Unflinching. Uncompromisingly brutal. Those two words aptly describe Baby Blues. Oh yeah, unbelievably thrilling also fits the cinematic debut of filmmakers Lars E. Jacobson and Amardeep Kaleka.
The film tells the story of a mother (Colleen Porch) who is suffering from a severe case of post-partum depression and soon starts believing it is her duty to kill her four children while her husband is away for work. It's up to her eldest son (Ridge Canipe) to stop her.
The plot synopsis above, along with pretty much any of its kind, cannot do justice to what Baby Blues offers for fans of disturbing cinema. The 75-minute film starts off by establishing what daily life is for this family living out in the country on a makeshift farm, complete with a helper named Lester (Gene Witham) who lives in a nearby trailer. Dad (Joel Bryant) is constantly gone as a result of his job as a truck driver. This leaves Jimmy to fend for himself, helping Mom take care of his younger brother and sister and the family's newborn baby brother and crafting slingshots in his spare time. Poor Mom though has got the worst of it. She must take care of three kids along with making sure the farm and house is kept up. Lately though she has developed quite the temper, snapping at the kids for every little noise they make and worrying that her husband is cheating on her, especially after finding a matchbook for a faraway strip club in the pocket of his clothes. It's not long before she totally loses it, becoming hellbent on killing her three children anyway she can.
During the early scenes leading up to this, the film smartly hints at her psychosis, using slight camera and sound clues to portray her developing madness. A scene in which she hears the baby monitor but the sound is distorted, becoming louder and louder until it envelops the scene, is brilliantly done. The cinematography also deserves a special mention, as it teams with the razorsharp editing to make the film quite gorgeous to look at. It also deserves mentioning how the look of the film gets progressively darker in line with what is happening on-screen. The camera angles also smartly illustrate Mom's madness, framing her from angles best-suited to making her look psychotic.
Baby Blues also accomplishes the feat of making a psychological thriller that melds the best the genre has to offer with that of a straight-ahead horror film, as it becomes a chase film once Mom has made her diabolical intentions clear and her son must do anything he can to survive. The film is relentless in its attempts to thrill the viewer, each portion of the chase intelligently orchestrated for maximum tension.
Writer-directors Lars E. Jacobson and Amardeep Kaleka signal their film as uncompromising in its brutality though with a few scenes I do not want to spoil here. Let me just say that this film does something even the most hardcore films made today shy away from. That said, the scenes are handled in such a way that they somehow fit right in with the dank, intense atmosphere that has been established by the filmmakers and thus do not anger the viewer or cheapen the film in anyway whatsoever.
Of course, a psychological thriller such as this wouldn't be half as effective without good performances in front of the camera. Baby Blues has them in spades. Colleen Porch ("I Know Who Killed Me" and "Transformers") gives a simply superb performance as Mom (who is never given a proper name, lending the film the idea that this could happen to anyone anywhere). She ably portrays one person gradually losing her grip on reality and descending into madness. Ridge Canipe is almost as impressive, especially since he is 13-years of age and will only get better as an actor.
Combine stellar acting with impressive directorial skill and you have Baby Blues, one of the absolute best independent thriller/horror films released in a long time. A must-see!
The film tells the story of a mother (Colleen Porch) who is suffering from a severe case of post-partum depression and soon starts believing it is her duty to kill her four children while her husband is away for work. It's up to her eldest son (Ridge Canipe) to stop her.
The plot synopsis above, along with pretty much any of its kind, cannot do justice to what Baby Blues offers for fans of disturbing cinema. The 75-minute film starts off by establishing what daily life is for this family living out in the country on a makeshift farm, complete with a helper named Lester (Gene Witham) who lives in a nearby trailer. Dad (Joel Bryant) is constantly gone as a result of his job as a truck driver. This leaves Jimmy to fend for himself, helping Mom take care of his younger brother and sister and the family's newborn baby brother and crafting slingshots in his spare time. Poor Mom though has got the worst of it. She must take care of three kids along with making sure the farm and house is kept up. Lately though she has developed quite the temper, snapping at the kids for every little noise they make and worrying that her husband is cheating on her, especially after finding a matchbook for a faraway strip club in the pocket of his clothes. It's not long before she totally loses it, becoming hellbent on killing her three children anyway she can.
During the early scenes leading up to this, the film smartly hints at her psychosis, using slight camera and sound clues to portray her developing madness. A scene in which she hears the baby monitor but the sound is distorted, becoming louder and louder until it envelops the scene, is brilliantly done. The cinematography also deserves a special mention, as it teams with the razorsharp editing to make the film quite gorgeous to look at. It also deserves mentioning how the look of the film gets progressively darker in line with what is happening on-screen. The camera angles also smartly illustrate Mom's madness, framing her from angles best-suited to making her look psychotic.
Baby Blues also accomplishes the feat of making a psychological thriller that melds the best the genre has to offer with that of a straight-ahead horror film, as it becomes a chase film once Mom has made her diabolical intentions clear and her son must do anything he can to survive. The film is relentless in its attempts to thrill the viewer, each portion of the chase intelligently orchestrated for maximum tension.
Writer-directors Lars E. Jacobson and Amardeep Kaleka signal their film as uncompromising in its brutality though with a few scenes I do not want to spoil here. Let me just say that this film does something even the most hardcore films made today shy away from. That said, the scenes are handled in such a way that they somehow fit right in with the dank, intense atmosphere that has been established by the filmmakers and thus do not anger the viewer or cheapen the film in anyway whatsoever.
Of course, a psychological thriller such as this wouldn't be half as effective without good performances in front of the camera. Baby Blues has them in spades. Colleen Porch ("I Know Who Killed Me" and "Transformers") gives a simply superb performance as Mom (who is never given a proper name, lending the film the idea that this could happen to anyone anywhere). She ably portrays one person gradually losing her grip on reality and descending into madness. Ridge Canipe is almost as impressive, especially since he is 13-years of age and will only get better as an actor.
Combine stellar acting with impressive directorial skill and you have Baby Blues, one of the absolute best independent thriller/horror films released in a long time. A must-see!
***Note***
This is a pre-release review. Baby Blues will be available for purchase on August 5.
2 comments:
She is hellbent on killing her FOUR children, not three. She only kills the 3 and 1 lives
She is hellbent on killing her FOUR children, not three. She only kills the 3 and 1 lives
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