O Bebê

Bizarre, truly twisted tale of a mother who keeps her grown son in a perpetual infant state. Conflict arises when a social worker tries to intervene. Very low budget and flatly photographed yet it's offbeat enough to keep you going all the way to it's twist ending. There are not too many roles requiring grown men to wear diapers, sleep in a crib, and cry, but if there were Manzy would most certainly win the award. Hill and Zenor, as the two daughters, are sexy enough to create some diversion. Roman and Comer make good adversaries, which they play to the hilt!!

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.

The Baby joins a select club of really flaky little films from the poofy-hair-on-guys era, early 70's to early 80's; the best of these was Night Warning, William Shatner's wigged-out Impulse is another, the MST'd Touch of Satan is another. The Baby and Impulse even share the services of the wondrous Ruth Roman, who in The Baby looks more than ever like Victor Mature in full drag. All these feature somebody driving around in a Dodge Dart or a Maverick and plot twists that make you ask, "What were these people ON?"

Ted Post was already in his late fifties when he did The Baby, so the lame direction can't be written off as a young director learning his craft. It just plain sucks. Anjanette Comer stands around screeching and flapping her hands for emphasis like she's at a community-theater audition; it's hard to see any of the luminescent Aimee Thanatogenos from The Loved One, just eight years before. And Baby is a hoot - this was pretty much the entire career of the hard-working young actor trying to make us believe he's a teenager operating at a 9-month-old level, but somebody decided to dub in the sounds of a real baby coming from his adult voice-box, and you don't buy the bit for five seconds.

But there's just enough here to make it worthwhile to stick it out for the snapper ending. Anybody who says they guessed where this was going is lying like a red dog. It's no Night Warning, but if you've seen Night Warning and you need another sip from the same bucket, it'll do.

This is a bizarre piece of southern gothic. It's a movie full of bright primary colors and very over-the-top performances. I can't really figure out what it's really about but it's fascinating, morbid, perverse and has one of the most shocking twists at the end of it.

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.