Baby Blues (2008 Video) User Reviews

Tense and Scary

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 3 October 2009]

The smart ten year-old Jimmy (Ridge Canipe) lives in an isolated farm with his mother (Coleen Porch) and his three younger siblings. His father (Joel Bryant) is a truck driver that spends most of the time on the road leaving the family under the care of his wife. When he travels during the night to deliver some cargo in a nearby town, his stressed wife finds a match box of a stripper-club in one of his pockets and this finding triggers a psychotic breakdown on her. She kills the baby boy and tries to drown her daughter Cathy (Cali Majors) but Jimmy saves his sister. Then she stabs her son Sammy (Holden Thomas Maynard) and chases Jimmy and Cathy through the cornfields in a dreadful night of terror.

"Baby Blues" is a tense and scary movie that tells the story of a mother that has a psychotic breakdown and kills her defenseless children during the night. The story is very simple and only the conclusion is disappointing, with dad accepting mom back home only to give a hook for a sequel. The cast is sensational, highlighting Coleen Porch and the boy Ridge Canipe in a very difficult role for a child. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Herança Maldita" ("Damned Heritage")

Pretty decent rural shocker

[Stevieboy666 · 6/10 · 26 January 2019]

I picked this up cheap on DVD, under the title Cradle Will Fall, yet the credits on the movie read Baby Blues. Why do they do that?? Just keep it the same! As with so many of these budget purchases I go in with low expectations, however Baby Blues proved to be fairly decent. Inspired by true events, a mother of four young kids suffers with postpartum and while the father is away in his truck she flips and embarks on a bloody killing spree. In true slasher movie style. It's very disturbing and graphic, the sight of a mother butchering her children is not easy to stomach. The rural location adds to the helplessness of the children's situation, there's a creepy scarecrow and corn fields (a nod to Children of the Corn?). Acting is decent, in particular Ridge Canipe as 10 year old Jimmy. I do pass on many of my DVDs after I've watched them but I may just hang on to this one and revisit it again in the future.

Worthwhile but not for the faint of heart

[Siamois · 6/10 · 19 August 2008]

Lately, I have been disappointed by the overgenerous ratings on IMDb and so, it is with skepticism that I watched "Baby Blues". I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the experience despite some flaws in this modest production.

I should also point out that I hate spoilers (and try to keep my reviews free of them) and try to avoid any blurbs before watching a movie. I expected a somewhat mild, made-for-TV drama/thriller and boy, was I wrong! Without spoiling anything, be aware that this movie can be deemed *extremely* disturbing to many viewers. The basic plot follows a modest rural family in the south, where young children have to cope with an absent father and an unstable mother being prone to some form of the "baby blues".

The direction is quite raw but achieves the tension required to make it work. One must deplore the opening, which states the sensationalist "based on actual events" but is really just a cheap, marketing stunt. The film, is in fact, not based on actual events at all and there is even a disclaimer in the end titles clearing that up. However, the basic plot is more than enough to make a worthy thriller (and it bears to be repeated, some scenes are very disturbing and might qualify this as horror for many). The co-directors both developed the characters just enough for us to care, although it seems in the end, some of the actual development of the father figure played by Joel Bryant doesn't pay off.

Without a doubt, I think the element of this production that will be most talked about (besides the disturbing events suffered by the children) will be the lead actress Colleen Porch, who plays the mother. I can't say I have ever noticed her (she did appear in a CSI episode I must have watched, but I have no memory of it whatsoever) but there is no way you can miss her interesting and very promising performance here. The directors must have realized this too, as it seems they highlight her performances at times. Porch's characterization as the mother is uneven and she does overact at times, yet more often than not, she pulls it off brilliantly. The result is at times very impressive and will remind some of Jack Nicholson's Torrance in "The Shining". Colleen's role requires nuances that she doesn't master yet but she definitely has screen presence and I would love to see her in other roles. Beautiful, intense eyes too! As for the kids, they do well. Ridge Canipe, the eldest, takes some time to get used to yet in the end, wins us over and as he grows comfortable in his role, so does the empathy we feel for his character.

