Friday, September 11, 2009

Baby Blues: Reason Number 501 Not To Have Kids.


Ok. Just finished watching this and all I can say is, Wow. Just wow. Totally unexpected. At first I was a little perturbed that someone was taking such a sensitive and obviously controversial story and making it into a real horror movie. The beginning says something that we are so used to seeing these days- "based on true events" and in this case these true events are startlingly realistic. Baby Blues follows the degradation of a mother suffering from postpartum depression who one days snaps and kills all of her children. This is of course a direct allusion to the case of Andrea Yates who also snapped and drowned all of her kids while her husband was at work. Many people are deeply disturbed by that case- and rightfully so- and so imagine projecting those same feelings into a movie.

This movie I think works very similiarly to tales of home invasion- like The Strangers for instance, where we expect a certain amount of safety and protection to those things closest to us. A parent is suppose to protect their children not kill them, and so there we get what makes this film truly disturbing.

This movie is surprisingly very artistic and has some really great shots throughout. Some of the shots are tinted kind of blue a nice play on the title and it really keeps you locked into that whole depression-like atmosphere. The visions that the mother would get every now and then were so startling- the bleeding baby in the high chair in the cornfield for instance, or the t-shirt with the blood stains on the angels hands. Then the amazing-ness of satanic voices on a baby monitor?! Genius! I also LOVED the scene where the mother pricks her finger with a needle and then proceeds to use her blood as lipstick and pretend she is doing a weather report. So amazing. My eyes completely bulged out of my head at the scene- I just couldn't believe the amount of terror that scene in particular produced.

The killing of the children was also surprising. If you read the little summary on Netflix it says Jim must protect his siblings from their mother- but as it turns out SPOILER ALERT all of the siblings bite it pretty quickly- and most of the farm animals too. But in general you really have your eyes wide open for all of this movie. I constantly felt on edge and was truly and 100% terrified for these children and what would happen to them.

If I had complaints it would only be in the area that Jim wasn't really the best protector out there. Sure he's young- but he smashed his mother over the head with a mirror- I think he is capable of pushing her out of the way while she is stabbing his brother, or even creating a frickin diversion when the mom is stabbing hay bales looking for the little girl. A little effort from Jim would be appreciated.

Oh and Lester? Seriously? What kind of weed were you smoking- what a useless character.

And then there's the ending... well on the upside there wasn't a shocking and annoying twist- but on the downside I kind of wanted/needed the Dad to witness the crimes themselves. So I guess I wish Jimbo hadn't burned down the house. The ending does have a very scary possibility though- and it almost seemed a little hard to believe something like that would happen.

This is a Must See for sure. What a great movie. A perfect length- no gratuitous blood, the main kid is cute as hell (and kind of reminds me of a young Michael J Fox) and the acting is unusually good for a horror movie that I've heard very little about. Check this one out immediately.

This trailer is not a very good one- as it makes it seem like a typical recent horror movie with knife sounds and what not. I can think of a million ways to make this trailer better but whatever fine. Don't be fooled, this movie is really really great.



Here is a 10 minute clip from the movie, around 9:00 gets you to the blood/lipstick scene watch that- k thanks bye.

3 comments:

William Malmborg said...

This was a great movie but one that was way too intense for me. I can handle some serious stuff, and have seen some serious stuff in real life, but this, well, it just took me places I didn't want to go. It is, however, a perfect example of how Hollywood can be frightening without the use of gratuitous blood and guts. The scenery was amazing too, so pretty, yet always with a hint that dark things were about to break.

Very nice review too. I remember seeing it a few weeks ago, but didn't want to read it until after I watched the movie so that I could go into it with no idea of what it was going to be about.

Thomas Duke said...

I heard you mention this on the Scarening. I had never heard of it, but it sounds totally up my alley. Netflix, here I come...

Andre Dumas said...

Yay! Thanks for listening, I hope you'll like it. I've been trying to spread the word about for a while now. Let me now what you think!