trashgang
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.
Woodyanders
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.
Claudio Carvalho
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")
kimlwalker
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.
AD