Is this a great movie? No. The direction is at times on the goofy side. Photography and lighting are on par with small productions. There are exceptions, like some great shots of the environment, or some solid angles during tensed scenes, only for the next one to be a head scratcher. Like the acting, it's very inconsistent, very hit-and-miss. But again, the talent is there and that makes it a good, solid entry.

It's difficult to label the movie. There's enough genuine drama for this to be a drama. There are some thrills. And there are horrific scenes. The direction and script seems to borrow from several flicks, from classic to cult classic. There's definitely more style than substance, yet an honest attempt at substance is there.

Somewhere between The Shining, High Tension, Single White Female and Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door, this movie is a mish-mash of genres and an independent production that shows its flaws, yet succeeds in engaging you and giving a decent thrill ride.

And ironically enough, although the co-directors are nowhere near as accomplished or as ambitious as Michael Haneke, Baby Blues also achieves what "Funny Games" set out to do far more effectively, and without even trying. I give it a good 6 and hope to see more of Lars E. Jacobson, Amardeep Kaleka, Ridge Canipe, Joel Bryant and especially, the very intriguing Colleen Porch.

Baby blue was the color of her bloodshot eyes

[Cujo108 · 26 July 2010]

A long haul trucker hits the road just as his wife is in the throes of a psychotic break due to postpartum depression. Now left alone with their mother, the oldest son must attempt to protect his three siblings and escape their isolated farmhouse.

What a discovery! It's hard to believe that I hadn't heard of Baby Blues before renting it on a whim last October. This is a disturbing film with some intense imagery. The first 30 minutes are especially rattling, as we are treated to an all too realistic portrait of a mental breakdown. One particularly effective scene sees the mother sitting in a daze as she imagines heinous sounds emanating from the baby monitor in place of her baby's actual crying. The film eventually turns more towards a slasher type scenario, only with kids as the victims instead of the typical teenagers. Not to say that it gets less disturbing, it actually doesn't. The kills get under your skin, especially the first one we're witness to involving the sharp point of a mirror.

Colleen Porch is fantastic as the mother, never taking things over the top, something that easily could have happened. The kids are good too, all perfectly believable as normal children in a terrible situation that they don't fully understand. There's a scene where the mother attempts to drown her daughter in the bathtub, the whole thing made more effective by the reaction of the girl's brother in the background, a reaction that rang very true to me.

This isn't a film for everyone. It is often hard to watch due to the unnerving nature of what unfolds on the screen. For others like myself who prefer to feel something when watching a horror film, this is one that you won't want to miss. It's exceptionally well done.

not bad at all

[trashgang · 7/10 · 17 October 2010]

I never noticed this flick not even by it's other name Baby Blues but a friend in the UK told me that it was worth watching. Well, in fact it was. So called based on true events this flick surely isn't for the weak at heart. Not that it is gory or that bloody but it concerns children. In the seventies it was common to shoot children or give them a good beating in films. Today's standards don't allow that kind of cinema anymore. But still some directors aren't afraid to show a child being slaughtered. Lars Jacobson, the director did a good job, this being his first effort. The way he used some shots were nicely done. It all involves a woman who has to take care of her children. Her husband is always on the road so she has to do it in fact on her own, but she can't take it. Slowly she turns into hatred towards her offspring. One evening at dinner she goes bonkers and things go heavenly wrong. What a great performance from Colleen Porch (Transformers, Starship Troopers 2) but also from the young ones. A flick overlooks from the geeks but worth a look.

Very good thriller/horror ruined by a silly ending

[daggersineyes · 5/10 · 27 August 2013]

The subject matter of this movie is disturbing. Let's get that out of the way to start with. But nevertheless this is a well put together horror movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat right the way through. There are a couple of mis-fires in the plot and camera work (which are discussed elsewhere in these reviews so I wont rehash them) but for the most part this is very well done.

The acting is superb. The kids are exceptionally good especially the oldest boy in a very demanding role - the film is carried by him as much as the mother character. The only real let down is the ending. Sorry, but it was completely stupid. That just wouldn't happen in real life and when you take such great pains to make a "realistic" movie you can't get away with such a ridiculous conclusion to it. The same is true of the major plot holes. I still recommend this movie - as long as you can handle the idea of children being killed which not everyone can do. BUT I would stop the movie a couple of minutes before the end. You'll know the spot. It was a perfect place to finish but then they jumped forward a few weeks or whatever and stuck in a ludicrous "surprise".

