Hell Baby

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.

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...

"It started with white people moving into the neighborhood." Jack (Corddry) and Vanessa (Bibb) are expecting twins and have just moved into a new neighborhood. Before they can get settled they are told the history of the house they are in. Vanessa begins to experience strange things but doesn't realize it. Jack is worried and questions what is happening. So, what can I say about this. The group that did Reno 911 did this movie so that is the baseline to go off of. The jokes that were in Haunted House and Scary Movie 5 are pretty much repeated again here. Some of the jokes go on a little too long while others are funny at first but begin to tire after the repetition. It is hard to say too many bad things about this because the cast is funny and really carry the movie for as long as they can but like the other two movies I mentioned it can't sustain laughs the entire time. This is a movie that would be better watched in twenty minute segments rather then all at once. Overall, a movie that is funny but gets repetitive and loses steam toward the end. I give it a B-.

This movie certainly does deserve more then the low ratings it has. I wanted to give it 6.5 but that's not possible so a 6 it is. I can see why people dislike it, because they probably expected something completely else but it is what it is. It's a parody of horror movies with some stupid jokes, and that's what it is supposed to be. The stupider they are the funnier it gets. As soon as I saw Keegan-Michael Key was in it I was skeptical because I absolutely hate him in the TV-show "Planet's funniest animals", but in this movie he was actually not that bad. I even laughed out loud a couple times. Don't expect horror or anything even though there are a lot of bloody gory scenes because it's all too funny to be scared. I don't regret watching this at all.

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!