Hell Baby

It just ended up feeling like a kind of disjointed, slow sketch comedy American Horror Story.

The whole movie felt too flat and blunt. It's like they thought up clever or funny ideas, but threw them out in the simple way possible. And then they made sure to let them linger, as if they were pausing for audience laughter. Hell, sometimes it even felt like a laugh track would improve the movie.

I mean, the "Scary Movie"s are full of those broad and cheap laughs. This on the other hand, is quirkier and WANTS to be more than that. And unlike the Scary Movies, it DOES feel like one whole story, instead of a bunch of sketches spoofing horror flicks. But every scene felt like it dragged on for too long, way past when you "got" the joke and were ready for them to go deeper or move on or add more layers or something. And that made it come out stale. Over and over, it took you out of the movie, and reminded you that this is just a bunch of funny friends who went out there with a camera and a simple idea to have fun. That idea...just happened to only be 20 minutes worth of story and gags, that they had to stretch out to an hour and a half.

And as much as I could respect the kind of story they wanted to tell, the ways they were trying to milk comedy, and the characters they created...it's just not well edited or put together. There's not enough story, the jokes were too on the nose, and I left it kinda disappointed. This had a lot going for it: great cast, clever creative people behind it. But you might be better off just watching "This Is the End" instead.

Oh, and a certain scene with Riki Lindhome was really random and fully appreciated...

I grew up with parodies, stuff that was making fun of other movies through references rather than vulgarity or silliness. I tried to enjoy many of the parodies of today and I couldn't, because they were not meant to be real movies, they didn't have acting, but just an ugly caricature of the art.

I am happy to report that Hell Baby is a really fun parody of possession movies! It references a lot of them, but not in a direct recreation of scenes or using toilet humor, instead by taking the parody and putting it into a well acted film. All actors involved played really well, but Rob Corddry was the highlight of the film. Also Keegan-Michael Key added a lot to the comedy of the situation.

The plot is that a family awaiting twins move into a run down house in a bad neighborhood. The house is possessed and soon lovely Leslie Bibb, the pregnant mother, is as well. The demolition of horror clichés soon follows.

Bottom line: I am not really into comedies and I don't easily laugh at them. Parodies have to be even better than a normal comedy, because I've seen the movies they are making fun of and they have to be at least funnier than those - which is a hard thing to do for some of the horror films around. And yet I really enjoyed Hell Baby and I recommend it to just about everyone. Well done!

It's clear from the get go that this is gonna be a silly film. It started to worry me early on that it may be too low brow for even my unrefined pallet, so I played a game of chicken with it and attempted to remain stone faced for as long as I could. As is often the case with this brand of brazen comedy, it certainly takes a lot of swings at humour, and many are bound to miss. Yet as I stared it down, it eventually got the best of me and managed to elicit a good chuckle from a handful of it's dumb jokes. The cast is a rather impressive lineup of familiar faces, most of them cracking a good line here and there while rarely crossing a threshold of irredeemable obnoxiousness. It doesn't win any points for creativity as it merely rehashes worn possession film tropes, and it's not even the first film to spoof the genre. But the comfortingly familiar horror elements do meld well with the goofy stoner humour, making for crude, unchallenging entertainment.

I wait-listed a ticket for this film at Sundance, knowing nothing about it. In line, I found out that it was a Thomas Lennon film. Awesome - huge fan. Starring Keegan Michael Key? You got me.

While there were lulls and dead spots, ultimately the movie was successful in making fun of common scary movie themes while simultaneously seeming original. It had me laughing much more often than it had me simply watching. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I will say that, aside the middle-aged woman sitting in front of me, the film had everyone engulfed and having fun.

I just found out the film got picked up, and I'm glad. It definitely deserves it. I just hope the suits don't cut out some of the more graphic scenes before its theatrical release.

Hilarious, gross, sexy, original, sometimes even genuinely scary, this film was nothing short of a quality horror film parody.

General movie rating - 6.5/10 Comedy Movie Rating - 8/10

I loved this movie. If you go in expecting some big budget plot driven parody you'll be disappointed. What you get is sketch based comedy where the absurd situations are purely reasons for the characters to improv some hilarious one liners. These guys can all deadpan with the best of 'em and the whole movie is played that way perfectly. Bonus love if you are from the south and familiar with Cajun cuisine and stereotypes. There is gore, over the top gore but the movie is not based around that nor does it derive it's comedy from the gross factor. I have no doubt that time will be kind to this movie and it will get cult status, there are so many great quotes for it not to have a long life. I hope it makes enough money so the writers and actors can make more improv based deadpan insanity.