The thing is, if you're going to tackle a subject as distressing and fraught as a mother murdering her children you absolutely cannot make it a silly, "fright night" shocker with gaping plot holes and tacked on stupid "twists" at the end. You can get away with doing that in most horror flicks - especially slashers - because people don't mind as much when it's totally exaggerated and not very likely stuff going on all through the movie. But this movie was handling something much more real and terribly possible involving children AND they were portraying it as a straight realistic story, not as something supernatural or bizarre. The makers of this flick needed to keep that in mind and show respect for the topic, but instead they went for the cheap and nasty option. I think this explains their low ratings.

One of the better movies around in this genre right now - especially if you prefer realistic drama, nail-biting suspense & acting over simplistic "gore-fests". But it lost a lot of points for the ending & some ridiculous plot issues.

My Review

[joemamaohio · 6/10 · 29 August 2008]

A young mother (Colleen Porch), who has just recently given birth to her fourth child, is suffering from post-partem psychosis, meaning she hears voices, and contemplates suicide and homicide. When she suspects her truck driving husband (Joel Bryant) of cheating on her, she goes over the edge and takes it out on her young children.

Eldest son Jimmy (Ridge Canipe) tries to protect his siblings while trying to find help, but his mother seems to be an unstoppable killing machine.

What makes "Baby Blues" a decent film isn't the acting or effects, but rather the raw emotion emitted by the actors. You feel for the children, and you want the mother to pay for what she did to them. Suffering from a mental illness or not, the things she did to her children is highly unacceptable in any situation, and it angers me personally when people like that get away with committing such heinous crimes under the guise of 'mental illness.'

Forgive me for watching this. *spoilers!*

[chatte027 · 1/10 · 25 September 2011]

Man oh man, was this movie disturbing! And no not in the good way, where its over and you're like oh crap! that was creepy. No, in the,I can't believe I was able to sit through that whole movie, kinda way. I thought the premise of the movie was, the house is haunted and its got mom, lets beat this super natural force! But no, the mom just snaps. Which leaves me watching an entire movie of a mother ruthlessly trying to kill her kids. I only continued to watch hoping and hoping, for some kind of explanation or justification, besides she went crazy after her most recent birth of her third child. Like in the Amityville movie ( since they compare Baby Blues to that on the back) where the house is haunted and they need to beat the house. And that ending! Are you kidding me?! That poor boy! This movie so messed up on so many different levels. Seriously I feel like a worse person being able to say I've seen this demented movie.

Very impressive work

[tux-12 · 9/10 · 27 July 2008]

This film may remind The Night of the Hunter, not only because of the same theme of a kid fighting an adult and trying to protect siblings, but also for the quality of suspense, directing and acting.

There are differences. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) is a dangerous fanatic, who is after money. He is full of hate, but not completely insane. So, Colleen Porch, excellent as the mother affected by baby blues, is more to compare to Jack Torrance in The Shining, or the woman in À L'Intérieur (Inside). You can feel the same progression of their tormented mind until the irreversible point where schizophrenia takes over and they plunge into madness.

The frightening atmosphere and violence of Haute Tension (High Tension) is also there. Corn fields at night have been used in many films, and here again in a scary chase. There are in fact, many individual elements that have been seen elsewhere, such as Mom breaking the door with a chopper, similar to Jack using an axe in The Shining, and more that I will let you identify easily. But it would be a mistake to think that the director/writer has just stolen ideas from other films of this category. He has made a terrific job, because more than in many of these films, the story is actually believable. It says during the opening that it is based on actual events. It is possible, even if it cannot be the exact story as shown in the film.

For all those who enjoyed the masterpieces of terror that I mentioned, and to which it can be compared, I strongly suggest to watch it.

Very creepy horror movie...

[MovieGuy01 · 7/10 · 1 October 2009]

I First saw Cradle Will Fall a couple of weeks ago and i found it to be quite a disturbing but very good film. The mother suffers a psychotic breakdown due to postpartum depression and the stress of family life which makes her want to kill her children 10,7,4, and 3 months. Her husband has gone away. Now Jimmy,the eldest son has to help the family survive. Jimmy must try to protect his brothers and sister. He has to fight off his mother to stop her from hurting the rest of the children. I thought this was a very strong film at times with some disturbing seances which could scare viewers. Apart from this i thought it was a very good horror movie.

Disgusting excuse for a movie

[jaimec25 · 1/10 · 25 May 2009]

Spoilers contained below:

Apparently there are several people on this board who get their thrills from watching young children murdered by their mother. This is not a horror movie. This is not a thriller. It is about a poor, sick woman who goes crazy after the birth of her last child and butchers her young children in front of her other children. Then at the end the woman is apparently going to be allowed to go home with her last surviving child and her husband is okay with all of this!! You have to be kidding me. As the mother of 3 children I could not watch this movie. It was completely disturbing and I am furious that it was billed as a thriller and so I was suckered into renting it. If I could have given it 0 stars or -100 stars then I would have.

If you like watching young children murdered then this is definitely the movie for you. If you find that sort of thing sickening then stay away!

Where has this film been hiding?

[REDNECK_ZOMBIE · 9/10 · 16 May 2009]

Like many horror fans, I spend a lot of time wading through the proverbial garbage that saturates the genre, in search of those hidden gems. BABY BLUES is just such a find. Beautiful cinematography, a tight script, and some really solid performances make for a terrifying journey into a child's worst nightmare. My biggest question is, why has it taken me so long to find this flick? It seems to have completely slipped under the radar. This film is 10 times better the most theatrically released horror films. If you are a horror fan, or just a fan of great independent cinema, I strongly recommend you check this out!

Good movie, could have been better

[kimlwalker · 7/10 · 21 March 2009]

This movie was good, but it could have been so much better. It could have been the SCARRIEST MOVIE EVER!!! What could be scarier than your own mother loosing her mind & coming after you to kill you & brothers & sisters. The film was shot well & the acting was good (the mothers acting was VERY good) The filmmakers did a good job of keeping me on the edge of my seat, but I do think they fell short in couple of areas. The mother's transition into madness was not done well. They should have spent more time letting us get to know her, (though I did like talking in the mirror ala Travis Bickel in Taxie Driver) The other thing that DROVE ME CRAZY was the children's lack of reaction to deaths of the their siblings!! If you see your brother or sister killed by your mother, you would not only be scarred, but HORRIFIED!! The filmmakers also did not give us chance to feel the lose of children we had gotten to know. When each one was killed, we just moved on to the chase, like a tired Friday The 13th sequel. But despite it's short comings, I was still on the edge of my seat throughout last half of the movie. It's definitely worth checking out.

NC-17 HORROR !!! keep your children AWAY off this garbage!

[nirothegreat · 1/10 · 28 September 2008]

and this friendly suggestion is good for you too, all who love good movies including thrillers, because this is NOT, by all means, a thriller nor a "good movie". It was intentionally made in order to frighten the s***t out of you! Also there is no plot, no characters, it's shallow and based on creepy twisted minds of the writer and directors. Nothing is there which could be based on true events, despite the fact that occasionally there are women who murder their off-springs.

Ridge Canipe - Jimmy - acts quite well but all the others are just disasters. Well, there's not really a plot to act with. The little girl acting is so bad that I wonder if all talented little girls mothers gave up Hollywood's dream.

***BEWARE - SPOILERS AHEAD***

Next are some BS points containing ***SPOILERS***;

1.In a country's quite night every noise is heard clearly and loudly. No way an intensely horn blowing wouldn't get intention/reaction. And the old man's hearing was perfect and the music's volume was low.

2. Combine chase - same as no.1 (living in the country I know what I'm talking about).

3. No way the special sound of the radio-transmitter wouldn't caught the attention of the driver, no matter how loud is the music. (same as with cell-phones).

4. A mass-murderer, is always considered as psychotic (if not a psychopath) and being "a danger to society", therefore is kept locked away in an asylum/jail for a long time and should take drugs for the rest of hie/hers life. The same goes for crazy mothers who murder not "only" their children but their neighbors and dog's neighbors as well. Being psychotic means that the episode might return under pressure.

