Baby Blues (2008)

Directed by Lars Jacobson [Other horror films: N/A] & Amardeep Kaleka [Other horror films: N/A]

Often considered one of the more disturbing horror films made in recent times, Baby Blues is certainly a memorable film. It may not provide the most fun you’ve had while watching a movie, but no one can say that Baby Blues is forgettable.

The story, revolving around a mother who, due to mental issues, goes after her children to kill them, is pretty disturbing. And that’s basically the movie – at around 80 minutes, there’s not a whole lot to it, but don’t let that fool you into thinking the movie’s any less tense.

I don’t know any of the actors from the film, but there wasn’t one that negatively stood out. Colleen Porch did great as the insane mother, and boy, did she ever seem like she utterly lost it. It wasn’t even clear if she realized she was killing her children, or if she thought she was simply ‘punishing’ them. Fantastic performance from her. Ridge Canipe, playing the central character and one of the kids, did a great job for a child performer. Joel Bryant and Gene Whitman also did good jobs, Whitman in particular playing a character I really liked.

There’s certainly some shocking violence in the film which goes beyond just the mother going after her children with a pitchfork. There’s multiple impalements, painful-looking cuts by butcher knife, and plenty of violence, none of it over-the-top, to keep you going. Because much of it is a mother inflicting such pain onto her children, it can be a bit much for some people, but it’s done pretty well.

This is a somewhat controversial film, and I know that there are some that are decidedly against the idea of this movie, and some even who refuse to watch it, calling it ‘tasteless.’ I’m not a mother, nor a parent of any kind, but it’s certainly everyone’s right to refuse to watch something they’ve no interest in. They’re missing out, though, because Baby Blues does a very good job with what they had, being a lower-budget, straight-to-video film, and while the content can be hard to sit through, I definitely recommend it.

8/10

And as an extra feature, a friend and I covered this on a podcast I do with Fight Evil, which you can listen to below: