghosts, The Unborn uses the Asian method of pale skin, big dark eyes and growing gaping mouths, just the way a phantom should look in my opinion. There is no shame in learning from the best, and when it comes to showing phantoms on screen, the Asians are the masters. The use of some jump scares involving these ghosts was also done in a satisfying manner - not too many and not too few. True, jump scares are cheap tricks, but not everything cheap is necessarily bad and out of place, especially in this sub-genre.I don't have much to say about the acting or cinematography. Nothing special about the use of camera and effects, nothing too noticeable about the acting. I do have to say two things: First, Jane Alexander was absolutely marvelous, using body language and accent like a real Holocaust survivor (and I say this as one who has met a few in my life). With different lighting and scenery I would have believed her to be an actual survivor from a documentary about Auschwitz. Second - I'm not sure if casting Cam Gigandet for such a secondary role was the right choice. Even without seeing him in Never Back Down and others, it is obvious that his screen presence is undeniable and his acting charisma is superb, surpassing that of lead actress Odette Annable and overclouding her at times (not to say she wasn't good, I have no criticism about her acting here).When I watch a Horror film, the story is the most important thing for me, and the story here is excellent. I'd love it even if it wasn't as original and innovative, which it is (congratulations David S. Goyer, you have definitely joined my Horror hall of fame!). The phantoms are scary as they should be, the haunting and exorcism are great - all in all, one of the best films in this sub-genre of haunting and exorcism and one of the best Horror films I've seen. The Unborn definitely deserves 8, but seeing as how the IMDb community insists on underrating it, I allow myself to be slightly less objective than I first intended, and rate it a 9. I recommend it with a passion!

The premise of this is good. The production looks expensive. But it's an overloaded mess that feels far longer than 88 mins.The opening sequence has a creepy image of a bulldog wearing a mask. It was just a dream! So we're straight into Freudian dream analysis. The dream sequences come thick and fast, and it's becoming a chick horror. Theoretical physics raises its head, then a Dan Brownish kaballa text, then the ultimate Jewish horror of a dark secret in the Holocaust.At this stage it's really piling up, but the only menace comes from images in the mirror and a creaky house at night. Oh wait - they convert to literal with the random demon now actually killing people.This requires a lot of exposition, and then unbelievably at about 65 mins there are five pages of dialogue explaining the exorcism. Suddenly there are new characters all over the place, while other characters have long been ditched.And an overblown and cheesy final conflict.The lead actress is a babe, but she's not convincing in close up.

Not a bad film. Great 'jumps'- decent grim moments and a pretty good story line. Basically it is about a female who finds the child she is baby sitting is rather 'evil' when finding him shining a mirror in his baby brother's face. After this and some other odd moments She begins to seek what it is that is happening to her. Unlike an awful lot of the reviewers on this board I am not going to go on like a teenage boy on Viagra about her underwear. Get over it boys! So what!!! N.B Just a quick post script-note This film kind of Reminded me a bit of 'Joshua' and wonder if this is a bit of a take off on it. Anyone else notice the similarity?