5. American authorities are strict and severe in all issues concerning child-care. No way a parent, under such horrific circumstances, would be aloud to take his psychologically and physically wounded child back home under the care of his crazy mother.

There is much more crap in this pile but I have my life and many good movies are waiting there for me.

WOW!!!! Excellent movie!!!!

[IrishLass240 · 12 May 2009]

The team that created this movie did an amazing job! This was a jarring thriller, from beginning to end. It is one of those rare movies that horror lovers like me wait for but so rarely find. Be warned though. The violence in this movie become extremely graphic at times. I was truly surprised that the director had the guts to take it as far as he did.

The story begins simply enough. The movie opens by introducing us to a young family no different than many in the heartland of middle America. The hard-working father is a long-haul trucker whose job takes him away from his family for longer stretches of time than he'd like. He and his wife have four children, the youngest only a few months old. By all accounts it seems to be a loving family. The misfortune develops as the mother's mental stability begins to break down after the birth of her last child. She begins experiencing auditory and visible hallucinations just as her husband is preparing to leave for another road trip. He's a loving father, but distracted by the demands of caring for a growing family. The oldest son, who is about twelve, tries to tell his father that the mother is not well. But the dad is too worn out to absorb the reality of his wife's impending mental breakdown.

If you can't get past the horrifying concept of a mother turning against her family, this is not the movie for you. But if you want to suspend reality for a while and jump on a terror-filled ride to hell, you've found what you are looking for!

Mother vs Son horror

[ohbebe-65844 · 7/10 · 16 May 2019]

Surprisely a great movie. I never expect good movie that I find in a 4 packs but I can't believe how good this was. It's the quintessential mother vs. son horror. This movie reminded me a lot of AmityVille Horror in a sense. A little boy fights to survive and protect his siblings when his mother has a psychotic break.

WE GOT ALL NIGHT

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 11 April 2019]

Mom (Colleen Porch) has a touch of postpartum depression. With the suspect cheating dad (Joel Bryant) traveling on the road as a gear jammer, this does bode well for Jimmy (Ridge Canipe) and his siblings as mom reaches for the pitchfork.

Yup. Mom goes psycho all over her kids. That is pretty much it as it becomes of game of hide and seek to the death.

Didn't really grab me. Oh yea. Inspired by actual events.

Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity.

Offensive child murder movie deserves to be binned

[spotlightne · 1/10 · 20 October 2011]

I was told I had to watch this film. 'It's really scary, you gotta see it!' So I did. Well, I watched half of it. The rest I couldn't stomach. So I switched off. It's needlessly controversial and basically shows a young crazy mother murdering her kids. She kills her baby, then tracks the others down and brutally murders them. All but one I'm told.

And that's it. No real plot. No character depth. Just an excuse to draw the crowds in with a child murder movie. Quite frankly I found it offensive and an insult to my intelligence.

Lord knows what people are thinking on here who are claiming this is some sort of masterpiece. They either need to get a life, see better movies, or go see a shrink.

There is nothing likable about this film, not in a spooky scary horror way. It's devoid of purpose other than to shock. If you like seeing young kids being killed, then watch it. I feel sorry for you, as you obviously need help.

The upshot is she kills three of her kids but instead of being sent away, she is allowed home to live back with her husband and her remaining child. The movie is crazy but the ending is so absurd it's offensive too.

I'm also prepared for a lot of 'this review was not useful' thumbs down. Apparently it's the freaks who 'enjoyed' this film that are responsible.

Utter garbage. Just 1/10.

