Slightly irrelevant and pointless, but nevertheless interesting little footnote to start off this user comment with: this movie contains a sex sequence that could have come straight out a Kama-Sutra encyclopedia. The couple makes love in a rocking chair and – believe it or not – but it's fairly elegant and passionately filmed, which is the last thing I expected to see in an obscure early 90's B-movie so kudos!

"The Unborn" revolves on the ever ongoing quest to create the perfect human being. Therefore, some sleaze doctors in an artificial insemination clinic are saddling up unsuspecting but desperately craving mothers with altered DNA that eventually grows out into evil mutant monster fetuses that communicate from within the womb. Argh, freaky! The patients, including the writer of children's books Virginia Marshall, soon begin to have strange side-effects, like a burning rash in their necks. Virginia, who has been rational and even somewhat skeptical about the whole in-vitro fertilization method since the beginning, quickly understands that this thing growing inside of her is something evil and uncontrollable and she becomes obsessed with the idea losing her baby. Of course, nobody – especially not her husband - believes her mad raving speeches about doctors trying to create a master race. Completely unexpected, "The Unborn" was a pleasant horror surprise! The film has an original and potentially very terrifying basic premise – particularly if you're a young parent yourself – and the execution is fair to very decent as well. The script contains a handful of highly imaginative little details, like for example the malignant doctor corresponding with his evil embryos through hidden messages in the specially prepared relax tapes. There are some unsettling special effects and make-up art for the horror fanatics to enjoy as well. Of course, it's fairly easy to show shocking images in a film dealing with pregnant women and unborn babies. Just one brief image of a mother with a bloodied belly and a pair of scissors in her hands looks genuinely disturbing. The monstrous fetus looks quite cheesy, but it's nevertheless a nice attempt and, besides, it's not everyday you watch a fetus attack someone with a needle.

The unfertile Virginia (Brooke Adams) and her husband, Brad Marshall (Jeff Hayenga), decide to join an experimental in-vitro fertilization program developed by Dr. Richard Meyerling (James Karen). The trial succeeds, but along the pregnancy, Virginia finds that something weird is happening with the fetus.

"The Unborn" is a very reasonable low-budget horror movie. Bizarre in some moments, grotesque in others, and dark as a whole, this movie has a very strong and disturbing scene, when a pregnant woman stabs herself in the belly. Therefore, it is certainly not recommended to pregnant women watch this film. I do not agree with the comparison with the masterpiece "Rosemary's Baby", since the stories are totally different, having in common only the pregnancy of something weird. I found this movie a good entertainment. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Bebê Maldito" ("The Damned Baby")

A somewhat lame attempt to jump on the "evil baby" bandwagon, a sub-genre which includes such diverse titles ranging from the absolute classic (ROSEMARY'S BABY), to the fairly hopeless (I DON'T WANT TO BE BORN), to the inevitable obscure, foreign-made rip-offs (BABY BLOOD and DAMNED IN VENICE). THE UNBORN is a horror film containing lots of slow-burning dread and fear and a few moments of graphic horror to make up for the slow pacing and routine plot that the rest of the production offers. Characters are poorly-defined and set up to fall and the climax is let down by some really cheesy special effects of a killer baby which looks like nothing more than a rubbery doll. The script is over-wordy and the film let down by the central casting of Brooke Adams (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS) who overplays it by overacting during the sequence in which she throws a tantrum and wrecks her house and proves to be unlikeable at other times, meaning that you never really care for her character. Brad Blaisdell, who plays her husband, is wooden and dull throughout, so his eventual death is not so much shocking as a much-needed case of "just desserts".

The only actor of note in the proceedings is RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD's James Karen, but even he is wasted in the small role of the sinister scientist who causes all the aggro in the first place. His slimy death, in which his dying body is pelted by all manner of strange and unnatural slime and goo, is pretty amusing though. Trivia fans can spot a pre-FRIENDS Lisa Kudrow appearing in a one-scene cameo as a secretary. Gore fans will be disappointed that the blood is in short supply; aside from a nasty moment in which a lesbian massacres her lover there's only a knitting-needle-in-the-eye sequence to get excited about. THE UNBORN does deserve kudos for being brave enough to include one sick scene in which a woman stabs herself in her own pregnant stomach repeatedly but otherwise is a bit of a missed opportunity, following a well-worn and predictable route to a rather lame and tired conclusion. It's difficult to get worked up about any of the characters or their activities in this movie and as a whole it leaves a distasteful taste in the mouth come the downbeat, oh-so-surprising twist conclusion. None of the science-fiction elements are adequately explored or the reasons or results for their appearance explained, leaving them looking like nothing more than tacked-on shots to give the plot some kind of solid ground.