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The Unborn (2009)
Director: David S Goyer
Movie review
From Time Out New York
Who screams for the horror movies of January? (Or for any movies of January, really?) The month is a traditional one for belt-tightening; the studios know this, and quietly off-load their least-impressive product. And yet, something arresting happens with The Unborn, attired in its generic, hand-me-down title. It actually scares you. Not with random shocks, like the fearmakers of October, but in the surreal, atmospheric manner of Jonathan Glazer’s Birth, with which it shares a similar wintry intro. Running along the park path is young, iPoded Casey (Yustman). Veering into the woods, she stops and pushes away some leaves. There it is, beneath the ice:
a living fetus. The wind murmurs.
Casey is dreaming. The odd charm of The Unborn is the way it tries to linger in these moments, before it becomes what might charitably be called a Jewish Exorcist. Information topples Casey in a vertiginous rush. She was a twin in the womb, but her brother died. A gothic suburban rest home shelters what turns out to be her grandmother, Sofi (Alexander), a mystical Holocaust survivor. Eventually, we begin to hear from strangers that “Jumby wants to be born,” and the prenatal horror attracts Rabbi Gary Oldman and his Kabbalistic rites. It’s refreshingly weird to see Michael Bay producing a thriller with a Star of David around its neck, and that alone might make The Unborn a cult movie one day. Ultimately, though it settles for easier anxieties than Jewish ones, for a moment, it teases us with a return of the repressed as pungent as that in Agnieszka Holland’s Europa Europa—also a horror film, come to think of it.
Author: Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out New York Issue 693: January 8 - 14, 2009
User reviews of this film
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- rogerrabbit said...
- Posted on Feb 27 2009 15:17 Great Laugh.....the scary thing is ...Its Not Meant to be
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- Loz said...
- Posted on Feb 23 2009 09:59 To be honest i found myself laughing at the bits that was meant to be scary (then again so did the majority watching the movie) but it was still a funny enjoyable "horror" movie
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- matt said...
- Posted on Jan 10 2009 16:23 it is a ok movie but i believe that if you want to make a horror dont make it a comedy it wasnt scary it was more funny than scary
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- Matt said...
- Posted on Jan 09 2009 23:16 This is a prime example of what happens too most horror movies. Over-hyped for the under deliver.
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- Geore Lucsao said...
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Posted on Jan 08 2009 17:33
Gripping and Useless.
A must see.
I didn't like it. But you probably would. - Report as inappropriate
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- Smantha Diaper said...
- Posted on Jan 08 2009 17:32 I HATED IT.
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Cast & crew
Director: David S Goyer
Cast: Odette Yustman, Jane Alexander, Gary Oldman, Meagan Good, Cam Gigandet, Idris Elba, Atticus Shaffer, James Remar, Carla Gugino full cast
Rated: PG-13
Duration: 95 mins
US Release: Jan 9 2009
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