Creepy horror movie, seriously a terrifying story

[andyrose_tx · 10/10 · 5 September 2008]

Lars E. Jacobson wrote this movie and the box claims it is based on a true story. Which true story its based on or inspired by is not relevant. What is relevant is that Lars E. Jacobson understands what makes a movie horrifying. The plot to this movie is pretty straightforward. A woman, known only as Mom, convincingly portrayed by Colleen Porch, gives birth to her baby boy and begins a descent into madness and psychosis created by the all too common condition, post-partum depression. She begins to see things in drawings made by the children. She believes her husband, an over-the-road trucker who is gone frequently, is cheating on her. And of course, she begins to kill her children, one by one. OK.. enough said about the plot because too much more would spoil this movie if you haven't seen it. And from what I can tell this film isn't trying to make any sort of social statement about post-partum depression. But, many of us know the story of Andrea Yates and mothers like her that simply snapped and killed all of their children in a post-partum depression induced psychosis. Thus this story is all too real and thus all too disturbing.

My wife and I cringed and turned out heads throughout this movie. But not because it is terribly gory or bloody, we love gore and blood. We turned our heads, much as a young child covers his eyes when the monster comes up, to avoid the truly scary parts of this film -- the mother in her madness killing her children. My wife actually pulled our 3 year old son up on to her lap and held him as this woman brutally murdered these children. The film was simply brutal and horrifying. Rarely does a film kill young children, but this one does it, does it in a horrifying and realistic manner, and does it in front of other young children.

The boy who plays the 10 year old son, Jimmy, who does everything he can to protect his siblings from the mother's rage is the actor Ridge Canipe. He is phenomenal. I can't imagine this film won't have a lasting effect on his psyche. The Mom is so believably portrayed by Colleen Porch that I'm quite sure when I see her in other movies I'll immediately have flashbacks to the terror of this film. The cinematography is phenomenal. The directors (Lars Jacobson and Amadreep Kaleka) create many very scary scenes and shots throughout the film. For example, there is one scene where Jimmy is hiding in the chicken coop and his mother, on her knees, looks into the chicken coop through the small entrance used by the chickens, and the look on her face and its framing in the doorway was most reminiscent of the classic Jack shot from Kubrick's THE SHINING.

Although I strongly recommend everyone watch this movie, we will likely never watch this movie again. The movie was simply too psychologically disturbing for the loving parents of three children to endure once more. This horror is real. There is no slasher, there is no zombie, there is no vampire nor werewolf, that is as real as Mom is in BABY BLUES.

As I don't really have a regular rating system that I use to give a film 5 out of 5 stars or whatever, I'll just say whatever rating system you want to use I give it all of them .. 5/5 stars, 10/10 skulls, 5/5 Holy Craps, whatever the case may be. The movie has it all, a great story, great acting, great cinematography, a perfect balance of blood and gore in its kill scenes, and great directing.

Once you get past the shock value, it's really a by the numbers affair.

[u-scum · 2/10 · 11 October 2022]

I'll try to include as few spoilers as possible about this film but let me begin with how a lot of other reviews have approached this film. It's either 'daring' and 'bold' or it's 'shocking' and 'depraved'. Both opinions miss the obvious, it's exploitation. Bad exploitation, at that. The true story upon which this is so loosely based on is a very disturbing tale. Instead of treating the subject matter with any respect, the film makers have produced what can be only be described as a very run of the mill stalk and slash horror, the only difference being the victims. This is where we get the 'bold'/'shocking' element. Yes, the children are the victims. Once you get past this, however, the basic horror tropes, the bad telegraphing, terrible dialogue, etc come thick and fast. A few examples being the catapult, the shotgun on the wall, the cornfield, the nail in the barn, the CB reception. I could go on but I think the worst is the quite subtle....the matchbook. When repairing her husband's jeans, the mother finds a matchbook from a strip joint. Although she has been showing some signs of distress, it's this moment that seems to tip her over the edge. Later, we find that the hubbie has just innocently picked up the book of matches from a work colleague, therefore releasing him from any guilt in the events. I could go on but.... In short, once you get past the initial shock value of the victims, it's so run of the mill.

PS. One more horror trope is the tagged on ending which sees the ridiculous premise of the mother possibly coming home because she was mentally ill at the time and she's pregnant. Mmmm.....so the husband can forgive her murdering three kids and a neighbour (and his dog) and attempting to murder his only other child?! FFS.

