not as good as all the hype

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

I'm no film critic. If a film has bad lighting, I normally won't notice something like that so if you're looking for that, you're reading the wrong review. Another thing, I've noticed that a lot of good horror movies get bad reviews. I think it's because everyone's different. The things that scare you may not scare me. My Mom and I have been watching a lot of Netflix movies. We've watched some good movies, some OK movies, and some really BAD movies! It was my turn to choose & I landed on this movie. I saw Gary Oldman's name (someone I recognized) & decided to watch it. I think it had a great story and I think it was original. Sure, it had some typical horror movie effects & ideas. But name me a film that doesn't! It began pretty fast, jumping right into the story. Casey Beldon is your typical teen. She lives with her Dad & has a boyfriend (Cam Gigandet), friends, and goes to school (I assume college). She does babysit for some extra money (a young Atticus Shaffer). She has kind of a sad past which you'll find out about. Things start going bad for her when she starts having these frightening dreams at night & visions of a kid she's never seen before during the day. This takes her several different places to try and find answers to her questions. The acting was good, along with the actors I mentioned, I was pleasantly surprised to see Carla Cugino and Idris Elba too. Oh, you may want to watch holding a drink during this movie because you may end up wearing it. The movie was so good, I was nervous that the ending would be dumb. That's definitely something you shouldn't be nervous about! I didn't see it coming and those are the best kinds of endings, right?

The Sinister Synopsis: What begins as an ultra-vivid, spectral nightmare for Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman; Cloverfield, 2008), becomes a relentless reality as the spirit of a young boy pursues her every step until it captures the essence of her naive soul. Now it's up to a Rabbi (Gary Oldman) a priest and Casey's dip-$hit boyfriend (does this formula sound rather familiar?) to help save her from a morbid mishap stemming from the age-old catastrophe of Nazi experimentation in Auschwitz (Dr. Josef Mengele, anyone?) The Diabolical Desire: As far as positives are concerned, there's next to nothing to consider except the mildly Gothic ambiance that's felt when Casey watches the film of the psychiatric hospital where her mother had committed suicide, but even that's digging at the bottom of the barrel a bit too much. The Rancid Reaction: Where to begin when it comes to a generic, subtle script that's easily lost in the flood of this modern, supernatural sub-genre. For starters, forgettable CGI effects, below-par acting (even with the installment of Oldman) and scare tactics that are far too predictable and tired are just a few qualities (or lack thereof) added into what could have equated to a tenser, more intimidating production, hence its watered down PG-13 rating...but hey, high school kids need their fair share of fright too, I suppose. The Axed Addendum: As a follow up to his trend of co-writing "Batman Begins" (2005) and "The Dark Knight" (2008), writer/director David S. Goyer flopped in taking a stab at creating a horror flick that just doesn't stand out from the herd of clichés we haven't seen before. Not even the more "sensual" approach at marketing the film's one-sheet can resurrect this one from the wretched wasteland of Horrid Horror.

Seeing an evil spirit everywhere around her, a young woman finds that is the dead soul of her stillborn twin brother attempting to reenter the world it should've been born into and tries to stop it from succeeding in its wishes.On the whole this one was a highly enjoyable effort with a lot to like about it. One of the better parts to this one is the film's rather impressive amount of encounters throughout here, which is pretty rampant along the way. The opening dream, with the mask-wearing dog and the fetus in the jar, sets things up nicely as to the possibilities of what's going on in here as this builds incredibly nicely into the later scenes of the insects crawling after her, the ghost attack in the bathroom, and the growing number of sightings in her life being quite fun. This is furthered by the fine attacks throughout here, most notably the manifestation in the club appearing from the bathroom stall amidst a swarm of insects and otherworldly hands breaking through the walls while another rather creepy scene of her dreaming of the ghostly being violently clawing into her womb. Even more enjoyable in the first half here is the build-up of other great factors throughout with the eye problems and voices that are all nicely explained here with the stories of the spirit wanting to cross over from fore and the connection with twins that nicely explains all the different events and connections in here. That as well follows through into the film's best point in its final half as the explanations are all given and focuses the best action here with the enraged creature using its best tricks and most furious attacks here, from the deformed being chasing after the woman in the retirement home, the brutal stalking of the best friend in by the demonically-encouraged child and the finale here with the big exorcism taking place in the abandoned church where everything comes together into a grand time. The different rites that need to be performed, the setting and the main sequence of it throwing the equipment around to disrupt the ceremony followed by the possessed participants of the ceremony making for some thrilling, exciting action. These here all manage to hold off the few small, barely detrimental flaws here. The most obvious feature this one is the rather convoluted and complex plot that doesn't give off all sorts of questions here. There's little here that makes sense, as the supposed art that would've explained this in the back-story to the concentration camp only tells of the type of creature but nothing else and it leaves this one with all sorts of unanswered questions throughout the film. As well, the other flaw here is the obviously toned-down feeling in here in regards to the sleaze and kills, deliberately missing those elements yet purposefully trying to appeal in that regard with brutal, bloodless kills and scenes of her continuously in her underwear but blocks out the shower scene and keeping it to the aftermath of the sex scene. These here hold it down, but it's still better than expected.Rated PG-13: Violence and Language.

To my very own big and pleasant surprise, "The Unborn" wasn't nearly as dreadful as I feared and/or expected. In fact, I even daresay it qualifies as decent and enjoyable nowadays horror entertainment. As an avid fan of classic and old-fashioned horror as well as obscure extreme stuff, I know it's uncool to write favorable comments about a mainstream PG-13 flick, but if I liked it why wouldn't I admit so? Indisputable fact of the matter remains that "The Unborn" is a derivative effort, with an all too often muddled script and far too many dumb twists and insufferable clichés. On the other hand, however, the movie contains numerous effectively grisly images, a few moments of genuine horrific atmosphere, several original – if unprocessed – plot ideas and a more than satisfying pace from start to finish. Role model teenage chick Casey suffers from recurring nightmares featuring an eerie boy with glazed eyes, shattered mirrors and a dog with an upside-down head! Following a traumatizing babysitting experience, Casey discovers not only that she herself lost a twin-brother while still in the womb, but also that her mother's bloodline suffers from a long history of grim twin brother issues, dating all the way back to her grandmother's period at the Nazi's Auschwitz concentration camp. Apparently a fiendish Jewish spirit – named Dybbuk – repeatedly attempts to come back to life via bodies of the deceased twin brothers… Obviously the whole thing is (too) similar to multiple monumental genre classics ("The Exorcist" in particular) but that's not the main problem here. The main problem is that David S. Goyer is primarily a writer instead of a director, and clearly lacks the finesse and skills to bring all his niftily invented horror ingredients together into one coherent and competent wholesome. The same issue also ruined his previous flick "The Invisible", but at least "The Unborn" is a vast improvement for Goyer in terms of horror maturity: a lot more sinister stuff and less sentimental sub plots. I really must compliment the intensity of the Auschwitz flashback sequences and the scenes inside the old folks' home, as well the adequate performances of lead actresses Odette Annable (awesome name, by the way) and Jane Alexander. Too bad the imbecilic sequences are equally memorable. For example, can you fathom the choice of a big bald black basketball coach to perform a Jewish exorcism ritual?!? In fact, the whole exorcism climax is the weakest point of the film.