Top 10 Horror Movie Pregnancies!

Last Updated on August 3, 2021

Pregnancy is a fearful 9 months for any expectant mother, single or coupled. Knowing this, British writer/director/actress Alice Lowe has turned the premise into a howling horror comedy called PREVENGE, which hits select theaters and Shudder today. But before you check it out, why not prepare yourself for things to come. After-all, pregnancy has long been a rife topic for centering a horror story upon. Now, we’re not necessarily talking about f*cked up horror babies, that’s a topic for another day. We’re talking about actual in-the-womb pregnancy where most of the story takes place prior to birth.

So, here’s what to expect when you’re expecting…adopt our Top 10 Horror Movie Pregnancies below!

#1. ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968)

I mean, when old ass Ruth Gordon is hovering around, maniacally grinning, lip-licking and drooling over the prospect of your impending delivery, yeah, you might want to check yourself. Of course, when your own husband is not just involved, but perhaps the de facto ring leader of a ritualized satanic cult intent on raising Lucifer’s son, you stand nary a chance of escape. In that regard, ROSEMARY’S BABY is, 50 years after birth, the definitive horror movie pregnancy. Even when knowing full well the dimensions, size, height, weight, etc…ROSEMARY’S BABY continues to deliver terror to new generations!

#2. ALIEN (1979)

With all loving, heartfelt deference to the late great John Hurt, his otherworldly, life-ending, chest-bursting ALIEN pregnancy in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi masterstroke must be considered among the gnarliest of all time. First off, the obvious of a male host, so starkly opposed to what we know about bearing life. Then of course is the slow buildup of an unexpected, asexual pregnancy as a result of a face-hugger shooting alien sperm down the man’s throat. The kicker? Scott’s brilliant decision to not inform the cast of how gorily visceral and violent the SFX were going to be, as to elicit genuinely terrified reactions. Simply one the best scenes ever filmed, by any measure.

#3. INSIDE (2007)

To even think about the evil extremity of the 2007 French flick INSIDE still makes me want to get a vasectomy, in large part due to how relentlessly eviscerated our female lead – who happens to be 9 months pregnant – is treated throughout. No doubt, it’s a difficult watch. See, a baby-snatching criminal breaks into a single mother-to-be’s home on Christmas Eve, taunting and torturing the poor lady, both physically and with the threat of carving open her swollen belly and stealing her baby. Talk about a brutal kidnapping!

#4. THE FLY (1986)

Yeah, how does sh*tting out a 12 pound maggot sound to you right about now? Good god, David Cronenberg has one foul and f*cked up mind! How else can you explain what in essence is just a throwaway dream sequence – or nasty nightmare – in which Geena Davis’ character in THE FLY envisions a hellish scenario where she births a giant larval insectile mutation. Scarifying! Even more unnerving is the mystery of whether or not her real life pregnancy occurred before or after Seth had become the Fly. Taking no chances, he wisely opted to abort!

#5. DEMON SEED (1977)

I remember reading Dean Koontz’s DEMON SEED in the 9th grade, not remotely aware a movie based on the book had been out for 20 years already. Fast forward about a decade to when I first saw the flick, in which a high-tech security system not only grows sentient, but along the way, develops an inimical infatuation with the woman its assigned to watch over. Julie Christie plays the woman in question, who along the way unwittingly becomes impregnated by the Demon Seed of Proteus, the automated entity. Unthinkably disturbing!

#6. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: THE DREAM CHILD

How’d you like to give birth to that greasy little lopsided scalp? Oh but it happened, baby Freddy and his melting flesh was indeed shot fresh out of the womb in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET: THE DREAM CHILD. Or, more germane, old Krueger haunts the dreams of Alice’s unborn baby in the film, which in itself presents a whole host of horrifying scenarios. See, he does this in order to be reborn in the physical world, which of course results in that grotesque abomination seen above. The only thing I can think of that might be worse if Freddy somehow impregnated a gal in her sleep and forced her to give birth to his true offspring. Producers of FREDDY 9, get at me!

#7. DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004)

Holding firmly among the best horror remakes, as blasphemous as it may seem, is Zack Snyder’s 2004 redo of DAWN OF THE DEAD. One of the reasons for this, among many, is the disgustingly graphic moral quandary involving a zombified baby being haphazardly delivered in a mall-front store. Shite’s gnarly! As for the pregnancy itself, you can all but feel the intense pain poor Luda (Inna Korobkina) was suffering through.

#8. VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960)

Allow us to veer into a pregnancy premise of a different breed, as the original 1960 version of VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED was less interested in a single insemination, instead far more into exploring an entire community of mysteriously impregnated women as a sort of odd alien race in itself. We know John Carpenter tried admirably to revive the material in 1995, but to far lesser effect than German director Wolf Rilla’s original. Of course, the pregnancies are completed with birth, giving life to a race of glowing-eyed children who would get their own sequel four years later in CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED.

#9. THE UNBORN (1991)

The only superior aspect of the deplorable 2009 version of THE UNBORN was the supple derriere of one Odette Annable (those tighty whiteys yo!), everything else was embarrassingly subpar. Not that the 1991 original is or was an unassailable masterpiece or anything, but damn, just cop a peek at that arresting image above. Shite’s no joke! For the uninitiated, the plot follows a couple having difficulty getting pregnant. After deciding to go the in-vitro route, soon the expecting mother begins feeling unwelcome sensations in her body. When the couple learns they were the subject of a radical experiment, yup, it’s too late!

#10. GRACE (2009)

While probably not the best overall film on this list, the premise of Paul Solet’s 2009 horror joint GRACE has as unsettling a setup as any. Check it. When a young lass is told her pregnancy has suffered a stillbirth, she decides to carry the corpse to term. Upon delivery, the baby revives, only to develop a thirst for human blood and draw a large swarm of flies. Unreal! The drama of the film then comes via the decisions the new mother must make, and how far her love of her child, no matter how irregular, is willing to be taken. Props to Jordan Ladd for delivering a hell of a turn!