Unnerving and pretty disturbing.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 8/10 · 3 June 2009]

Postpartum psychosis is a mental illness,which involves the rapid onset of psychotic symptoms in a woman following childbirth.Symptoms of postpartum psychosis can include feelings of being ordered by God to harm oneself or the children,seeing or hearing things that others don't,out of control feelings and thoughts,random or uncontrollable anxiety attacks or memory lapses.Andrea Yates methodically drowned her 5 children in a bathtub in her Texas house in June 2001.She suffered from post-partum psychosis.In "Baby Blues" the mother is trying to kill her four children.After having a complete psychotic breakdown she smothers the baby and stabs to death two older children.Only her oldest son named Jimmy manages to survive.Colleen Porch is perfectly believable as a murderous mommy with hatchet as are the child actors.The scenes of violence and child murder are mostly off-screen,but still pack one hell of a punch.8 out of 10.

Unpleasant and Well Done

[gpeltz · 8/10 · 14 April 2015]

I'm talking bout the movie Baby Blues, (2008) Written and Directed by Lars Jacobson and co directed by Amar Kaleka, I'm going to be talking about the movie so this is my Spoiler Alert. This is an extremely disturbing movie, all the more so because it is based on true events. It was filmed in Savannah Georgia, and makes the most of it's location shooting. The scene is a rural farm house. Mom, played by Colleen Porch has five children, the youngest being three months old, the sister is four years old, the two brothers are Seven, and the oldest Jimmy, played by Ridge Canipe is ten. Dad played by Joel Bryant, is loving, but works on the road, and is prone to be gone.

One fine day, While out hanging clothes, the scarecrow tells Mom something, and she looses her mind, and turns homicidal.

They diagnose this as Postpartum Depression, and say, "It happens, but there is a cure", with medication and the like. Jimmy could see that Mom was acting odd, but nobody listened when he tried to tell them. By the end of the film, he survives to witness his brothers and sisters, killed brutally by a monster that was his Mother, and who is determined that Jimmy will be caught and killed.

The conclusion of the film is however almost more shocking then the events that preceded them. Simply put, I wanted to strangle the Father. Disturbing, Yes, but also well done. Effective acting by the children facing a horrendous situation. Strong production values all around, well shot, by Matthew MacCarthy, Edited by Amardeep Kaleka and effectively scored by Micahael Filmowicz. A powerful film but not a pleasant one. Eight out of Ten, "Can they film that?" Stars

A very potent and disturbing knockout

[Woodyanders · 9/10 · 29 October 2009]

A young mother (an excellent and terrifying performance by Colleen Porch) suffering from post-partum depression goes dangerously crazy and turns on her own children. It's up to ten-year-old Jimmy (a sound and credible portrayal by Ridge Canipe) to protect both himself and his younger siblings from their mother's murderous wrath. Directors Amardeep Kaleka and Lars Jacobson (the latter also wrote the dark and uncompromising script) don't pull any punches in their telling of this genuinely scary and upsetting tale that was inspired by an actual incident; the extreme scenes of brutal violence against children (some of them are even killed!) are intensely painful, gut-wrenching, and hard to watch. Moreover, the meticulous and convincing evocation of pedestrian everyday reality adds an extra frightening plausibility to the already bleak and unnerving narrative. The best and most distressful horror films hit home (in this case literally) by showing how ordinary life can be ripped asunder by an equally mundane, yet deadly and unusual phenomenon. One becomes very afraid of what this unhinged and dangerous woman might do to both herself and her own children; her descent into psychotic insanity is the stuff of real nightmares. The film further benefits from sterling acting by an able no-name cast: Porch and Canipe are remarkable in the leads, with fine support from Joel Bryant as the trucker father, Kali Majors and Holden Thomas Maynard as Jimmy's younger siblings, and Gene Witham as amiable neighbor Lester. Matthew MacCarthy's cinematography gives the picture an appropriately rough and grainy look. Amardeep Kaleka's shuddery score also does the shivery trick. The conclusion is positively bone-chilling. Unpleasant for sure, but still quite powerful and effective just the same.

Unflinching

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 8/10 · 15 May 2021]

On a secluded family farm(huge props to the location scout), a mother(Porch, handling both the sympathetic aspects and the one line delivering attempts at creating a genre icon, a la Jason Voorhees) snaps and becomes violent towards her four youngsters. Her husband is a long-distance trucker, and won't be home for many hours. It is up to their oldest, 13-year old Jimmy(Canipe, getting across how resourceful he is, whilst still being a kid. He's a much better child actor than anyone should expect from someone his age) to save their lives.

