The Baby

This is a low budget thriller about a bizarre family: a woman and her two grown daughters who are raising ?Baby,? a fully grown man in diapers. Supposedly he's mentally retarded, but a social worker who visits has her doubts. She starts to investigate the family. The film delivers some surprisingly good performances: the looks exchanged between the mom and her daughters and the social worker are terrific, and reveal a lot of creepy subtext. You begin to wonder about the motivations of everyone involved. The ending is a nice little twist that's unexpected and worth the wait. This not high caliber art, but it is fun, and delightfully twisted.

Worthwhile,off beat, modern Gothic tale centering on a dysfunctional family that emasculates the only male in the family by keeping him a baby:even though he is fully grown. And lucky "Baby", all the women in the film want him for their own reasons. An unusual premise, with effective performances, efficient direction, and good use of location makes for an enjoyably twisted B movie. The movie drags a bit toward the end, and begins to seem a bit thin, but it remains compelling. A real find on budget DVD.

Comer is well-cast in the lead and Roman's performance is classic. As Roman's daughters, cult figure Marianna Hill (Red Line 7000,Medium Cool, High Plains Drifter,Dead People) and Suzanne Zenor are convincingly creepy. And did I mention Beatrice Manley Blau as Comer's mother-in-law? Now, she's scary!

Slick and sick little film that ends with a nice twist. Shelved by the studio;than given a limited theatrical release. A bit difficult to categorize but, definitely worth seeking out. The DVD, regrettably, has no extras but, the transfer looks good.

They could never make a film like this today. If they did, it would have an all-star cast, a loud, obtrusive score, and dizzying, roller-coaster camera effects. Back in the 70s they had to get by on talent, imagination and audacity alone. Luckily, they had plenty of that back then. This is not a 'twisted" film, at least anywhere nearly as twisted as say, "Bad Boy Bubby" or "Sonny Boy" (now those movies are reeeeally twisted!), but then what can one expect from Hollywood? This movie is like Diabolique made as a 1970s TV movie-of-the-week with a drive-in sleaze chaser. There's definitely a lack of credibility in this movie's plot - not that a woman couldn't keep her grown son in the mental state of a six-month infant. That's plausible and has happened before, but it's extremely unlikely that the authorities who knew about this kid all those years wouldn't have insisted on special schooling and therapy from day one. But who cares? Here we've got a film with two wicked Barbie Doll sisters who have venom in their veins and just looove to tease men. There's some great bad seventies fashion and a 'wild party' scene (well, wild for the suburbs. Ahh, Hollywood – so out of touch!). And what can you say about Ruth Roman? She's Joan Crawford, Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine all rolled into one. They just don't make broads like that anymore!

As mentioned by others, there are lots of twists and turns in the plot, but most anyone can figure them out very early on. But again, who cares? This movie works because of its audacity in the face of its conventionality and well, there is an intelligence at work somewhere in the midst of its drive-in movie formula. Take that whole scene with the babysitter for instance (for those who haven't seen this, you'll just have to see for yourself). I knew what was going to happen, but the way it built up so naturally seemed very honest and real. Which is why it freaked me out so much. Every now and then the film slips that comfort rug out from under you. Freak city! Then it relaxes safely in the realms of convention, but that's okay too because the whole movie has such charming camp appeal. Let's make that clear: this is a camp movie, NOT a horror movie! It's stupidly being marketed as horror, so it's understandable that the kiddies who are looking for lots of gore and boobies are feeling disappointed. Stick with Argento, kids! Oh yeah… huge kudos to David Mooney (Manzy – whatever) who played 'Baby'. He should have become a star.

I first saw "The Baby" on a late night horror show called "Grimsley". It was on TV so of course they had to edit the very few graphic scenes, but it is still nonetheless disturbing. But as a 9 year old kid, watching a man-child in diapers didn't scare me a bit. Monsters scared me. So this movie was just goofy and at the same time interesting. Why would anyone be interested in such a warped conceit as "The Baby". It's just weird and intriguing. But it also has a sweetness to it. The outcome of course is a very eerie twist and touching outlook on love and compassion. Whether or not this film intentionally tried to freak you out or just paint a strangely humanistic picture, it succeeds on the freakish level. But its played with total seriousness. Serious and corny. Don't be surprised if you catch find yourself shaking your head repeatedly at this movie, you will also be surprised at how much it will mesmerize you.

Don't bother looking for a single sane character in this twisted, demented sickie, because there isn't one; you just keep watching and waiting to see who will prove to be the most perverse of them all. If you can accept the hard-to-swallow premise, then the film is fairly entertaining. Plus, it has an AMAZING ending. You won't see it coming, no matter how good you think you are at predicting plot surprises. (**)