The Mother

I picked this up cheap on DVD, under the title Cradle Will Fall, yet the credits on the movie read Baby Blues. Why do they do that?? Just keep it the same! As with so many of these budget purchases I go in with low expectations, however Baby Blues proved to be fairly decent. Inspired by true events, a mother of four young kids suffers with postpartum and while the father is away in his truck she flips and embarks on a bloody killing spree. In true slasher movie style. It's very disturbing and graphic, the sight of a mother butchering her children is not easy to stomach. The rural location adds to the helplessness of the children's situation, there's a creepy scarecrow and corn fields (a nod to Children of the Corn?). Acting is decent, in particular Ridge Canipe as 10 year old Jimmy. I do pass on many of my DVDs after I've watched them but I may just hang on to this one and revisit it again in the future.

The team that created this movie did an amazing job! This was a jarring thriller, from beginning to end. It is one of those rare movies that horror lovers like me wait for but so rarely find. Be warned though. The violence in this movie become extremely graphic at times. I was truly surprised that the director had the guts to take it as far as he did.

The story begins simply enough. The movie opens by introducing us to a young family no different than many in the heartland of middle America. The hard-working father is a long-haul trucker whose job takes him away from his family for longer stretches of time than he'd like. He and his wife have four children, the youngest only a few months old. By all accounts it seems to be a loving family. The misfortune develops as the mother's mental stability begins to break down after the birth of her last child. She begins experiencing auditory and visible hallucinations just as her husband is preparing to leave for another road trip. He's a loving father, but distracted by the demands of caring for a growing family. The oldest son, who is about twelve, tries to tell his father that the mother is not well. But the dad is too worn out to absorb the reality of his wife's impending mental breakdown.

If you can't get past the horrifying concept of a mother turning against her family, this is not the movie for you. But if you want to suspend reality for a while and jump on a terror-filled ride to hell, you've found what you are looking for!

Amazing horror film a must watch dark and scary i truly love this film

On a secluded family farm(huge props to the location scout), a mother(Porch, handling both the sympathetic aspects and the one line delivering attempts at creating a genre icon, a la Jason Voorhees) snaps and becomes violent towards her four youngsters. Her husband is a long-distance trucker, and won't be home for many hours. It is up to their oldest, 13-year old Jimmy(Canipe, getting across how resourceful he is, whilst still being a kid. He's a much better child actor than anyone should expect from someone his age) to save their lives.

Considering the fact that this is actually straight to video, it is wild how well made this is. The cinematography and editing are efficient and chilling. You see some of the auditory and visual hallucinations brought on by schizophrenia and postpartum psychosis(not "merely" depression, despite the title), that Mom is experiencing. The music is ominous. This is tense, suspenseful and creepy. A significant chunk of this is the chase, and despite its short length - even if you include the end credits it's only an hour and 14 minutes(!) - it has more of that, than a number of movies that are significantly longer.

The horror genre tends to explore basically any taboo that standards of good taste will allow them. The death of little ones remains one of the few that a lot of films will leave entirely untouched. So when this crosses that boundary early, and threatens to do it multiple times, and by the hands of a parent, a *mum*, obviously it's something that's going to attract attention. Wisely, this doesn't tend to show a lot of violence and gore when it comes to those victims. Even so, this is tremendously exploitative. And the ending sends that into the stratosphere. You may want to stop watching not long before it actually concludes - trust me, you'll know when.

I recommend this solely to those who feel strong anxiety about the idea of someone murdering their own offspring, and believe that this picture could help them work through that. My rating is based on the talent that went into making this, and does not reflect how messed up I think it is to make a slasher flick out of this concept. 8/10.

Surprisely a great movie. I never expect good movie that I find in a 4 packs but I can't believe how good this was. It's the quintessential mother vs. son horror. This movie reminded me a lot of AmityVille Horror in a sense. A little boy fights to survive and protect his siblings when his mother has a psychotic break.