Considering the fact that this is actually straight to video, it is wild how well made this is. The cinematography and editing are efficient and chilling. You see some of the auditory and visual hallucinations brought on by schizophrenia and postpartum psychosis(not "merely" depression, despite the title), that Mom is experiencing. The music is ominous. This is tense, suspenseful and creepy. A significant chunk of this is the chase, and despite its short length - even if you include the end credits it's only an hour and 14 minutes(!) - it has more of that, than a number of movies that are significantly longer.

The horror genre tends to explore basically any taboo that standards of good taste will allow them. The death of little ones remains one of the few that a lot of films will leave entirely untouched. So when this crosses that boundary early, and threatens to do it multiple times, and by the hands of a parent, a *mum*, obviously it's something that's going to attract attention. Wisely, this doesn't tend to show a lot of violence and gore when it comes to those victims. Even so, this is tremendously exploitative. And the ending sends that into the stratosphere. You may want to stop watching not long before it actually concludes - trust me, you'll know when.

I recommend this solely to those who feel strong anxiety about the idea of someone murdering their own offspring, and believe that this picture could help them work through that. My rating is based on the talent that went into making this, and does not reflect how messed up I think it is to make a slasher flick out of this concept. 8/10.

Thrilling, shocking and incredibly sad

[SusieSalmonLikeTheFish · 8/10 · 24 August 2014]

The nameless mom in this movie has loving children, but four of them, not to mention a trucker husband who is never home, and pressures are getting to her. Still, those who have noticed think it is just stress, that it will pass. Her oldest child, Jimmy, tries to keep his two younger brothers (Sammy and Nathan) and younger sister (Cathy) from fighting and bickering and whining because he has seen mom acting strange, but it's near-impossible, especially since Nathan is a baby and never stops crying, day and night. Mom finds a pack of matches from a strip club in dad's pants pocket, making her go further down the rabbit-hole. She starts hallucinating horrible, gory visions of her children, slaughtered. She cuts herself, puts the blood on her lips like lipstick and starts pretending to be a weather girl in her bathroom mirror. Jimmy sees her crying on the ground outside and tells dad, but dad has some work to do and leaves mom in charge of the secluded family farmhouse. That evening, Jimmy comes across Nathan... now he's on the run with his remaining brother and sister, trapped on a farm with a mother suffering from extreme postpartum psychosis, wielding several sharp tools and hunting her kids like deer. Their only hope is to find Lester, the overweight next-door neighbor (possibly farm-hand?) and get him to call the cops.

This movie is thrilling from beginning to end, also very scary to think that it's based on a true story. Postpartum psychosis is when a mother goes insane and gets severely depressed after giving birth to a child or raising a large family. I had seen the episode of Cold Case titled 'Baby Blues', in which a businesswoman kills her own newborn daughter, so this movie seemed like it could shed more light on the subject. Of course it is a dramatized movie, but postpartum psychosis, also cabin fever (secluded farm and never leaving) and religious mania are disorders and obsessions that happen every day, to completely ordinary people.

The acting was great, especially from the kids. The mom had an uncanny resemblance to Margaret White, the religious nutter in the 1976 film Carrie. To make things even creepier, mom manipulates and sweet-talks the children but quickly turns on them as she hunts for them, acting very sadistic. She stabs her daughter with a pitchfork, drowns baby Nathan and says she is going to 'spank' Sammy, instead repeatedly stabbing him in the butt with a pair of scissors until blood covers her face. Their was a brief moment of comedy, when Lester is secretly smoking dope at home and has bluegrass music playing too high to hear anyone scream (what an oblivious idiot)! I've seen the actress of mom once before, it's amazing how she can become from average to a merciless child killer for a movie.

One thing rather unrealistic was the idea that mom was being released from the mental hospital after brutally murdering three of her kids and Lester, along with several animals. Aside from that, Baby Blues is an eerie and disturbing movie that shows how far things can go before it is too late.