Saturday, June 23, 2012

The Baby (1973) - Movie Review


Ann Gentry is a recently widowed social worker returning to her job. Upon coming back, her first case is the Wadsworth family. She goes to meet them and is introduced to Mrs. Wadsworth and her two grown, peculiar daughters, Germaine and Alba. Shockingly, what has led Ann to this family is the youngest of the family. A crawling, bottle nursing, diaper wearing, twenty-one year old baby.  Ann makes it her mission to take the child known only as Baby out of their home.

At first, you let the movie roll and you may be surprised at how seriously the movie takes itself. The plot sounds like an Adam Sandler feature, but director Ted Post and writer Abe Polsky had no comedic intentions at all. The middle of the movie tends to drag a bit, and after I almost abandoned any hopes of significant plot development, the last twenty minutes are when the movie does the unthinkable. It blows your mind.

I had limited expectations when watching The Baby. As a fan of not just horror movies, but their history, I’ve been let down on several occasions when I see a movie from yesteryear, like the 1960’s and 1970’s because of all the hype surrounding the movie, whether it was banned from certain countries or it was deemed a cult shocker. Most of them are primetime dramas compared to todays over the top blood fests and demon orgies, but The Baby was able to do what so few horror movies of any year have been able to do. It shocked me. It might not shock you as much, and folks might and can see this movie as being just plain stupid, but I took what was offered and it got me. Plus, there’s a lot of nice looking women in the movie. 



No comments: